AlunaGeorge's Aluna Francis Breaks Silence About Collaborator's Alleged Sexual Assault

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Jun 20, 2019

Aluna Francis — one half of U.K. duo AlunaGeorge — has detailed an alleged sexual assault by a former musical collaborator.

The singer-songwriter broke her silence about the frightening exchange while on the BBC podcast The Next Episode, saying the assault took place during a break from recording session in the man's hotel room, where he attempted to force her to perform oral sex on him.

Francis did not name the musical collaborator, but she clarified it was not AlunaGeorge partner George Reid.

On the podcast — which focuses on #MeToo and the music industry — Francis said the man offered to let her charge her phone in his hotel room after they had been working on a track together. Francis then said when she agreed and went to his room, he became "a completely different person — his behaviour went from nought to 100."

"He pinned me down and he'd taken his trousers down and he was trying to put his dick in my mouth," Francis alleged. "So I wrestled him off, and he was still laughing 'cause he thought it was a game and that I was having a really fun time having a pretend rape situation."

Francis said she escaped from the room, telling the podcast, "You would think that I understood how wrong this was straight away and I didn't. Musicians are crazy ambitious about getting their craft out there. And that's why I think there's so much shame about these kind of situations: Am I that stupid? What is wrong with me? Why have I compartmentalized all of this just for my career? That's madness."

Francis added that she returned to the studio with the man and tried to speak to him about his behaviour in the hotel room.

"He did all his apologies and talked about how he was so incredibly sorry and [that] this has never happened before. You're dealing with it all the time. Even if it goes up to a high level, you're still playing out this role of 'It's fine.'"

Francis said she did not report the alleged incident to police, adding she was "so scared" to tell her story.

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