E963 – Going Deeper with Kaja Sokola

Speaker 1 High interest debt is one of the toughest opponents you'll face.

Speaker 1 Unless you power up with a SoFi personal loan, a SoFi personal loan could repackage your bad debt into one low-fixed rate monthly payment.

Speaker 1 It's even got super speed, since you can get the funds as soon as the same day you sign.

Speaker 1 Visit sofi.com/slash power to learn more. That's SOFI.com/slash P-O-W-E-R.

Speaker 1 Loans originated by SoFi Bank NA, member FDIC. Terms and Conditions Apply, NMLS 696891.

Speaker 2 With Fidelity Wealth Management, a dedicated advisor gets to know you and your goals to build a comprehensive plan to help grow and protect your wealth.

Speaker 2 Backed by a team of specialists, they'll analyze all your accounts, even the ones they don't manage, to keep an eye on taxes and provide proactive portfolio insights that can help you unlock your wealth's full potential.

Speaker 2 Learn more at fidelity.com/slash wealth. Investment minimums apply, Fidelity Broker Services LLC, member NYSC SIPC.

Speaker 4 Just wanted to give a quick trigger warning for the people about to listen to this episode with Kaya. It is a very tough conversation, but obviously a very important one.

Speaker 4 She's so brave to tell her story and she makes people who have been through similar things feel less alone.

Speaker 4 It's honestly a very tough conversation and hard to hear, but one worth having and one worth listening to. So thanks for listening.
And thanks to Kaya for being so brave.

Speaker 5 Kaya, welcome to the Vile Files.

Speaker 3 Hello, so nice to meet you.

Speaker 5 Lovely to meet you. We really appreciate you being here.
Obviously, you've been

Speaker 5 through a lot over the years, and now you finally have a chance to really talk about it. And just want to just express our appreciation first and foremost for having this conversation.

Speaker 5 We look forward to getting to know you more, along with with just understanding your story a little bit better.

Speaker 5 Just, you know, I think there's just obviously a theme when it comes to women in your position or just victims of all kind of sexual assault who come forward and fight.

Speaker 5 They're often reduced down to like a victim. And, and

Speaker 5 so much of the, the legal battle, you know, puts you in a box. And, you know, I'm sure I imagine it feels like other people get to tell your story often.

Speaker 5 So we very much look forward to having this conversation, getting to know you better.

Speaker 3 Okay, how much time do we have?

Speaker 5 You know, usually this take like, you know, an hour, 90 minutes or so.

Speaker 5 But, you know, truly, we just want to like, you know, what we love to do on the show is to get to know the people we talk to and just have that conversation.

Speaker 5 It's, you know, less of an interview, more just people having a real life conversation.

Speaker 5 Sadly, there's so many women out there, obviously, who are victims of sexual assault, many of which don't come forward rightfully so for all the reasons that are out there that can be very scary.

Speaker 5 My wife, sadly, is a victim of sexual assault. So these are obviously very important conversations.
So just want to thank you again for taking the time and being with us today.

Speaker 3 I really appreciate that. Thank you.
And it means a lot that, like you said, I've been put in a box. first as a model, then as a psychologist, now as a victim.

Speaker 3 And I'm like, come on, how many boxes I need to have enough. But yeah, but people try to look at victims through like a shortcut version of what happened.
But that's, you know,

Speaker 3 as you know, we have lives we are accomplishing things and

Speaker 3 something happened that hopefully

Speaker 3 actions like, you know, me standing up in court will help other women to not be afraid to do that. Yeah, it's really, it's really important.

Speaker 5 Well, I'm sure we'll dive into the case and everything and everything you've been through. But I also just wanted to start by just getting to know you.

Speaker 5 You mentioned as you're a psychologist, you're a model, you're also a mother.

Speaker 5 I mean, where would you like to start?

Speaker 5 I imagine, you know, over the years, there have been times where you've, you've felt like, you know, you don't really know who I am, you know, where people, like I said, have told your story.

Speaker 3 So where would you like to start in terms of like sharing with our audience a little bit more about you i think it's important to start at childhood right yeah that's um that's where it all begins and right now being a mom of a boy single mom i can

Speaker 3 you know show him love and closeness emotional closeness and support that i never had as a child first of all you know i grew up in poland My parents were from a little bit different generation that we are right now.

Speaker 3 But also my mom was always overly ambitious and not very emotional. So

Speaker 3 I am a,

Speaker 3 believe it or not, but I'm a goofball and a very emotional person. So it was,

Speaker 3 I was kind of had to put myself in a, in a shell and lock it because it didn't fit to my family dynamics.

Speaker 3 And I think that that's when I started like developing love for acting and for performance and for poetry because it expressed everything that I had in me but I couldn't really do it in other ways.

Speaker 3 How do you feel like it conditioned you as a child, like growing up with with parents who weren't really emotional? My dad was. Your dad was my dad was very emotional.
My dad was amazing.

Speaker 3 He died in 2023. I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 Thank you. And he was the one that I could talk to.
But he was traveling a lot. He was, you know, he was making money.
He was providing for our family.

Speaker 3 So yeah, my sister's 12 years older and she was never really at home at the time when I was at home.

Speaker 4 How were you in relationships once you started dating?

Speaker 4 And like, did you kind of did you realize that your mom didn't show love or express love, and you were like, I want to do the opposite, I want to like overly show love, or were you kind of the same way?

Speaker 3 I was, I was a bit of a wild child. I was, I was, yeah, I was listening to uh punk rock and I was wearing you know um big boots and

Speaker 3 yeah,

Speaker 3 you know, New York, when you're 17, 18, it's

Speaker 3 the vibe. Yeah.
And I wanted to hang out with the cool guys and cool girls.

Speaker 3 I think that it definitely like

Speaker 3 it shaped me in two ways. In one way,

Speaker 3 because my mom was so hard on me, on achieving, you know, the best, the best,

Speaker 3 I

Speaker 3 would be very open. at the beginning, but then I would just, you know, shut down and not want anyone get close to me.

Speaker 3 And second thing is that I always wanted to be the best because that's what, you know, I've heard from my mom, so be the best in modeling, be the best in school.

Speaker 3 And it's really hard to, you know, to function on this level of intensiveness. I think what's also important is that I was, at the beginning, I was shy because I

Speaker 3 was a very chubby kid, chubby girl. And kids in like first grades of elementary school used to tease me and laugh at me.
And it felt, oh my God, I didn't want to go to school. It was just so horrible.

Speaker 3 And then suddenly when I lost weight, you know, on the outside, I might have changed, but on the inside, you don't change so fast. You still kind of stay.

Speaker 3 You know, it takes time to develop, to build personality and perspective on yourself that's different from the one that you've heard

Speaker 3 you are.

Speaker 3 So I guess when I started modeling, I never really wanted to model. It was not my dream.
It was not my goal. And I mean, first of all, I didn't believe that anyone could want to take pictures of me.

Speaker 3 Back then, now I have more confidence.

Speaker 4 How did you get into modeling if you were never, you never saw that for yourself?

Speaker 3 My mom and my sister, they took pictures of me and they sent them to magazines for competitions contests. And I, you know, it like happened really overnight because I won

Speaker 3 a competition contest, let's say, that the price was a contract with Next Models. Oh, wow.
Like one day I won it, and the next day I was flying to Paris with my mom.

Speaker 3 And it's just, it really all that fast. But I don't think I've ever really fit in that world.

Speaker 4 Was all of that happening in Poland, or had you moved to the States?

Speaker 3 Yeah. No, this was happening in Poland.
Then I started traveling to France with my mom to Paris, Paris. at first and then

Speaker 3 just by myself in Europe.

Speaker 3 and then when i was 16 i went to new york you lived in like a model's apartment and did that whole thing

Speaker 3 it's a brutal lifestyle it's a brutal

Speaker 3 it's like hunger gains fight for survival

Speaker 3 it's really and you know but even worse than oh my god i'm gonna talk so much too about that but okay who cares um but even worse than that are beauty competitions i won a beauty pageant in poland when i was 18 and i mean the things that the girls were doing, it's not just stories, like putting color into shampoo or like

Speaker 3 tinted cream.

Speaker 4 It just like mess you up.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Oh, wow. Oh, my God.

Speaker 3 I mean,

Speaker 3 that's awful. Yeah.

Speaker 3 It's not. I mean, now I can laugh at it.
Hopefully my son will know. No, he won't.
He won't.

Speaker 4 So you moved to New York at 16, 17?

