Sheryl Lee Ralph, veteran actress and now “Abbott Elementary” star, says a “famous TV judge” assaulted her.
Ralph opened up about the alleged incident on Monday during an appearance on radio personality Angela Yee’s “The Way Up With Angela Yee” podcast.
“I’m at a very public place,” Ralph said. “I was suited. I had my suit on. I was handling my business for the television show I was on at that time. He and I were on the same network. This man walked in, grabbed me by the back of my neck, turned me around and rammed his nasty a—s tongue down my throat. Everybody at the network saw it.”
At that time, Ralph was playing role of Dee Mitchell on former UPN sitcom “Moesha.” She didn’t name anyone, but shared that it wasn’t Judge Greg Mathis.
“I love him,” Ralpha said, referring to Mathis. “He’s a great man. Not him at all. He’s a great man. This was another one.”
Ralph shared that she planned on reporting the incident, saying she received support from Marc Morial, the former mayor of New Orleans. However, she claims a network executive didn’t want the alleged incident to get out.
“Somebody on the network tapped me on the shoulder saying, ‘Please don’t.’ They did not want any bad press around their show, and did not care what had just happened to me,” Ralph said.
“They saw what happened,” she continued, adding what she says executives and witnesses said of the incident. “It’s not that bad is it? Please don’t say anything. We don’t need the bad press. It’s a brand new show. Yours is a new show … It wasn’t so bad after all, was it?”
She ended with a message about the struggles women face when trying to speak out about abuse. “That’s the kind of stuff that happens,” Ralph went on. “That’s what makes it hard for women to speak up about these things.”