Amy Schumer has opened up about the time she was "grey-area raped".
The 36-year-old comedienne has alleged that her ex-boyfriend had sex with her without her consent as she was "asleep" at the time, and although he immediately apologised and said he thought she "knew" what he was doing, she still felt violated by the ordeal.
She said: "So in my stand up I used to talk about … I called it grape, grey-area rape. Which is … you know, it was a way of bringing it up in my stand up and trying to make people laugh while they learned.
"It was really me saying, we hear about rape when we’re children, and we’re warned about it. But it’s about a guy popping out from a bush, some villain, they don’t say it’s probably gonna be a guy you know really well. It could be your husband, it could be your friend.
"So when that happens to you, you say ‘Okay, this isn’t someone I want to see rotting in a jail cell, but what he did to me was wrong, and I didn’t consent.’
"For me, I lost my virginity while I was asleep. And that’s not okay. So in my stand up I would say ‘If she’s asleep, that’s a no.’ Just hoping that a couple of guys would see that and be in that moment and go ‘This is a no, I heard this somewhere’."
The ‘I Feel Pretty’ star – who is now married to Chris Fischer – also revealed how she battled with her feelings after the alleged assault, because whilst she was "angry" at her partner, she was also forced to "comfort" him as he felt guilty.
She added: "The first thing he said was, ‘I thought you knew.’ I didn’t say anything yet … He was my boyfriend. I loved him. I had to comfort him.
"I also felt really angry. It was just a feeling I had. I felt really angry at him, and it’s a rage that has stayed with me. I don’t think you lose that. As women, we’re really trained not to get angry because that makes people dismiss you right away … but I felt I wanted to comfort him because he felt so bad and he was so worried, just tried to push my anger down."
Amy and her former partner stayed together and eventually had consensual sex, and the ‘Trainwreck’ star believes it is people’s first reaction to "doubt" the victim when they speak out about their experiences.
Speaking to Oprah Winfrey on ‘SuperSoul Conversations’, she said: "I think nine times out of 10, people’s first reaction is to doubt the woman. It’s just something men and women do."
Amy Schumer details ‘grey area rape’