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Okay. 16.
And you left your family in Poland?

Speaker 3 I mean, I was traveling still a lot. So I was kind of back and forth because I would, you know, I get jobs, we all know, I guess, in, you know, Australia or Japan or Europe, so flying back and forth.

Speaker 3 But still, I was, uh, I finished school normally. Wow.
I graduated. Pretty good results.

Speaker 3 So,

Speaker 3 so, yeah.

Speaker 4 Did you have much of a support system in New York when you were living there at the time?

Speaker 3 No, no, none. Really? None.
I didn't know anyone. And, you know, it was

Speaker 3 it was, I mean, exciting. I really wanted to come to America.
I, you know, I speak English, so it was much easier than in France or in Italy. And I was just fascinated by New York, especially.

Speaker 3 So it was exciting and happy. But at the same time,

Speaker 3 I mean, now thinking about it, when I look at 16-year-old girls or 15-year-old girls. And I think that that was me when I got here.
Like, these are kids.

Speaker 4 It's so much different now that you have your own child too. You're like, how?

Speaker 3 Obviously, how the heck did that happen?

Speaker 3 I mean, I remember there was a lot of funny stories aside of the bad story that, you know, the world knows right now.

Speaker 3 I remember our agent, my agents, they got me and my friend, who was also 16, tickets for a Lenny Kravitz concert in Jones Beach. Okay.
And so

Speaker 3 they told us it's so easy to get there, don't worry. We had no idea what we were doing, but someone told us, some people said, this, take this train, go like that.
And we finally got there.

Speaker 3 Concert was amazing, but then how to get back.

Speaker 3 And it's quite of a ride.

Speaker 3 So

Speaker 3 we were asking people, two 16-year-old girls, can you take us back to this city?

Speaker 4 Did you get back?

Speaker 5 Two models.

Speaker 3 Two 16-year-old models.

Speaker 3 And so there was one car that basically the fume of weed was just going out of from all the windows and I was like I don't I don't think we can do that I rather sleep in the bushes seriously but then fortunately I'm not gonna name drop but there was one very nice actor who

Speaker 3 had his car and his driver and we got back to the city and till that day I love gingerheads

Speaker 3 trustworthy

Speaker 3 trustworthy okay

Speaker 5 and then it was at that point when you started getting into acting well i started getting into acting in school when I was younger.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 5 But in terms of like when you were in America, like in terms of like trying to get into film here in the States.

Speaker 3 Oh, that didn't end up very well for me.

Speaker 3 And so like I said, modeling happened overnight. And I've never had anything.
Like my mom is a biologist and professor. My dad had his own company.
So no one in my family.

Speaker 3 worked in the film industry or in entertainment, although my dad wanted to when he was younger.

Speaker 3 And so, you know, modeling happened like that. I did not have that experience with agents or with people on a photo shoot.
So I, when I met Harvey,

Speaker 3 one thing I thought, you know, like, what can go wrong? Like, this dude can be my grandfather.

Speaker 5 No. You know? How did you meet him in the first place?

Speaker 3 We met in a club called Butter. Okay.

Speaker 3 You know, a bunch of models were invited to like join the, you know,

Speaker 3 how it is,

Speaker 3 during the party. And he asked me if I ever thought about acting, that I have a, you know, a face for that and blah, blah, blah, the same spiel.

Speaker 3 And I was really happy. I was really excited because I thought, you know what? Now this is the transition that I want to do.
And someone sees that.

Speaker 3 So I, until the moment when we were in his apartment, I did not feel any kind of threat because I also had a really good relationship with my father. Sure.
So, you know, there was...

Speaker 5 And I imagine, you know, someone like him has that predatorial behavior is probably very used to making people feel very comfortable at first, you know? And here you are, this young, ambitious model.

Speaker 5 And like you said, it was almost like someone sees what I see in myself. They see that talent.

Speaker 5 And then I imagine before he started with the threats of his power and things like that, it was more just, you know, like the, have you ever thought about being an actor?

Speaker 5 Or, you know, like, you could really be great. And I see that potential.

Speaker 5 And, like, you know, that someone like him who is in that power position makes someone like yourself, especially as a 16-year-old girl,

Speaker 5 you know, put their guard down. And it makes a lot of sense why, you know, there's no reason why you would immediately think, oh, why is this person going to do harm to me?

Speaker 3 And also, we met

Speaker 3 during the day. It was for lunch.
So,

Speaker 3 yeah, I really did not expect that it will turn out that way.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 yeah,

Speaker 3 but it did.

Speaker 4 So, you,

Speaker 3 if you're okay to get into it. Yeah.

Speaker 4 So, you met him.

Speaker 3 I mean, I know at this point.

Speaker 4 You met him at the club. Yeah.
And

Speaker 4 you were 16. How long did it take after you met for him to invite you to lunch?

Speaker 3 A few days. A few days.

Speaker 4 Okay.

Speaker 4 So you go to lunch and what's the conversation like? What is he? How is he acting?

Speaker 3 He's talking about scripts and about films. And

Speaker 3 he was also on the phone for a little bit. So this made me feel a little bit uncomfortable, let's say, when someone was sitting with me and being on the phone.

Speaker 3 But again, it seemed okay

Speaker 3 in a car until he said that he doesn't have time to go for lunch. and we'll stop somewhere else.

Speaker 3 And that's when I was like, okay, well, that doesn't sound great.

Speaker 3 But he was, you know, 16 and 50, a person that runs Hollywood, that is a better psychologist than most of psychologists, or manipulator, or narcissists, all of that, I think.

Speaker 3 So, you know, it's hard to describe these situations and the feelings if someone have never experienced it. But that's why there are so many women still being raped and assaulted.

Speaker 3 And there's so much domestic violence in relationships because it sounds very different on paper. It's very different than, you know, in reality.

Speaker 3 And then it just happened very fast. He walked out of the car.
He told me to follow him. So I did.

Speaker 3 And suddenly, you know, I realized that we are probably alone. I don't know if there was someone else and was hiding.
I don't think so.

Speaker 3 In his apartment.

Speaker 4 That must have been really scary. Of just like, when that door shut behind you of like, holy fuck, what have I gotten myself into? Like, how did I end up here?

Speaker 4 how do i get out i bet you just immediately panic

Speaker 3 yeah i did and that's when i started to raise my voice and he told me to be quiet and he told me that i have to work on my stubbornness because actresses have to be obedient and have to listen to directors and to producers on set you have to get naked you have to get naked look at the films I created a career of Penelope Cruz and Gwyneth Patrol.

Speaker 3 So, you know, having all these things in my head at 16, I lost touch with the reality of what's going on.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I mean,

Speaker 5 like, like you said, I mean, on paper, it might sound different for what people think.

Speaker 5 But yeah, again, thinking about, you know, trying to put myself as a 16-year-old person, you're like, oh, yeah, you know, you watch these movies and it's make-believe and all these things.

Speaker 5 And you try, you know, that's what you want to do.

Speaker 5 It's, it's scary just like how much power he had, not only in the position that he had, but what he was able to offer, you know, people who had this dream you know i mean a dream that almost most people share i mean even people who don't want to be actors if you came up to him and said have you ever thought about being an actor he'd be like no but like i would love to be you know like and so this is you know he really had this um opportunity to really do a lot of damage and clearly he did yes and i think also the i mean

Speaker 3 physically like he was very intimidating physically as well you know and one thing that i really remembered for a long time was his voice It was like mosferatu,

Speaker 3 like a deep, overpowering voice.

Speaker 3 That, yeah, that is like a mind game. It's more, it's more than just sexual assault.
Like what he was doing with people were mind games. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Not only with the women, but also with people that he was working with. I met a producer who almost switched his career and he's successful now because of the interaction that he had with Harvey.

Speaker 3 But I think that

Speaker 3 one reason, and I have not talked about this before, but I mean, I'm 39 enough,

Speaker 3 is because my mom was a bullying person. So that was something that I was used to in a way, you know, to

Speaker 3 just shut up. You have not much to say.
And I know better.

Speaker 3 So that definitely was some kind of a path

Speaker 3 after my marriage, but, you know, meeting Harvey. Yeah.

Speaker 5 And then I am,

Speaker 5 you know, after the incident happened and the first assault,

Speaker 5 I, I mean, and I've heard this from other people who have been victims where it's almost like you're, it almost feels like, what, what just happened? Like almost like, you know, it's,

Speaker 5 you're not even sure if like, did something happen? What, did something just happen to me? Because again, of this kind of make-believe scenario he almost created in this environment.

