More than half a century later, "Romeo and Juliet" star Olivia Hussey has her own sobering tale of sexual assault to share.
The actress is opening up about past trauma in her life in new book "The Girl on the Balcony." She says her former boyfriend, actor Christopher Jones, attacked and raped her in the home where Sharon Tate was murdered.
Hussey was only 15 when she became a Hollywood star thanks to 1968's "Romeo and Juliet," but when she became famous, she started dating Jones, who she says began to abuse her. She said Jones punched her, but she stuck by him: "I was young, and I loved him. I was very loyal," she told People in a new interview. Jones died in 2014.
Hussey said that not long after, in 1969, she connected with Tate, who was pregnant at the time and renting the home of Hussey's agent Rudi Altobelli. Hussey planned to move into Altobelli's guest house and help Tate take care of her baby. But soon she got a call that Tate and four others were murdered while Altobelli was away.
"I'll never forget Rudi telling me," said Hussey. "He said, 'They're all dead.' It was terrible."
But just five weeks later, Hussey moved by herself into the home after breaking up with Jones.
"All I felt was Sharon's vibration," she told People. "And it was lovely. She'd left an orange scarf and I kept it on my prayer table for years."
But one night Hussey was to endure her own terrifying incident in the same home. She said that Jones showed up and beat her and raped her.
"I didn't know if he was going to kill me," said Hussey. "My face was like a balloon. I had a bloody nose, my lip was split open, and I had a black eye. It was terrifying." She said she learned she was pregnant weeks later and decided to have an abortion. She wrote in her book, "I decided I could not have the baby. It broke my heart … although I have never regretted it."
