Emily Ratajkowski has accused Robin Thicke of groping her bare breasts while they were filming the music video for his 2013 hit Blurred Lines, according to a bombshell report.
The supermodel, now 30, claims the R&B star, now 44, had been drinking when he reached around her from behind and cupped her breasts in both hands.
At the time, the model was naked from the waist up for the controversial video which catapulted both her and Thicke’s careers eight years ago and was criticized for perpetuating date rape culture.
Ratajkowski makes the damning allegation in her new book ‘My Body’, set to be released next month, according to the Sunday Times of London.
DailyMail.com has reached out to representatives for Thicke and Ratajkowski for comment.
Accusation: Emily Ratajkowski, 30, accused Robin Thicke, 33, of fondling her breasts from behind while filming his 2013 music video for Blurred Lines in her upcoming essay collection My Body, according to the Sunday Times of London; still from Blurred Lines
Ratajkowski says the shoot – shot with an all-female team – was fun until Thicke appeared to get ‘a little drunk’ and his behavior changed.
Then, ‘out of nowhere’ she says she felt someone’s hands on her breasts – turning to realize who it was.
‘Suddenly, out of nowhere, I felt the coolness and foreignness of a stranger’s hands cupping my bare breasts from behind,’ alleges the model-turned-actress.
‘I instinctively moved away, looking back at Robin Thicke.’
Ratajkowski claims the singer-songwriter ‘stumbled backward’ and smiled at her, before the set director – who noticed what had happened – stepped in.
‘He smiled a goofy grin and stumbled backward, his eyes concealed behind his sunglasses,’ she writes.
‘My head turned to the darkness beyond the set. [Director Diane Martel’s] voice cracked as she yelled out to me, ‘Are you okay?”
In the book, Ratajkowski says she felt ‘the heat of humiliation pump through’ her body after the alleged fondling and suddenly ‘felt naked for the first time that day.’
The supermodel says she didn’t speak out in the moment saying she felt ‘desperate to minimize’ what happened.
‘I pushed my chin forward and shrugged, avoiding eye contact, feeling the heat of humiliation pump through my body,’ the book reads
‘I didn’t react – not really, not like I should have.’
Fondled: Ratajkowski writes that Thicke grabbed her bare breasts from behind while she was topless. She claims that he appeared to be intoxicated
Set director Martel confirmed Ratajkowski’s account of the incident in the Times’ report.
‘I remember the moment that he grabbed her breasts, one in each hand,’ she told the paper.
‘He was standing behind her as they were both in profile. I screamed in my very aggressive Brooklyn voice, ‘What the f*** are you doing, that’s it! The shoot is over!”
According to her, Thicke had been drinking and ‘sheepishly’ apologized after the alleged groping incident and acted as if he was ‘contrite’.
Martel said she believes his actions were spurred by his drunken state.
‘I don’t think he would have done this had he been sober,’ she said.
At the time of the video shoot, Thicke was married to actress Paula Patton, with whom he shares an 11-year-old son, Julian Fuego Thicke.
The two separated in 2014, and Patton cited in her divorce filing his alleged abuse toward her, as well as drug abuse and infidelity as reasons for their separation.
Director Diana Martel confirmed seeing Thicke grope Ratajkowski to the Times
While this is the first time Ratajkowski has spoken out about the alleged groping incident, the 30-year-old has described the Blurred Lines video as the ‘bane’ of her ‘existence.’
‘I wasn’t into the idea at all at first. I think I came off as a bit annoyed in the video,’ she admitted in a 2015 profile for InStyle UK.
‘Now, it’s the bane of my existence. When anyone comes up to me about Blurred Lines, I’m like, are we seriously talking about a video from three years ago?’
Ratajkowski has since expanded from modeling into acting, and now writing.
The Blurred Lines video catapulted both Ratajkowski and Thicke further into the spotlight.
The song went to number one worldwide but it was the video of the three semi-naked models – Ratajkowski, Elle Evans and Jessi M’Bengue – along with Thicke, Pharrell Williams and rapper T.I. that captured the most attention.
While the initial version of Blurred Lines didn’t feature nudity, Thicke released a second cut a week later that included topless footage of the three models.
Thicke pictured with his ex-wife Paula Patton in 2014
In 2018, Ratajkowski married the Uncut Gems producer Sebastian Bear-McClard.
Thicke moved on with April Love Geary, whom he reportedly met in 2014.
They welcomed their first daughter, three-year-old Mia Love, in 2018, and they got engaged on Christmas Eve of that year.
Their second daughter, Lola Alain, was born in February 2019, and April gave birth to a son, Luca, in December of 2020.
Thicke has kept a lower profile in recent years since the 2014 release of his critically reviled album Paula, which referenced their troubled relationship and divorce.
In February of this year, he returned with his eighth studio album On Earth, And In Heaven
Thicke with fiancee April Love Geary
Blurred Lines proved to be trouble for Thicke and his collaborators, as the estate of the late singer Marvin Gay won a $5.3 million judgment against Thick and Farrell after accusing them of lifting passages of Blurred Lines from Gaye’s song Got To Give It Up, from 1977.
Thicke claimed in court that he had not actually written any of Blurred Lines, despite being listed on the project as a songwriter.
At the time of the original ruling that Williams and Thicke had plagiarized the song, some legal scholars and copyright experts excoriated the decision, claiming that it was based on a general feeling that the two songs were similar, rather than being focused on specific musical aspects that they shared.
In a 2015 piece for The New Yorker, legal scholar Tim Wu wrote that the decision was a ‘serious error’ because it focused on superficial similarities.
‘The Gaye estate’s copyright covers only the notes of his song (the composition), and not the way it was played (the sound recording). These copyrights are separate,’ Wu wrote.
He claimed the judge was ‘legally obliged to throw out the case,’ rather than letting the jury come to its original conclusion, as the note sequences in Blurred Lines aren’t shared with Got To Give It Up, even though the two songs sound similar to many listeners.
However, a panel of judges mostly upheld the decision on appeal.