Many were young, powerless and afraid to speak out in case their careers were ruined.
For nearly three decades their accusations remained bottled up, some suppressed by pay-offs.
Dozens of women have now come forward with allegations of sexual harassment against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, the man once described as ‘God’ of the film industry.
The accusations, including from some of the world’s most famous actresses, range from inappropriate massages to rape.
Here are just some of the disgraced producer’s accusers.
Kate Beckinsale In an Instagram post the Underworld star said Weinstein made a move on her when she was just 17.
‘When I arrived reception told me to go to his room. He opened the door in his bathrobe. I was incredibly naive and young and it did not cross my mind that this older, unattractive man would expect me to have any sexual interest in him. After declining alcohol and announcing that I had school in the morning I left, uneasy but unscathed. A few years later he asked me if he had tried anything with me in that first meeting.I realized he couldn’t remember if he had assaulted me or not.’
Teen assault: Kate Beckinsale says Weinstein tried to ply her with alcohol and met her in his bathrobe when she was just 17
Gwyneth Paltrow
The star said that when she was 22, Weinstein touched her and suggested having joint massages in a hotel bedroom before she started shooting the 1996 Jane Austen adaptation Emma. She told the New York Times: ‘I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified’.
She said she told her then boyfriend Brad Pitt about the incident and he confronted the mogul. She said Weinstein then told her not to tell anyone and she feared getting fired.
Gwyneth Paltrow, 45, is an American actress, singer, and food writer who made her name starring in Seven (1995) and Emma (1996).
Angelina Jolie
The actress told the New York Times she had to turn down advances from Weinstein in 1998 and chose never to work with him again. She said she warned other women about him.
She said: ‘I had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth, and as a result, chose never to work with him again and warn others when they did.’
Angelina Jolie, 42, is cited as Hollywood’s highest-paid actress. She made her screen debut as a child alongside her father, Jon Voight, in Lookin’ to Get Out (1982).
Cara Delevigne
The model wrote on her Instagram page about a meeting with Weinstein in which he ‘asked her to kiss another woman.’
She wrote: ‘As soon as we were alone he began to brag about all the actresses he had slept with and how he had made their careers and spoke about other inappropriate things of a sexual nature. He then invited me to his room. I quickly declined and asked his assistant if my car was outside. She said it wasn’t and wouldn’t be for a bit and I should go to his room.
‘At that moment I felt very powerless and scared but didn’t want to act that way hoping that I was wrong about the situation. When I arrived I was relieved to find another woman in his room and thought immediately I was safe. He asked us to kiss and she began some sort of advances upon his direction. I swiftly got up and asked him if he knew that I could sing. And I began to sing….i thought it would make the situation better….more professional….like an audition….i was so nervous. After singing I said again that I had to leave.He walked me to the door and stood in front of it and tried to kiss me on the lips. I stopped him and managed to get out of the room’.
Cara Delevigne, 25, is an English fashion model and actress. She signed with Storm Model Management after leaving school in 2009.
Eva Green
Green’s mother says Weinstein sexually harassed her during a meeting at his suite in Paris.
The Bond Girl, 37, managed to escape however after being summoned to the movie mogul’s hotel room, her mother Marlene Jobert said in a radio interview on Friday.
‘He operated with her the exact same way he acted with all the others, under the pretext of a professional meeting, of a script that had to get to her with a nice part into the bargain,’ said Jobert.
‘Since his office was also in his hotel suite, she [Eva] followed him, and the exact same thing happened to her as to the others. She managed to escape, but he threatened to destroy her professionally.’
Jobert added: ‘[It was] the usual scenario, the same pattern he used for all the other victims.’
Weinstein allegedly harassed French actress Eva Green in his suite in Paris
Lea Seydoux
The French actress accused the mogul of jumping on her and trying to kiss her.
She wrote in The Guardian: ‘We were talking on the sofa when he suddenly jumped on me and tried to kiss me. I had to defend myself. He’s big and fat, so I had to be forceful to resist him. He tried more than once. This was never going to be about work. He had other intentions – I could see that very clearly. All throughout the evening, he flirted and stared at me as if I was a piece of meat.