Speaker 3 You know, he kept on saying, just keep it between us. You can't talk about this anywhere else.
And again, as a straight age student, I was like, you told me to do that. I'm going to do that.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 I hope that right now, you know, the

Speaker 3 girls, young girls can see that a little bit differently because the conversation is open. We talk about it.
But back then,

Speaker 3 I think the internet was just starting out.

Speaker 3 You know, the world was different.

Speaker 3 But all in all, I just, I truly think that the manipulation, the mind game,

Speaker 3 and just my ambitions of wanting to achieve something to make my mom proud made me keep the secret.

Speaker 4 So what happened in that apartment?

Speaker 3 He told me to take my clothes off and then he made me touch him.

Speaker 3 with my hand and he touched me.

Speaker 3 It's not called rape, it's called sexual assault, but

Speaker 3 it was the first time that I was in an intimate situation with a man with a person with a man.

Speaker 3 But so that's like another level of trauma to that whole thing. I mean, he took not only did he take that from you, but he took the first.
A lot of things. A lot of things.
Yeah. So

Speaker 3 after all of that happened, was he just like, okay, bye?

Speaker 4 Like, I'll see you soon?

Speaker 3 No, he said, he said something about me behaving well that I did that, that it has to stay between us,

Speaker 3 and that he'll, you know, he'll get back in touch. And so he did.

Speaker 4 When did he get back in touch?

Speaker 3 I was traveling, so I don't, I don't remember, it was so many years ago, but our next

Speaker 3 encounter, if you want to call it that way, was in 2004. Okay.
And

Speaker 3 I was going, I think, from a casting or from a photo shoot to Jim.

Speaker 3 And he said that, you know, he can give me a lift to talk a little bit because he has a project. And in the car, he was again on the phone.
And he name dropped.

Speaker 3 He said that he has a big problem because he's working on the Grimm Brothers with Keith Ledger and Matt Damon. And

Speaker 3 he started talking about this film and again about my future. And then he tried to put his hand on me.
But I immediately backed out because there was a driver in the car. And I left the car.

Speaker 3 And I said, something like, this is not what I want, right?

Speaker 3 So

Speaker 3 that was that.

Speaker 3 And truly, I don't remember all of our conversations or emails, even, you know, lately in court, they were able to pull up maybe two or three emails,

Speaker 3 but nothing more from that time.

Speaker 3 So I wasn't, it wasn't like I was regularly in touch with him. It was spread in certain occasions throughout the years.

Speaker 3 And I still, at that time, I still thought that I could be an actress.

Speaker 3 Like, and you, when we're talking about passions, it was always my passions. I still believe I could be a great one.

Speaker 3 But yeah,

Speaker 3 it was so painful because

Speaker 3 someone that opinion I cared for

Speaker 3 just at that point I started to think treats me like a joke, not only assaulted me but on top of that treats me like a joke and um

Speaker 5 yeah so then obviously yours had passed where this you had to live with this trauma and I imagine the the idea of coming forward then almost seemed impossible or surreal absolutely absolutely plus I was scared that if I would say this to someone And like I said before, we never had this kind of conversation at home.

Speaker 3 So I was scared that if I will say this to someone, they will say, oh my God, she's a slut. You know, blame it on me.
Blame it on the girl. How did you end up getting yourself in that situation?

Speaker 3 So I truly, really took the guilt on me. Yeah.

Speaker 4 Looking to level up your home this summer? Meet Pura Plus, the smartest way to scent your space.

Speaker 4 With app-controlled fragrance scheduling, premium long-lasting scents, and sleek design, it's where fragrance meets function.

Speaker 4 Right now, subscribe to any two scents for 12 months and get your Pura Plus diffuser free. Don't miss out.
This limited time offer won't last. Visit pura.com and claim yours today.

Speaker 4 Well, we talk non-stop about Quince, and that's because we love Quince. I am out of my fast fashion phase.
I'm out of my trendy phase.

Speaker 4 I want good, staple classics that will last me until the end of time. And Quince has all of that.

Speaker 4 They have the kind of stuff you'll actually wear on repeat, like breathable flow knit polos, crisp cotton shirts, and comfortable lightweight pants that somehow work for both weekend hangs and dressed up dinners.

Speaker 4 The best part, everything with Quince is half the cost of some of the brands. I have some really great linen clothes.
It's summer. It's hot.
You need to be in linen. Quince makes the best linen.

Speaker 4 They also, for the winter, they have amazing cashmere sweaters. I have so many of them because they're so great.
They're great quality and they're a great

Speaker 3 shot for Christmas.

Speaker 5 But seriously, it's so hot out right now and it's probably going to be hot for a while.

Speaker 5 So if you are just suffering in the heat and just getting that like, you know, everything's not moving comfortably, get yourself breathable, nice linen pieces from Quince.

Speaker 5 The men, the ladies out there, they have it all for both of you. A lot of great options.
You won't regret it.

Speaker 4 Stick to the staples that last with elevated essentials from Quince. Go to quince.com slash V-I-A-L-L for free shipping on your order in the 365-day returns.

Speaker 4 That's - U-I-N-C-E dot com slash V-I-A-L-L to get free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash V-I-A-L-L.

Speaker 4 We're all trying to figure out how to work smarter, not harder, whether that's automating our post-meeting follow-ups or streamlining how we communicate and collaborate across teams.

Speaker 4 Fireflies turns your meetings into action so you can focus on achieving results.

Speaker 4 Fireflies is an AI meeting assistant that records, transcribes, and automates meeting note-taking for people who need a note-taker and want to focus on achieving faster results.

Speaker 5 We're always taking notes during our recording sessions, and Fireflies has been a big value add for us at NV Media, and it can be a great value add for you wherever you are working.

Speaker 5 If your meetings are getting interrupted so you can look at information, there's a better way. Just say, hey, Fireflies, and get real-time, reliable answers directly inside your video calls.

Speaker 5 No more switching tabs or losing focus.

Speaker 5 Whether you're clarifying what someone said or pulling helpful insights from the web, Fireflies helps keep your conversations flowing so that you can make quicker decisions and stay on track.

Speaker 5 Fireflies is the number one AI teammate that transcribes, summarizes, and analyzes your conversations so that you can get the most out of every meeting. It's the smarter way to work.

Speaker 5 helping you understand what was said, generate personalized notes, find information, take action on next steps, and develop workflows to create internal efficiencies.

Speaker 4 Fireflies now provides tailor summaries that are personalized to fit you and your role across many different industries, whether that's in sales, marketing, engineering, recruiting, management, and more, even podcast production.

Speaker 4 It seamlessly integrates with the tools that your team already rely on with integrations across more than 60 different apps like Zoom, Google Meet, Slack, Asana, Zapier, and your CRM.

Speaker 4 You'll get powerful collaboration tools like real-time and up-to-date web search directly in your meetings.

Speaker 4 shareable sound bites, timestamp notes that allow you to pinpoint key moments and bookmarks that highlight important moments and meetings.

Speaker 4 Fireflies was designed with security in mind, giving you the ability to control who can view, share meeting notes, and even choose where to store your meeting information. What are you waiting for?

Speaker 4 Join the over 500,000 companies already using Fireflies and start turning your meetings into action.

Speaker 5 And right now, when you sign up for a yearly Firefly subscription, you get your first two months free. Just go to fireflies.ai/slash V-I-A-L-L.
That's right.

Speaker 5 Two months free when you go to fireflies.ai slash V-I-A-L-L. That's fireflies.ai slash VIAL.

Speaker 5 What was it like fast forwarding to 2016, I think it was 2017,

Speaker 5 when

Speaker 5 the first accusations of Harvey and the world kind of woke up to who Harvey Weinstein really was, this monster? And yeah, what was that like for you? Do you remember where you were the first time?

Speaker 5 this became international news?

Speaker 3 I didn't hear about it from, like, I didn't see it in the magazine at first, but someone who knew that I was scared of him. And there was one occasion when he was trying to storm into my hotel room.

Speaker 3 I was staying at Four Seasons and the lobby, the receptionist, they called me and they were like, this man is trying to storm into your room. We didn't allow him to do that.

Speaker 3 But it started to be really like

Speaker 3 crazy scary.

Speaker 3 And so this person that I told about this incident. called me or sent me a text in 2017.
He said, hey, I don't know what happened between you and him, but it sounded like something.

Speaker 3 And check this out. And then when I saw the articles,

Speaker 3 I was shaking.

