Jana Kramer Opens Up About Former Manager’s Sexual Misconduct
In light of the unfolding Harvey Weinstein scandal, Jana Kramer spoke to Yahoo Lifestyle about her own experiences with sexual harassment within the entertainment industry. The singer / actress admits that she's had a deeply personal reaction to the ongoing revelations about the Hollywood icon.
“The Harvey stuff is difficult ... Unfortunately, it’s not the first case and it’s not going to be the last," says Kramer. The former One Tree Hill star says that a similar experience in her life -- not with Weinstein but with a former agent -- nearly drove her out of the business at the beginning of her career.
“I had a man helping me in the very beginning, when I was 19, and he was like, ‘Okay, I’ve done this for you. What are you going to do for me?'" Kramer recalls. "And I remember in that moment being like, ‘Oh my God! I am going to have to sleep with this man in order to fulfill my dreams.’
"I ended up just bawling, crying, and having a panic attack, and he left," Kramer adds. She then called her mother and told her that she was coming home -- but her mom's response made her stay.
"She’s like, ‘The hell you are!’" Kramer remembers. "She said, ‘Don’t let a man try and take something away from you like that. Be the bigger person. Fight back.’”
So, Kramer fired that agent and found a new one. However, she says the experience has left a lasting mark: “I’ll never forget that ... how easy it is for something like that to happen and for me to think ‘I can’t do this,’ and then they win,” she shares.
Kramer has overcome some painful hurdles in her personal life as well: She was in a physically and emotionally abusive marriage to Michael Gambino and dealt with her husband Michael Caussin's infidelity. However, Kramer has tackled those moments with grit, tenacity and transparency.
“I love empowering women, especially women that need help and encouragement, to make them feel better and make them feel beautiful,” Kramer says. “I feel like women can be just brutal to each other ... So to be able to empower women to have a voice, to be able to speak out and to be confident with themselves and not to have to settle for anything and feel like that’s what they deserve, is just wonderful to be a part of.”
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