10 HOT STORIES
As the disgraced movie mogul wins his appeal for a new trial, accuser Katherine Kendall tells Georgia Aspinall how survivors are coping
THEY SAY SEXUAL trauma is a lifelong battle for survivors – never has that been more clearly exemplified than by Harvey Weinstein’s accusers. Seven years after the #MeToo movement saw him accused of sexual misconduct by more than 80 women, the disgraced media mogul has successfully appealed one of his rape convictions. He now faces a new trial in New York in September, although experts say it rests on his accusers being willing to testify again. Weinstein was first convicted in New York in 2020, of rape and sexual assault, then again in a separate trial in LA in 2022, at which he was found guilty of rape and sexual misconduct and sentenced to 16 years in prison. He has also been formally charged by the Met Police in London with two counts of indecent assault against a woman in 1996. Weinstein has always denied having any non-consensual sexual encounters.
This new appeal relates solely to his conviction in New York and comes after the New York Court of Appeals ruled that the judge at his 2020 trial made ‘egregious errors’ by allowing testimony from women not named as complainants. Prosecutors were attempting to prove a pattern of predatory behaviour, but Judge Jenny Rivera has declared that they ‘served no material non-propensity purpose’.
For actor Katherine Kendall, 54, who says Weinstein sexually harassed her when she was 23, it came as a huge shock. ‘When I first heard, I was stunned,’ she tells Grazia. ‘I was terrified, horrified. Right when you have stopped thinking about it and feel safe to move on, you get hit with the whole thing all over again. It’s such a ride for your body and mind, your adrenaline starts going, your thoughts start racing, wondering, “How can this be?” Then you have to find a way to regulate yourself again.’
Kendall alleges that, in 1993, Weinstein invited her for a meeting about her career at the Miramax office in LA but, afterwards – in details hauntingly familiar to other women’s stories – he lured her to his apartment under false pretences, emerged undressed asking for a massage and asked her to expose herself to him, then blocked the exit when she tried to escape. She told just three people at the time (her mum and two friends), scared she wouldn’t be believed and that he would blacklist her in Hollywood. But in 2017, after seeing actors such as Ashley Judd, Rose McGowan and Salma Hayek courageously speak out about Weinstein’s behaviour, she did too.
Kendall went on to be part of the lawsuit that saw more than 30 women sue Weinstein, receiving a group settlement of $25m