The French actress (pictured in Spectre) accused the mogul of jumping on her and trying to kiss her
‘It was hard to say no because he’s so powerful. I’m an actress and he’s a producer. We are in the same industry, so its impossible to avoid him. I’ve seen how he operates: the way he looks for an opening. The way he tests women to see what he can get away with. That’s the most disgusting thing. Everyone knew what Harvey was up to and no one did anything. It’s unbelievable that he’s been able to act like this for decades and still keep his career.’
Lea Seydoux, 35, starred in Bond film Spectre and was nominated for the César Award for Best Actress for her role as a lady-in-waiting to Marie Antoinette in the film Farewell, My Queen (2012).
Minka Kelly
The Friday Night Lights star said she met Weinstein at an event and soon after was asked by her agent if she would be willing to meet him at his hotel room to discuss her career.
Kelly said that she agreed to the meeting but refused to go to Weinstein’s room, and instead met him at the restaurant inside his hotel with an assistant.
‘He bulls*** me for 5 minutes re: movies he could put me in, then asked the assistant to excuse us,’ said Weinstein.
‘As she walked away, he said, ‘I know you were feeling what I was feeling when we met the other night’ and then regaled me with offers of a lavish life filled with trips around the world on private planes etc.
‘IF I would be his girlfriend.’
Kelly posted a photo of a cross stitch alongside her post that read: ‘Boys will be Boys.’
The second ‘boys’ was crossed out at the bottom however, and stitched in was ‘held accountable for their f***ing actions.’
Kelly claimed the alleged encounter was the day-to-day b***shit of being an actress.’
Minka Kelly said she met Weinstein at an event and soon after was asked by her agent if she would be willing to meet him at his hotel room to discuss her career
Asia Argento
The Italian actress has accused Weinstein of forcibly performing oral sex on her when she was 21.
She told the New Yorker: ‘He terrified me, and he was big. It wouldn’t stop. It was a nightmare.’ She said she went on to have consensual sex with him over the years that followed. She documented the alleged attack in her 2000 film Scarlet Diva.
Asia Argento is an Italian actress, singer, model, and director, best known for the role of Yelena in the action film xXx (2002).
Asia Argento (left with Weinstein during 2004 Cannes Film Festival) accused Weinstein of forcibly performing oral sex on her when she was 21
Rosanna Arquette
The actress also said her career suffered after she rebuffed Weinstein’s advances in the early 1990s. At a hotel meeting he tried to put her hand on his erect penis, she claims in the New Yorker.
Rosanna Arquette, 58, is an American actress, film director, and producer. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in the 1982 TV film The Executioner’s Song.
The actress also said her career suffered after she rebuffed Weinstein’s advances in the early 1990s
Rose McGowan
The actress, who made her breakthrough in 1996 in the Weinstein-produced slasher revival movie Scream, reportedly sued Weinstein after he assaulted her in 1997 at the Sundance Film Festival.
She signed a non-disclosure agreement at the close of the suit and has only referred to him obliquely in social media since. On Sunday she referred to being abused by a ‘monster’ and has previously referred to being raped by a studio head.
Ashley Judd
Judd says that during filming for 1997 thriller Kiss the Girls Weinstein repeatedly asked her to watch him shower.
She was one of the women who spoke out to The New York Times this week, saying: ‘Women have been talking about Harvey amongst ourselves for a long time, and it’s simply beyond time to have the conversation publicly.’
Judd says that during filming for 1997 thriller Kiss the Girls Weinstein repeatedly asked her to watch him shower
Jesca Barth
Weinstein reportedly pressured Jessica Barth (pictured) to give him a naked massage
Weinstein reportedly pressured the actress to give him a naked massage in the Peninsula Hotel in 2011.
Jessica Barth, 39, is an American stage and film actress, known for portraying Tami-Lynn McCaferty in the film Ted and its sequel.
Laura Madden
A former production assistant and the Weinstein company, she told the NYT that Weinstein had asked her to give him massages from 1991 onwards, while they were both in London and Dublin. ‘It was so manipulative,’ she told the NYT. ‘You constantly question yourself – am I the one who is the problem?’ Weinstein denied knowledge.