Speaker 3 But I mean, one thing that really spoke to me was seeing Gwyneth Patrell's name and her coming forward and saying that, you know, he did whatever he did, which is very interesting that right now he's calling her a liar in press.

Speaker 3 And I thought, you know, because for many years I thought, okay, I'm just a stupid Polish model, and so he could do these things to me.

Speaker 3 But to Gwyneth Patrol, I'm sure that she's just so talented and so beautiful, so she never had to, you know, she never experienced any of that.

Speaker 3 So, it for these, all these years, I was really berating myself also because of that.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 then seeing her name and accusation from so many women, like, oh my God, he was just like a horrible predator that was hungry for, I think, like purity.

Speaker 3 He could sense people that are not strong enough to say no.

Speaker 3 That's how I think. And he was definitely extremely turned on by fear, which is insane itself.

Speaker 4 So, did seeing

Speaker 4 all of these women, did that give you the courage to be like, oh my God, me too? Like, it wasn't, you know,

Speaker 4 you did this to me too.

Speaker 3 Yeah, gave me the courage. But at the time, it's 2017, right? So I got married in 2015.

Speaker 3 uh we moved to a to a house uh to a big house and we were thinking about starting a family so it was also really difficult to talk to my then husband about that because it's hard right and you had told him what had happened before

Speaker 4 his name came in the media with all the allegations you hadn't no wow I had a

Speaker 3 difficult marriage as well. I'm very blessed that I have my son out of it.
And yeah, that's what I'm thankful for. But I don't, I think he didn't even want to hear what really happened.

Speaker 3 He just was like, it's a don't save me though. Yeah.

Speaker 5 I'm sorry about that. Thank you.
We've obviously heard so many horrible stories about how Harvey, as well connected as he was, had like hired muscle and people who intimidated people,

Speaker 5 lineup of lawyers who, you know, maybe kind of not the more honorable type of lawyers.

Speaker 3 Douchebags?

Speaker 5 Did you face any of that intimidation from him or his people over the years to try to silence you?

Speaker 3 No, he was trying to silence me. And then

Speaker 3 I've never, no, I've never heard it from lawyers. But you mean after?

Speaker 5 the news yeah i just know like you know i mean from an outsider just reading all the articles and the interviews where it just seemed like he, you know, it's, it seems to be a playbook as old as time from people like him who try to very much intimidate their victims, you know, and someone like him, he obviously had this wealth and power to literally hire people to do just that.

Speaker 3 Well, in my case, he didn't have to hire people because my ex-husband, who would love to see me probably drowning in the lake, reached out to him

Speaker 3 and said that he wants to to collaborate with his team along with my sister. Your sister, my sister.
And your husband at the time?

Speaker 3 Yeah, they reached out to the defense team and they were reaching out to them before I got settlement in 2022.

Speaker 4 Were you still married at this time?

Speaker 3 No, I filed for divorce in 2022. So I flew

Speaker 3 from Poland

Speaker 3 after the borders were open, after COVID. The first occasion that I had, of course, I didn't kidnap my son, but I told my husband that we're going for two months.

Speaker 3 And I thought, okay, this is my chance to like escape from that

Speaker 3 hell. And so I did.
And after three months in the United States and receiving 80,000 text messages and phone calls for, I think, two months.

Speaker 3 And within two months, I got about 80,000 messages from my ex-husband scaring me, asking me to forgive him.

Speaker 3 asking me to go begged and telling me he's going to kill me like all these sorts of mixed stuff and i filed for divorce but i was scared even as a psychologist even as a person that already stepped forward against harvey you know being in a situation like this with your spouse was

Speaker 3 it was very scary why was it hell the relationship because he was aggressive he was extremely physically and emotionally aggressive and you know again as a psychologist i should know better but it's not like that when you're in the situation yeah and on the outside my husband was very handsome you know, a little bit older than me, but not much older.

Speaker 3 He had money. Everything was perfect.
We had a beautiful house with dogs and cats, you know, amazing. And then behind the closed door, he was just, he would,

Speaker 3 he never drink, he never took drugs, which I think is almost worse because it was just.

Speaker 4 That's just who he was. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Nothing made him like that. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 And, you know, at the beginning, it was like pushing me or

Speaker 3 twisting my arm and this sounds horrible but um but i kept on telling myself it will change once we'll have a child it will change once we'll this will happen it will change but then when he did that to me when i was pregnant i started to be like really scared

Speaker 3 and um then when i saw like his contact with our son which was also um aggressive

Speaker 3 and you know saying to a one-year-old kid you're not going to be be

Speaker 3 stubborn. You're not going to be capricious.
Like, if I give you that to eat, you've got to eat that. And I'm like, back the fuck up.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Sorry.

Speaker 3 No, no, no, no.

Speaker 3 And then, you know, when I saw that, I'm like, oh,

Speaker 3 no way I can control that. It's one thing when it's to you.

Speaker 4 It's another thing when it's to your child.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 5 Did you first open up to your ex-husband about the trauma that Harvey placed on you? And then how did you find out that he went behind your back?

Speaker 3 So in 2022, when we were working on the, you know, we were working on settlement, I, you know, there was an affidavit made by someone else that he sent to the lawyers.

Speaker 3 And my lawyer got to know about that. So he was working with them from 2022, which finally escalated before the criminal trial.
He can't come to America because he's been convicted and he was,

Speaker 3 what's the word?

Speaker 3 Deported. Deported.
So he can't come here. That's why I also chose New York because it's like, okay, you can be sure.
He can't get you. Yeah, that he can save here.
I mean, you guys are successful.

Speaker 3 Money can bring a lot of joy, but it also can be sometimes, you know, a cause of problems.

Speaker 3 My sister, I guess, thought that I can be a milking cow for the family, for her. And at one point, like, she did enough.
And at one point, I said, no, like, I'm, no,

Speaker 3 I'm not gonna take you to Hawaii for vacation. Yeah.
For four of us, like, I'm not, who do you think I am? And yeah, I'm not a Nazis also, although I would love to be that rich.

Speaker 3 And that's basically when she turned

Speaker 3 turned her back. and started changing her testimonies.

Speaker 4 And and so did she think she would get money from his team team or she would?

Speaker 3 I mean, I guess everyone can answer themselves to this question, but she reached out to them and had many meetings before the trial.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 there was this part about my journal. She probably had about 10 or 20 journals.
And she chose one thing that's not even a diary. Like, you know, the...

Speaker 3 the depth of the betrayal and like the need to, I don't know, like destroy me.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 4 How did she gain access to your journals?

Speaker 3 When I flew Poland, I left everything in boxes because I basically packed to luggages like in rush. Till the moment that I was in the plane with my son, I didn't know what my ex will do.

Speaker 3 Like there was one moment second that we were at the airport. He was holding my son and he was like, you're sure you're coming back.
And it was so scary. And I had to act.
I had to act. I mean,

Speaker 3 and I said, yeah, of course, of course, coming back, knowing that I probably won't, if I can, I won't.

Speaker 3 And it was the first few months in the United States when we got here were very intense as well, because I was working, start, I mean, meeting with the lawyers regarding Weinstein.

Speaker 3 I had to find a way to legally stay here. And that's why I filed for asylum papers.
I filed criminal case against my ex-husband in Poland.

Speaker 3 And I just, I started to go like full on in this mode that if I'm saying A, I might just say the whole alphabet. Like there's nothing anymore that can scare me, I guess.
Why hold back? Yeah.

Speaker 3 And that was also a big part of why I decided to be in the criminal trial. I felt stronger already, right? And it just felt like the right thing to do.

Speaker 4 So when did you find out that your sister was working for them?

Speaker 3 I had suspicions. So her best friend, who actually was in my apartment in 2006, so they know each other for 20 years, more than 20 years, 20 to 19.

Speaker 3 He works for Arthur Aidala, who is Harvey's defense lawyer.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 so I started to sense that.

Speaker 3 And after in August of last year, we testified in front of the grand jury, which was very stressful for me as well, because it was the first time that I spoke publicly about the other incident

Speaker 3 that happened when I was 19. The one in the car? No, the one in

Speaker 3 the hotel. Oh, Oh.
Where you raped me. Oh, my God.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 And there was a haul of her.

Speaker 3 My sister was there with me at the restaurant. That's why she was testifying.

Speaker 3 And her testimony in front of the grand jury was basically saying that I was extremely tense and I didn't speak at all after I got back to her. And then on stand,

Speaker 3 She testified something completely else.

