Lana Wood has alleged her sister Natalie Wood was once sexually assaulted by Kirk Douglas.
In her new memoir, Little Sister, Lana claims the alleged assault took place in 1955 when a then-teenage Natalie was dropped off by her mother, Maria Zakharenko, at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles to meet with the Spartacus actor.
"I remember that Natalie looked especially beautiful when Mom and I dropped her off that night at the Chateau Marmont entrance," Lana writes, according to an excerpt obtained by The Associated Press. "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. 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 went on to claim that she didn't discuss her recollection of the event with Natalie until they were both adults.
"And, uh ... he hurt me Lana," the 75-year-old recalled her sibling telling her. "It was like an out-of-body experience. I was terrified, I was confused."
While Lana originally promised Natalie not to discuss the incident, she decided that as both her sibling and Kirk are now dead, and there has been an immense shift within Hollywood in light of the Time's Up and #MeToo movements, that now was an acceptable time to do so.
In response to the allegations, a representative for Kirk's son Michael Douglas commented: "May they both rest in peace."
Natalie tragically drowned at the age of 43 during a holiday break in 1981, while Kirk passed away at his home in California in February 2020, aged 103.
Little Sister: My Investigation into the Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood is set for release on 9 November.
