Harvey Weinstein allegations: Mogul's former PA Zelda Perkins 'broke non-disclosure agreement' to speak out

British ex-assistant and another woman paid £250,000 in 1998 to stay silent on assault claims against disgraced movie executive

Harvey Weinstein (Reuters)

A British former assistant to Harvey Weinstein has said she has broken a confidential agreement to speak out about alleged sexual harassment by the disgraced movie mogul.

Zelda Perkins said in an interview with The Financial Times published on Monday that she wished to break the non-disclosure agreement said to have been made in October 1998.

Perkins, who worked for Miramax in London, shared a £250,000 payment with another woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted by Weinstein, according to the report.

Ms Perkins, who waived her right to anonymity, said Weinstein had repeatedly sexually harassed her, starting when he asked her to massage him while he was in his underwear.

“I want to publicly break my non-disclosure agreement,” she told the newspaper, running the risk of legal action against her.

“Unless somebody does this there won't be a debate about how egregious these agreements are and the amount of duress that victims are put under.”

She said her first experience of harassment was when he asked her to massage him while he was wearing just his underwear, which she declined to do but his behaviour continued.

“But this was his behaviour on every occasion I was alone with him,” she said. “I often had to wake him up in the hotel in the mornings and he would try to pull me into bed.”

Weinstein, who denies allegations of non-consensual sex, has been accused of sexual harassment and abuse by dozens of women since a bombshell investigation published by The New York Times.

The 65-year-old is the subject of criminal investigations in the UK, Los Angeles and New York as well as a civil rights investigation in the US state.

PA