Speaker 3 So she was almost impeached because the prosecutors were saying hey wait a second you want to read your testimony from the grand jury that's not what you said and during the trial

Speaker 3 because she was prepared for from the defense she started saying that i looked more like someone who's waiting for an oscar and doesn't know what the outcome will be oh that must have been

Speaker 3 yeah no that that that that is something that hurt me absolutely the most the most because you know i've i've heard stories of families let's say, going bad, but if you experience that, it's your own blood, it's

Speaker 3 horrible.

Speaker 4 So, you were just sitting in court listening to your sister.

Speaker 3 No, I couldn't be there. But after I got the transcripts from the court hearings and I read what she was saying, it was like fucking stabbed in the heart over and over again.

Speaker 3 And, you know, in the end, they openly say that your husband, your ex-husband, reached out to us and then your sister reached out to us. And I'm like, I hope they paid her well, you know?

Speaker 3 Were y'all close?

Speaker 4 I mean, I know she was older than you.

Speaker 3 We were never really close because like when she was 18 or 19, she left to Italy. She was not living with us.
Then I started modeling. And there was always jealousy.

Speaker 3 There was always jealousy, you know, as a, as a.

Speaker 3 Maybe this was something that I don't know. There was just this house dynamics of being competitive with each other.
Yeah. Which is crazy because we're all different.
And, you know, she's a doctor.

Speaker 3 i'm a was a model no i'm a psychologist but um yeah i don't i i just i honestly i don't know if some there are a lot of people asking me why did she do that i honestly don't know i don't know why would someone do something like this i mean i get my ex-husband right right but the best you can assume is just the money and jealousy and yeah at age it's not the first time that she betrayed me so it's not like something that was completely surprisingly shocking did you talk to your parents about that?

Speaker 3 Or? Well, I talked to my dad, but he's dead, so he can't answer.

Speaker 3 But yeah, he's the only one that I talked to about that.

Speaker 3 And then I still have, I'm still in touch with

Speaker 3 some of my family from Poland, like aunts.

Speaker 3 But it's been so many years. I've been here three and a half years, almost four years.
And

Speaker 3 I have not seen them. in these four years and you know I'm like building a whole different life.

Speaker 3 Is there a part of you that's scared to go back to Poland just don't see any reason to go back there honestly I wouldn't I wouldn't want to it's just there's too much pain connected to this country

Speaker 3 and um

Speaker 3 yeah and it's just it's it's coming back to the surface when I think about it and there are so many beautiful places in the world that I would rather see how many different times did you experience assault from Harvey well the two times, two times that I can call assaults.

Speaker 5 And then just for the, so that, so the audience knows, because, you know, they mentioned the journal,

Speaker 5 it was the way she tried to use that against you is because she took this one specific journal that referenced other assaults or other trauma that you experienced, but not the ones with Harvey.

Speaker 5 So they try to imply that if Harvey had done something to you, it should be in this specific journal.

Speaker 3 Yeah. But, you know, I was very consistent with my testimony in front of prosecutors and grand jury.

Speaker 3 I told at the beginning that I've never said anything to anyone before 2017. The journal was written in 2015.
And it was,

Speaker 3 for people who are familiar with

Speaker 3 AA stats. And, you know, you write resentments and you write your fault in the whole situation and his fault and what could be different.
And

Speaker 3 my

Speaker 3 sponsor was a film producer. And as these other two men, I was not raped by them.
They were sexually aggressive to me. And that's what the journal said, but nothing happened.

Speaker 3 And, you know, and I never spoke or saw them again.

Speaker 3 So it's just a completely different story. Like Harvey assaulted me twice, but also what he did to me psychologically was very important to me.
So it's both of these things.

Speaker 3 So yeah, I guess that's it.

Speaker 3 That's what happened. And it could not be explained well.
I have not seen this journal in, I don't know, nine years, ten years.

Speaker 3 And so I was like completely in shock when they showed it to me in court. And I kept on asking, like, how did you got it? Where did you got it? They say, from my sister.
So that was one point.

Speaker 5 I never asked for breaks when I was on stand, stand but that was one point when i did ask for a break the most recent trial for harvey just recently ended yeah um and there were three victims including yourself who came forward with their stories of their assault uh and if i got this right he was convicted on one of them uh there was a mistrial on the other and then was acquitted on your charges

Speaker 5 However, it seemed like all the victims, you know, credited you, obviously, is that, you know, the belief that while maybe he wasn't convicted on your charges, that without your testimony, he might have been able to beat all of them.

Speaker 5 That being said, you know, what was that feeling like or the impact for you, having to go through all this

Speaker 5 trauma, relive this experience,

Speaker 5 having to be cross-examination, having to have betrayal of your family? Were you still able to feel victorious in this despite his acquittal?

Speaker 5 And I guess, you know, psychologically, what was that like? Because it must be kind of a mind fuck to try to, you know, see a silver lining in such a horseshit of a situation.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I mean, just like, what, what was that like?

Speaker 3 Yeah. Um,

Speaker 3 when I got, when I heard the news, um, I froze. And I was like, this is not happening.
When I first heard the verdict, this is not happening.

Speaker 3 And immediately I got so upset at my sister and at that, because

Speaker 3 it really was a work, a lot of work from the whole DA's office. Like so many people were involved.
And, you know, I've been listening to these people first time in 2020.

Speaker 3 Now in 2024, I have repeated my story many, many times. So

Speaker 3 I mean, what I'm saying is that I guess in a way,

Speaker 3 which might sound strange, but in a a way, if they would just say,

Speaker 3 you testified the way we prepared you or the way, you know, we spoke about this, they didn't find him guilty, it would be hard, but it would be like, maybe you just don't believe me.

Speaker 3 But I know for certain that this one, because the jurors were talking about this, it was the journal and her sister. So I was just really mad at her, really mad at her and

Speaker 3 extremely hurt.

Speaker 3 But, you know, then when I thought about this, when I think about this in a big picture, I really,

Speaker 3 really, I am happy that I testified, I told what happened, and I can just close this fucking hell of a chapter of my life and find love and have another baby and a big production company.

Speaker 3 That's my future. So, you know, yeah, sometimes you got to close one doors to let the other ones, the other open.
And I think that it it was just like slowly bleeding in my life for many years now.

Speaker 3 So it feels like it's okay, done.

Speaker 3 So it's relieving in a way. And I'm, and I'm really happy that he's found guilty and he won't leave jail.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I mean, safe to say he's going to die in prison. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Not that we wish him to die. We wish him a long life full of misery and suffering.

Speaker 4 Yes, he doesn't get a cheap out by dying. Have you thought about

Speaker 4 if at any point you telling your son about what has happened? I mean, obviously, this is all over the media. Your name is in it.
Harvey Weinstein's name is in it.

Speaker 4 Is that something that you thought about? Or are you kind of like, I'll cross that bridge when I need to?

Speaker 3 I told him a little bit and I told him enough so that he thinks I'm a superhero and a badass. Yes,

Speaker 3 as he should.

Speaker 3 As he should. I think he knows that much.

Speaker 3 And yeah, I think he thinks secretly that I'm like a FBI agent or a police officer.

Speaker 3 Yeah, there you go. But

Speaker 3 he's no, I think he's too young. He's too young.
He's six years old. Once he will start asking, like the way I try to raise him is that I don't tell him too much if he doesn't ask.

Speaker 3 And if he asks about something, I answer. directly to that question.
And if he will want to know more, I will tell him more.

Speaker 3 But, you know, his brain has to put it, put the pieces together by himself at certain points.

Speaker 5 One stat that I found just shocking, I think we hear

Speaker 5 as the world has more of these conversations about assault and just how prevalent it is

Speaker 5 and

Speaker 5 how many brave women have come forward to start having these conversations. I don't think people realize just how many predators like Harvey face justice.
I think the stat is less than 1%.

Speaker 3 It's 0.7%.

Speaker 5 Yeah. Yeah.
I mentioned obviously that Natalie obviously is a victim as well. I have a lot of women friends over the years of my life have, you know, in conversations mentioned.

Speaker 5 I mean, I don't, quite honestly, it's like, I don't know a single woman in my life who doesn't have some kind of story. If it's not something as horrific as rape, there's some story.

Speaker 5 Like I would say 100% of the women I know have a story about a bad incident with a man where they were made to feel even just really uncomfortable, scared, unsafe, and then obviously there's far more horrible situations.

