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‘Bachelor in Paradise’ Alum Jade Roper Reveals She Was Raped as a Teenager
Following Lady Gaga‘s powerful performance at the Oscars on Sunday night, Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise alum Jade Roper opened up about her own experience with sexual assault in an emotional blog post on Feb. 29.
“I was raped just shy of my 17th birthday,” the 29-year-old wrote. “One night I was at a party with some friends and they ended up leaving without me. They shouldn’t have seemed worried, they left me with a group of guys we were all friends with.”
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Jade, who recently married fellow BIP contestant Tanner Tolbert, explained that one of the men held her down while another climbed on top of her.
Lady Gaga performs alongside sexual abuse survivors at the Oscars.
When she finally returned home, “my dad said he found me in my room on the floor in my underwear, mumbling to him I wasn’t innocent anymore. I was a virgin. I found my jeans with blood spots all the way down a pant leg, and I was bruised black and sore.”
While one of the boys denied anything had happened, Jade couldn’t bear to face her other attacker. “I never opened up to my parents about what happened, I was afraid of what they would think of me,” she continued.
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Though she’s still coming to terms with the assault, the Denver native felt the need to speak out after Gaga’s performance of “Til It Happens to You.”
“This happened to me and it matters. I matter. And I am worthy of love,” Jade concluded.
