Sophie Ellis-Bextor has spoken about being raped when she was 17 by an older musician.
Ellis-Bextor recalls the incident in her new memoir Spinning Plates, which is being serialised by the Mail on Sunday. The singer shares with readers that it happened in the apartment of a guitarist who was 29 at the time.
Ellis-Bextor, who is now 42, says she met the musician - who she calls Jim - at a gig while she was studying for her A-Levels.
"I mentioned I was doing A-level history and he said: 'I did history. Would you like to come back to my flat and see my history books?' Probably the lamest chat-up line in the world, but I went in a taxi with him back to his flat.
"Once back at the flat, Jim actually did show me his history books. I found myself putting one about Napoleon III in my bag. I kept it for a while afterwards, but seeing it always made me feel sad and used.
She continues: "I heard myself saying 'No' and 'I don't want to, but it didn't make any difference," she writes.
"He had sex with me and I felt so ashamed. It was how I lost my virginity and I felt stupid."
The Murder on the Dancefloor singer says she wanted to give her 17-year-old self "a voice" and that she decided to share her own experience to help people understand "where the line between right and wrong lies".
"My experience was not violent," she writes, "All that happened was I wasn't listened to. Of the two people there, one said yes, the other said no, and the yes person did it anyway.
"The older I've become, the more stark that 29-year-old man ignoring 17-year-old me has seemed."
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