Speaker 5 Almost none of these men have to face consequences. As someone who's gone through the legal system, what have you learned? And

Speaker 5 clearly there needs to be a lot of changes. Like obviously the system is still flawed.
The process of women or victims in general getting justice is flawed.

Speaker 5 As someone who's gone through it, what are things that you would like to see change? Or what are some things that could benefit victims so that they can feel more empowered to come forward?

Speaker 5 Because it seems too easy for the people who are victimizing people to do even more damage to their victims who do come forward because there seems to be such a playbook of harassment to put them on trial.

Speaker 5 in the court of public opinion.

Speaker 5 Now you see things like, you know, you can bully people online, you can, the astroturfing, you know, just that playbook of going after people as someone who's been through it.

Speaker 5 What would you like to see changed?

Speaker 3 Well, so I spoke a lot with my lawyers and with the prosecutors about this whole system and the situation. And the system is designed to help the defendant.

Speaker 3 Because in the end, their life is in stakes for like, you know, life in prison or whatever else.

Speaker 3 But only in situations of sexual sexual assaults and sex crimes, the victims are kind of being on trial, not the, you know, the person that committed the crime.

Speaker 3 So I don't think, I honestly don't think that there has, there can be a lot done with the criminal justice system.

Speaker 3 But I do think that even going to, you know, some authorities and sharing it. with someone can help because you don't feel alone.
I mean, the worst part about

Speaker 3 you can say if I'm right or no, but the worst part about sexual assault is that you feel alone with that. And it's like you're locking yourself in your own prison, your mind, your soul.

Speaker 3 It's like hurting. Yeah.
And so being able to share it is already,

Speaker 3 I think, very important. And

Speaker 3 yeah, being able to share it.

Speaker 5 Have there been any just anything you can offer? You know, I'm sure there's most of this audience are women.

Speaker 5 And so sadly, we can assume many of them have, again, a story and someone listening to this might be feeling that loneliness.

Speaker 5 What can you offer them or just suggestions to find that courage to reach out to someone? Or if there's groups out there available to reach out to, what would you say to them?

Speaker 3 I would say talk to the first person that you feel safe with. If it's a group of strangers, like Alanon, even, these are programs that designed for spouses of alcoholics.

Speaker 3 But there you can hear a lot of domestic violence stories. So if there are strangers like that, go for it.
If these are people that you know, do it.

Speaker 3 Like in my case, I was, let's say, pushed a little bit first by my friend to reach out to the lawyers. And then in Poland, what allowed me to speak is that

Speaker 3 My boss at the time saw aggression of my husband and he started asking me, like, what's going on? You know, do you want to talk about this?

Speaker 3 And I remember crying, sobbing, being like, I can't hold it in anymore.

Speaker 3 So opening up is like the most, the most difficult thing, but the most important, because it's never going to get better.

Speaker 3 Like, if you're in a situation where someone is perpetually abusing their status, your position, or their power, or the relationship that you're in, it's not going to get better unless someone will get a solid treatment.

Speaker 3 But I don't know the statistics, but I think they're very poor in success rate.

Speaker 5 Hiring shouldn't be a hassle or a drain on your budget, and that's why you need to check out Upwork.

Speaker 5 Upwork is your one-stop shop to find, hire, and pay top freelance talent, saving you time and keeping cost in check all in one place. Upwork exists to make hiring easier, faster, and more affordable.

Speaker 5 for businesses of all sizes by connecting you with top global freelance talent in one seamless platform.

Speaker 4 Upwork is convenient, cost-effective, and transparent. No subscriptions, no upfront fees.
You only pay when you hire. Posting a job, free, fast, simple.

Speaker 4 So, if you're trying to stretch your budget and keep things moving, Upwork's got you.

Speaker 5 If you're running a business right now, you already know it's hard. Tight budgets, hiring freezes, economic uncertainty is just beginning.

Speaker 5 Good news: Upwork is helping small businesses do more with less.

Speaker 3 Go to upwork.com.

Speaker 4 That's up.com.

Speaker 5 We all love a drink at the end of the day to unwind and relax us after a crazy busy day.

Speaker 5 And if you are looking to do that with a non-alcoholic option, then you need to check out Breeze because Breeze is redefining the way we unwind with functional non-alcoholic beverages designed to elevate mood, enhance focus, and promote rest naturally.

Speaker 5 Crafted with adoptogens, mushrooms, and botanicals, each drink is a feel-good alternative that supports your lifestyle from sunrise creativity to bedtime calm. It's also delicious.

Speaker 4 So if you're trying to cut back on alcohol, especially at the end of a long day, it's nice to sip on something that helps you relax.

Speaker 4 With only 35 calories, 8 grams of natural sugars, no THC or CBD, breeze is the drink you should turn to.

Speaker 4 Breeze is a non-alcoholic, non-cannabis, sparkling tonic infused with adaptogens and new tropics to help you feel uplifted, focused, and motivated.

Speaker 4 Without the crash, integrate into your daytime routine for before a workout, creative session, or social plans.

Speaker 5 They got some great flavor options that will make you feel nice, clear-headed, and help you unwind. Perfect for any time of day.

Speaker 5 Head to try.drinkbreeze.com slash V-I-A-L-L and use code V-I-A-L-L for a $5 credit plus free shipping on your first order. Again, that's try.drinkbreeze.com/slash V-I-A-L-L.

Speaker 4 Consult with a physician before use if you are pregnant nursing, have any known or suspected allergies or medical conditions, or are taking any medication.

Speaker 4 FDA has not evaluated these products for safety or efficacy. Products are intended for adults.

Speaker 5 You know, I've been on my health kick journey in 2025, and I've done it with the help of Symbiotica because it's hard to get all the nutrients and vitamins you need in your body just with diet alone, but not all vitamins are created equal.

Speaker 5 It's crazy knowing what some other vitamin companies put in their vitamins, but not with Symbiotica. They care about what they put in their vitamins.

Speaker 5 Also, they make it incredibly easy to stay consistent with the vitamins that you eat because they will customize little packs just for you.

Speaker 4 Obviously, we've been traveling a ton and travel always throws off my routine, but with Symbiotica, the supplements come with me. They're the cutest little packets.

Speaker 4 So easy to throw throw in my bag or your luggage. It's not, you're not lugging around a bunch of pills.

Speaker 4 I never thought I'd look forward to taking my supplements, but it's honestly one of the best parts of my morning now. If you've been feeling off lately, give this a try.

Speaker 4 It's made a huge difference for me. It's one of the small things that helps me feel more like me and show up for the people in my life.

Speaker 4 Nick and I honestly have this cute little ritual where every single day we just cheers and take our little symbiotica packets and it's really cute.

Speaker 5 Yeah, their liposoma vitamin C is a staple in our diet as well as their magnesium L3N8.

Speaker 5 Magnesium is one of those vitamins that most of us don't get enough of, of, but you can, with the help of Symbiotica, check out their list of great products that you can benefit from and making it easier for you to stay consistent with some high-quality vitamins with Symbiotica.

Speaker 4 Go to symbiotica.com slash V-I-A-L-L for 20% off plus free shipping. That's symbiotica.com slash V-I-A-L-L for 20% off plus free shipping.

Speaker 5 If you're still overpaying for wireless, it's time to say yes to saying no. At Mint Mobile, their favorite word is no.
No contracts, no bills, no overages, no hidden hidden fees, no BS.

Speaker 5 Here's why we said yes to making the switch to getting premium wireless for $15 a month. Ditch overpriced wireless and their jaw-dropping monthly bills, unexpected overages, and hidden fees.

Speaker 5 Plans start at $15 a month at Mint. All plans come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network.

Speaker 5 Use your own phone with any Mint Mobile plan and bring your phone number along with all your existing contacts. What we love about Mint Mobile is easy.

Speaker 5 Great coverage, reliable service, and no hidden fees and contracts. We finally have a wireless bill that doesn't break the bank.
Ready to say yes to saying no?

Speaker 5 Make the switch at mintmobile.com slash V-I-A-L-L. That is mintmobile.com slash V-I-A-L-L.
Upfront payment of $45 required, equivalent to $15 a month.

Speaker 5 Limited time, new customer offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on a limited plan.
Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details.

Speaker 5 So now that this is finally behind you,

Speaker 5 the trial is done, what is next for you? And how are you going about,

Speaker 5 I mean, first of all, I imagine there's almost another healing process

Speaker 5 from the trial. I mean, or maybe or not.

