Radio personality Fifi Box has spoken publicly for the first time about being sexually assaulted during an interview with a "high profile" male celebrity more than a decade ago. Box who detailed the incident on The Fifi, Dave, Fev & Byron Show, said that the celebrity, who was twice her age, "grabbed" her head and "forced it down into his crotch."
The 40-year-old was inspired by Taylor Swift's countersuit against DJ David Mueller, who allegedly groped the pop-star during a meet-and-greet, to share her story. Mueller, who initiated the litigation, had his case against dismissed.
Box, a mother-of-one, said Swift's case made her reflect on her own experience of sexual assault in the workplace.
"I can say that I've found myself, as a young woman particularly working in the media, in situations where I've found myself uncomfortable," she revealed on her Fox FM Melbourne radio show on Monday morning.
"You could argue I've been sexually assaulted, and yet laughed or giggled my way through I because I've been scared or intimidated by the situation."
Aged around 24 or 25 at the time of the incident, Box told her radio listeners that the "very high profile" star "would've been in his 50s."
"He sat in the studio and during the interview, he was touching me — reaching over and grabbing and stroking my leg — then grabbed my head and forced it down into his crotch. Actually rubbed my head in his crotch."
Just as Swift testified in court last week, Box also recalled going into a state of shock.
"A part of you is shocked. Is this guy actually doing this to me? You're trying to be polite and you're nervous. Our boss came into the studio and I thought, 'Oh thank god, he's here to save me'. [But] Our boss wanted a photo with that person. In that moment I'm thinking, maybe what happened to me is fine?
"But it can happen, and in other situations, It's when you walk away you think, I'm not happy with that."
Radio personality, Byron Cooke who is currently one of Box's co-hosts witnessed the incident at the time. While the celebrity still remains anonymous, Cooke said this morning he later refused to air the prerecorded interview, despite the male's high-profile.
"It felt like 1981 with this dude, not that it was ever right. But it sounded wrong, looked wrong, and it was wrong," Cooke said on the show.
Cooke also said that neither he or Box would tolerate such behaviour in today's radio workplace, and encouraged other women to speak out against bad behaviour in the same way Swift did.
"Knowing what we know now, we would not have accepted that and we would've been a hell of a lot more vocal than we were," he said.
"We were both kids in that situation. In the moment, it was awkwardly laughed off because we thought, I don't know, maybe that's what happens. It wasn't right."
