For decades, the story has been one of Hollywood’s darkest rumours: a teenage Natalie Wood being sexually assaulted by a top movie star more than twice her age in Los Angeles.

In her memoir 'Little Sister’, Natalie Wood’s younger sister Lana Wood accused actor Kirk Douglas of sexual harassment at the famed Chateau Marmont when Natalie was just 16 years old.

Natalie Wood began her career in film at four years old and successfully transitioned to young adult roles. Throughout her career, she received four Golden Globes and three Academy Award nominations. Photo from AP File via NBC News.​

According to Lana, Natalie did not disclose the incident to her until they were both adults.

“He hurt me,” Lana recalled her sister telling her, after being brought into Douglas’ suite.

Lana was only eight years old when the incident happened. She wrote that the meeting had been arranged by their own mother, Maria Zakharenko, who thought that 'many doors might be thrown open for her, with just a nod of his famous, handsome head on her behalf’.

“I remember that Natalie looked especially beautiful when Mom and I dropped her off that night at the Chateau Marmont entrance,” Lana Wood wrote.

“It seemed like a long time passed before Natalie got back into the car and woke me up when she slammed the door shut.”

“She looked awful. She was very dishevelled and very upset, and she and Mom started urgently whispering to each other,” she continued.

“I couldn't really hear them or make out what they were saying. Something bad had apparently happened to my sister, but whatever it was, I was apparently too young to be told about it.”

Lana Wood remembered her older sister saying, “It was like an out-of-body experience. I was terrified, and I was confused.” And their mother Maria only told her to “suck it up”.

The alleged incident happened in the summer of 1955. Around the time, Natalie Wood was filming 'The Searchers’. Photo from Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images via Vanity Fair.
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In her book, which will be coming out next week, Lana Wood recalls promising her sister not to discuss the sexual assault by the famous actor. Still, when Douglas died in 2020, rumours were so widespread that even Natalie’s name trended along with his on Twitter.

She believes the world has changed enough since her conversation with Natalie that she can now tell the whole story.

“With no one still around to protect, I'm sure she'll forgive me for finally breaking that promise,” she said.

Kirk Douglas had acknowledged that he was a womaniser and an unfaithful husband before his death last year.

His son, actor Michael Douglas, released a statement, saying, “May they both rest in peace.”

 

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It's side but it's likely that every woman has experienced a form of sexual harassment in her life Not much of it is exposed though