Speaker 5 Yeah. So what is next for you? And how do you plan on trying to get through all the trauma that you had to relive by, you know, going to going through with this trial?

Speaker 3 I started to notice that I definitely like to spend time in solace and, you know, just reading and playing with my animals. I have five animals, animals, even an apartment in New York is possible.

Speaker 3 Two dogs and three cats. And, you know, just playing with my kid.
Like,

Speaker 3 I think my son thinks like I'm his age sometimes. He's like, mom, how are you? You're so silly.
Like, you're so funny. I'm like, yeah, you're lucky.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 But

Speaker 3 like being able to like not think.

Speaker 3 and

Speaker 3 just follow instincts and like I dance, I sing, not going to do that to you, don't worry.

Speaker 3 But all these things that are like really, you know, simple and childish and don't involve thinking, overthinking are very healing. But also,

Speaker 3 you know, working on the things that I wanted to do for so long. And it was like pushed back, push back, push back.
But I'm a Taurus. I don't know if you believe in Zodia.

Speaker 3 but I'm a terribly stubborn person.

Speaker 3 So when I have a goal, I'm like, I'm going to try everything.

Speaker 3 And if finally it will be like, no, we can't do it. Never happened to me yet.
But yeah, it's okay. But yeah.
So

Speaker 3 like really being able to be in this, because films and entertainment, like what we're doing here is very important, what you guys are doing here is very important, but it's also kind of a fantasy, right?

Speaker 3 Because we... you know, we create another world.
And I mean, being creative was always such a huge part of me, of who I was.

Speaker 3 And writing poetry, making clothes, trying to write books, scripts, you know, always something that helped me express myself. So being able to do that right now is amazing.

Speaker 3 And I keep on repeating myself that I'm doing good, that you know what, that you're okay. One of like this big successes was getting a literary agent in New York.

Speaker 3 And Sterling Lord has been a company for many, many years. They represented Jack Karak, pushed on the road to be, you know, published Silver Lining Playbook, which I love, the film.
I love the film.

Speaker 3 And so, to, you know, to be able to say that I have the same agent as them, and I'm Polish, and I'm, you know, I'm here, it's a big deal for me. It really is.

Speaker 3 And then, when you asked me how I felt when I heard the verdict, it was horrible, but I remembered. So, during the trial, the first film that I'm the executive producer of started shooting.

Speaker 3 Right now we're wrapping up. We're finishing shooting and we're going to post post-production.
But that gave me also so much strength.

Speaker 3 And seeing him there and him being, you know, miserable in a wheelchair and still denying, like, I didn't do that. I didn't do that.
And like, just

Speaker 3 take it to the Blackboard. Like, please.

Speaker 5 Yeah. Did you find almost solace how kind of pathetic he looked in court? Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah. And him like shaking his head.
No.

Speaker 3 Never happened. Never happened.

Speaker 3 Oh my God. This was, it was just, yeah.

Speaker 5 You know, again, on the personal level of him not being convicted on the charges you brought forward, obviously there's pain in that.

Speaker 5 But at the same time, in a weird way, if you're looking at a silver lining, just like with media being what it is, in terms of like, there's just so much of it every day, everything moves fast.

Speaker 5 I feel like the

Speaker 5 final memory of this kind of all this trial will be two things one harvey's in prison and he'll die in prison and two it'll be

Speaker 5 his victims standing together in solidarity and i i feel like as history go you know as time plays on people won't care or think about what he was or convicted for and what was a mistrial Everyone believes, I feel like at this point, that he is a monster.

Speaker 5 And then the women brave enough to come come forward will see you as, you know, as heroes and people who have advocated for other victims and shown the courage that you have.

Speaker 5 And him being behind bars is a symbol of, you know, people like him can face justice. So I feel like there's a huge silver lining there.
I wonder if you see it that way as well.

Speaker 3 Of course. And I actually made a comment about that because there was a small press conference after the verdict.
And my lawyers asked me, do you want to say something?

Speaker 3 And I was like, yeah, it's a victory. It's a victory for us.
And so I spoke about it.

Speaker 3 And then he's, Harvey Weinstein's lawyers started to put jarred on me, being like, what she's, what she's proud of, like, she's taking the victory that's not her own.

Speaker 3 And like, don't, my comment was, don't try to separate women and split us in parts because there's no victory for them. There's no victory.
And so, yeah, that is very important. And funny enough,

Speaker 3 I truly think that not that many people understand like what he's acquitted, what he's guilty. It's just, you know, like when I think about the LA trial, I don't know what he was guilty of or not.

Speaker 3 I've heard not on every tribe, but I mean, he was found guilty. That's important.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 Have you connected with the other women in this last trial? And have y'all kind of... maybe even became friends.
I mean, this is something obviously that unfortunately three of you have in common.

Speaker 3 But as you were talking about feeling alone is is one of the the hardest things to go through after sexual assault and having i bet these two women who know what it's like have you been able to connect with them at all yes okay yeah so i know jessica for two i've met her two years ago and we didn't stay in touch during the preparation for the trial because we couldn't right but um we started speaking again now and there's another girl called tarala who was in the first trial and she was big support and help.

Speaker 3 And I know she spoke to Cassie and she was helping her. So I think like we start to have this, you know,

Speaker 3 this connection. I went to court for Cassie, although I don't know her personally, but I know how important it is to see faces

Speaker 3 that

Speaker 3 you know understand you truly. And we had the same lawyer, so that's also why I went there.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 5 Another high-profile case that's going on right as now as we speak is the P. Diddy case.
And like Harvey, he seems like he's another monster with a long list of victims.

Speaker 5 Do you feel like the bravery that you women have showed to put Harvey behind bars has played a role in

Speaker 5 men like P. Diddy having to face justice and his victims being able to finally come forward?

Speaker 3 Absolutely. I think if nobody would say anything, then nothing would change.
That's as simple as it is. is, right? So women starting to talk about these things.

Speaker 3 And so for Harvey's trial, this one, there were more women that the DA was thinking about talking. But finally, I think two others were the grand jury didn't find him guilty.

Speaker 3 So these things can be discouraging, but still, I believe it's very important to step forward. Absolutely.

Speaker 3 You know, we probably single-handedly could not, cannot change the world, but if nobody will do anything, then nothing will change.

Speaker 5 Do you want to just

Speaker 5 put all this behind you and just kind of move forward? And you mentioned you have your production company, or do you see yourself continuing to be an advocate in the space?

Speaker 3 I think that

Speaker 3 with my dad being my dad and him being always advocate for, you know, for people, I think I just have it in me. Like, you shall not silence me.

Speaker 3 But, um, but I don't know. I don't see myself as like, you know, the next big advocate.

Speaker 3 I want to do my things and I will always help people if they will reach out and if they will ask me for help because that's what I've been doing in Poland for many years, you know, working as a therapist.

Speaker 3 That's why I talk right now so much. I used to listen all the time.
They were like, give me the mic.

Speaker 4 But I also like this is part of it, you know, like you are speaking about your case and you're doing it.

Speaker 4 And like, you, by speaking about it here, you're telling the women who are sitting at home that they're not alone, right? So you're sitting here advocating whether like it's this big thing or not.

Speaker 4 Like you're doing it.

Speaker 3 Yeah. And I think it's what it's really important.
I joke a lot as you see her.

Speaker 3 And I think it's important to show that, you know, nobody, if they would see us on the street, would say, oh my God, these are the victims of sexual assaults, right? Right.

Speaker 3 Because there's also this perception, I think, with some people that victims of sexual assaults or domestic violence have to be miserable and have to be like crying in agony.

Speaker 3 And of course, there is a moment, there are moments when this happens. But in general, like, I want to enjoy my life.
I'm glad I did that.

Speaker 3 It's passed by me. If my story can help, that's great.
And I think that this attitude can also give hope. to others that you know that you can get out of that situation and still be victorious.

Speaker 3 And I believe that I'm also doing doing this for my 16-year-old self.

Speaker 3 I really am. The more I think about it and talk about this, and I remember myself at 16 thinking, like, it's all impossible.
It's impossible to be an American, it's impossible to be an actress.

Speaker 3 Then it's impossible to talk about this with anyone, what has happened. And, like, it is possible.
It takes a lot, but it is possible.

Speaker 3 I

Speaker 4 never, you know, talked, I never named

Speaker 4 the two men who raped me, but I, you know,

Speaker 4 am at a place now where like I have my daughter and I feel like my daughter healed the young girl that I was when all of that happened to me.

