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Ashley James was spotted leaving the ITV studios on Tuesday following her appearance on the popular daytime show, This Morning.
The 38-year-old former Made In Chelsea star is a frequent guest on the program, where she joined a discussion about her meeting with Gisèle Pelicot.
Gisèle, aged 73, has courageously chosen to forgo her anonymity in the lead-up to her husband’s trial. He is accused of secretly drugging and raping her over a span of nearly ten years, during which he also invited strangers into their home to abuse her. Gisèle is sharing her story in a new book titled, “A Hymn To Life: Shame Has To Change Sides.”
Her husband, Dominique Pelicot, to whom she was married for 50 years, received a 20-year prison sentence.
Ashley’s poignant encounter with Gisèle follows an emotional moment last week when she broke down discussing the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse.
Earlier this month, Ashley bravely revealed for the first time that she was raped by a male friend when she was a 21-year-old student at Nottingham University.
Ashley James left the ITV studios on Tuesday after making an appearance on This Morning
The former Made In Chelsea star, 38, is a regular guest on the show and was on to discuss her meeting with Gisèle Pelicot
On Friday, Ashley was among a panel of guests discussing the disgrace royal’s arrest.Â
Thames Valley Police held the eighth in line to the British throne on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was released from custody later in the day.Â
Detectives have been probing his conduct as a trade envoy for the UK after emails in the Epstein Files suggested he shared confidential information with Epstein including reports of his official visits and potential investment opportunities.Â
After watching a short clip of Virginia Giuffre’s family, Ashley said dabbing tears from her eyes: ‘I felt very emotional watching this actually. There’s a reason I feel so upset about it.
‘So many of us have watched the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein try to get justice and I felt a huge sense of relief yesterday watching Andrew be arrested.
‘Of course, his arrest is about state matters and not about the alleged sexual abuse of Virginia Giuffre, who of course is no longer here.
‘I think the fact that it took so long and she is no longer here for justice to be served.
‘And as Virginia’s brother said yesterday, this feels like the thread that is slowly starting to be unravelled.
Gisele, 73, bravely waved her right to anonymity ahead of her husband’s trial for secretly drugging and raping her for nearly a decade
The harrowing meeting with Gisele came after Ashley broke down in tears discussing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest and the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse last week
On Friday, Ashley was among a panel of guests discussing the disgrace royal’s arrest
Andrew is pictured leaving Aylsham police station in Norfolk shortly after 7pm on Thursday
The television personality, who looked smart in a lime green co-ord, then headed on to an event hosted by hair brand, Rehab
‘Hopefully we will see accountability. It feels so personal for lots of women and girls watching this, because the atrocities linked to Jeffrey Epstein and not only was part of that, but also knew about it.’
Ashley posted a photo of her crying to her story later on Friday.
She captioned: ‘Accurate footage of me on @thismorning today.
‘My third time crying on live TV but sometimes I think tears show we f***ing care and we should all be in tears.’Â
Earlier this month, Ashley recounted how she was raped after a night out at a club with pals, and she’d been unconscious.Â
Ashley said the assault had been ‘one of the very worst moments of my life’, as she described ‘the shame and silence’ she lived with afterwards and voiced her hope it would ‘change the conversation’ around rape and victim blaming.
Ashley explained she didn’t report what happened because her attacker had been a friend rather than ‘a stranger in a dark alley’, which made it harder for her to accept he was a rapist, and as a result she turned the blame inwards.
In a chapter entitled Silly Girl from her new book Bimbo – to reference to the way in which victims are dismissed and blame – she wrote: ‘It’s something I’ve never spoken about and yet I’ve thought about it every day since, increasingly so since having children.
‘It was one of the very worst moments of my life. It was hugely traumatic. I’m not telling the story to shock but as a mirror to show how common these experiences are – and also how broken the support system is.’
The former Made In Chelsea star went on: ‘I didn’t come forward. Not because I thought the police wouldn’t believe me, or that the courts would fail me, but because the man wasn’t a stranger in a dark alley. He was a friend.
‘And because of that, the only person I blamed was myself. For years. Even after it happened, I was more worried about him not liking me than I was about my own trauma. I was worried he’d tell other people and everyone would think I was a s**g.
‘So I didn’t tell anyone, and I even tried to stay friends with him. Even now I find it hard to think about him as a rapist. Even though that’s what he was, because I wasn’t asking for it. In fact, I was unconscious.
‘I’d worry about ruining his life. Yes, I was drunk. Yes, I was wearing going-out clothes, having come from a club. But I was with friends — people I trusted.’
‘We don’t teach girls that, one day, if they get the chance, their male friends might try to rape them…’ Ashely continued. ‘It doesn’t matter what you are wearing [or] if you had zero drinks or 1,000 drinks.’