Speaker 4 And, you know, I obviously there's several ways that people, you know, handle this, whether it's, it is the legal way or, you know, unfortunately, the way that I did it, which was a lot of trauma and caused definitely a lifelong of issues that I have to continue to work on.

Speaker 4 But I really do feel like my daughter saved and healed so much of me. Do you feel like your son had a big part in that for you?

Speaker 3 Yes, for sure. And I really love what you said, that there are many ways to deal with it.

Speaker 3 Justice system is the, let's say, hardcore way, because also it's a lengthy process and it's usually, I mean, public in a way you have to speak with a lot of people.

Speaker 3 But I mean, my son has definitely like saved a lot. Like,

Speaker 3 you know, I don't think about myself at first. Whatever I do, I think about doing it for him, but it gives me pleasure because loving him gives me love.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 3 And so yes, for me also, the child was, son, was extremely helpful to go through difficult things. And he, he was my motivation.

Speaker 3 I don't know if I would be able to leave this marriage if I wouldn't have him. Yeah.

Speaker 4 because it just goes you know go deeper in the spiral yeah like you said it took you seeing your ex-husband doing it to your son to be like, you know, you were going to

Speaker 4 put up with it.

Speaker 4 So that is, it's incredibly strong of you to have seen that before it escalated and get your son out of that situation and give him a safe and happy and healthy life. It is very strong.

Speaker 4 You should be very proud of yourself.

Speaker 3 Thank you. I am.

Speaker 3 But also in September, we had a, there was another court case that was, I mean, even bigger than Harvey's case for me, because it was in federal court in New York, and

Speaker 3 my husband was trying to force me to bring our son back to Poland. And the process took two years, which is that's a long trial.

Speaker 3 And after the trial, you know, the judge said that I was very credible and she believed what I said,

Speaker 3 but he's an unreformed narcissist and he causes grave risk of harm for my son and me.

Speaker 3 So that was,

Speaker 3 yeah, also when I'm thinking about losing or winning or whatever in this case, I keep on reminding myself, like, I've went through that and we won.

Speaker 3 And that's, that was the most important case for me, for sure.

Speaker 5 Do you feel like you're able to live without fear, knowing that your husband, even though a world away is still who he is? And I'm guessing, someone that you consider very much dangerous and a threat.

Speaker 3 After the verdict, and again, it's connected to my sister and the verdict itself, I had a lot of anxiety and I was locking all my locks and doors.

Speaker 3 And yeah, it's like, you know, psychos are freaking dangerous. But I live in a building with

Speaker 3 guards and, you know, it's security, so I hope it will be safe.

Speaker 3 Definitely, I mean, I know that people that are vicious and people that want to hurt you, and this is their mission in life, unfortunately, there are people like this.

Speaker 3 They will continue to try to do that. So I'm not, you know, I hope that nothing bad will happen, but I think

Speaker 3 I'm pretty strong. I'm stronger right now.
And I'm starting some big boxing feelings.

Speaker 4 No one should want to fuck with you.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 5 Are your relationship with your sister? Is that pretty much

Speaker 3 done? Done. Done.
And you know what? This is also a relief because she has done a lot of shit to me, a lot of bad things. But I kept on thinking, a family should stick together.

Speaker 3 And like my friends, my lawyers were telling me, you've got to cut her off. You've got to cut her off for a long time before even last year.

Speaker 3 But I was still like, no, no, I can't. But right now, I'm like, yeah, I can.
I can.

Speaker 4 What were the other ways that she had betrayed you?

Speaker 3 Oh my God. She

Speaker 3 She slept with a guy who proposed to me.

Speaker 5 Oh, geez.

Speaker 3 What? Yeah.

Speaker 3 I mean, if I'm talking about this, I'm going to talk about this. Yeah, I mean,

Speaker 3 she stole a lot of money from my bank account. She went behind my back with my ex-husband, like so many things.

Speaker 3 And I mean, she falsificated medical documents and sent them to the prosecutors who said, we can obviously see that this is made up.

Speaker 3 Oh, my.

Speaker 5 Did she have to face any consequences for that?

Speaker 3 I'm working on that. Okay.
Because, yeah, this is.

Speaker 5 Yeah, maybe just another silver lining, as painful as it was to hear about your sister's betrayal with the journal, knowing that there were so many other ones.

Speaker 5 Like you said, I mean, it's tough with family, right? Because

Speaker 5 it's like you only have one. Everyone tells you to, you know, look the other way or look for forgiveness, but clearly she is a threat to you.

Speaker 5 And it took maybe this revelation and this type of betrayal for you to realize or find that strength, despite so many people telling you to cut her off, cut her off.

Speaker 5 And maybe that's the victory as well.

Speaker 3 Oh, for sure. Yeah,

Speaker 3 really opening my eyes on what the situation is. And like, this is like such a telenovela with everything that has been happening, but it is my life.
And, you know, now she's blocked.

Speaker 3 I deleted deleted her number. She's blocked.

Speaker 3 But the last time it was before the trial, she sent me, I think I posted something about Eden Express and the amazing people that are doing this movie. I was so lucky to be a part of that.

Speaker 3 Jonna Howard King is playing the lead part. We have another great actor who I can't talk about right now just yet.
Daniel Beckerman is producing it. He produced The Apprentice.

Speaker 3 and they went you know very well with that and so i made a post about that and she texted me like, what kind of a lie and illusion are you living in?

Speaker 3 And so like every time something good happens or I'm happy,

Speaker 3 she tries to, you know, but and I think that even if it's maybe that's also an important message, even if it's family or your close friend who does something like that, like

Speaker 3 we should not allow that.

Speaker 5 You know, as we get older, we have to realize.

Speaker 5 you know, it's you feel very lucky to have family that if they aren't toxic or a threat to you, but you know, whether it's friends or people, you have to sometimes set hard boundaries and cut people off because

Speaker 5 it's a sad reality. But yeah, like sometimes we hold on too long.

Speaker 5 But it's nice to hear that you're finally free of all this.

Speaker 5 And it really sounds like everything you've been through and certainly that's a lot and you've fought hard, not only for yourself, but for so many other people, it really feels like, you know, the future is very bright for you and there's a lot of optimism ahead.

Speaker 5 And now you can then focus on your son and focus on your career and your production company. And you must be very excited just to move things forward.

Speaker 3 Oh, yes, I am. I am.
I think I'm going to go back actually to acting lessons.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Which I did last year.
And this was also part of the part of the trial.

Speaker 3 They asked me about acting schools and I said, I went to Stella Adler last year to kind of like, you know, remember everything. And they were like, you were trying to prepare for the testimony.

Speaker 3 You know, like in acting,

Speaker 3 they're serious. Yeah.

Speaker 3 But anyway, I'm glad that we can all laugh about it because you guys are talking about difficult subjects with such an ease. And that's what I saw before in the podcast.
And I love that.

Speaker 5 We appreciate you giving us this opportunity and sharing your story.

Speaker 4 I feel grateful to have you speaking about something that I am not. able to do.
And I'm very grateful to have you leading this charge. You know, you're a great person to do it.
And I'm very happy.

Speaker 3 You want to be best friends. I do.

Speaker 3 I do.

Speaker 3 Well, Kaya, thank you again.

Speaker 5 We really sincerely appreciate it. Thank you for your bravery, sharing your story.
Best of luck with everything in the future.

Speaker 5 And again, also just congratulations on what is a victory for you and for so many victims out there.

Speaker 3 Thank you. I truly appreciate it.
And I'm very happy to learn what I've learned today. And

Speaker 3 yeah,

Speaker 3 stay in touch.

Speaker 4 And you have your production company. Is there anything else you want to plug? Let our audience know where they can find you.

Speaker 3 Well, my book should be out in 2026. It's about overcoming trauma through self-forgiveness.
And it's a book not about Harvey.

Speaker 3 Just so we know that.

Speaker 3 It's a book about my journey as a psychotherapist and also my personal struggles. But I think that the book is supposed to elevate the positive of all of the bad situations that are coming.
And yeah,

Speaker 3 I have a few interesting projects, another film that I am very excited, but we're just starting pre-production, so there's still time. Okay.

Speaker 5 Well, thank you again. We very much appreciate it.

Speaker 3 Awesome.

Speaker 4 For any victims who are listening who might be struggling with this topic, might need some help.

Speaker 4 We have some resources down below in the bio or in the description of the show if you want to click those.

Speaker 3 Thanks, everyone. Bye.

Speaker 3 Bye.