'I was pregnant at 16 and sexually assaulted at 10', Rivals star Emily Atack reveals
Emily Atack became pregnant aged 16 during a “troubled” period in her life and was first sexually assaulted as a 10-year-old, the Rivals star has shared in a new interview.
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The actress, 36, reflected on how she had “really unhealthy relationships with men” during her teenage years.
Also known for appearing in The Inbetweeners and in reality TV programmes including I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and Dancing On Ice, as well as her own sketch comedy The Emily Atack Show, the actress revealed how she fell into one particularly “awful, abusive and horrible relationship” aged 16 when she became pregnant.
“I was such a troubled teen, my poor parents, they just didn't know what to do with me a lot of the time, and I was hanging around in the wrong crowds,” she told the How To Fail with Elizabeth Day podcast.
Speaking about the pregnancy for the first time, Emily said: “I was sexually active with older boys and men, and that was very difficult for my parents."
She added that in the middle of "being in these abusive, horrible relationships" she "wanted to be looked after and so I was going out with all these awful guys and doing all that.”
Emily continued: “I remember when my dad left, I remember, at the time, and I've never actually told anybody this but I was pregnant, and I was very young.
“I was in this awful, abusive, horrible relationship, and I fell pregnant.”
She added: “I've never spoken openly about how or what happened, and I don't if I'm ready to yet, but obviously that pregnancy didn't continue.”
The Rivals star said she decided to move out with her sister Martha aged 16.
“So when we moved into this flat, I remember little Martha looking at me and going, ‘What we going to do?’ And I said, ‘I'm going to become a famous actress.’ I just said it. I just made sure that I did.”
Her parents are actress, comedian and singer Kate Robbins and musician Keith Atack.
Emily told the podcast: “My parents are amazing people, and I don't berate them in any way for this. Everybody makes mistakes, and this was just a period of time where lots of mistakes were being made, but now as a mother, I understand.”
Emily also revealed how she was sexually assaulted as a 10-year-old and “treated appallingly by older men”.
She said: "I was keeping so much from my parents when I was young. Again, it's going a little bit dark, but I was sexually assaulted, first of all, when I was ten', she explained.
“That was when I was first ever sexually assaulted, and I remember being 10-years-old, and from that moment I was treated appallingly by older men from that age, throughout my life.
“I think the loneliness came a lot from that, and lots of things happened that my parents to this day still don't know the detail of how men have treated me, and touched me, and whispered things to me in my ear when people aren't in earshot.”
Emily has previously spoken about how she began receiving "graphic" and "dark" messages during her time on The Inbetweeners, in which she played Charlotte Hinchcliffe.
She said the messages got worse during the Covid pandemic, when she felt "ten times more isolated, vulnerable and alone".
The Inbetweeners star previously campaigned against cyberflashing, where individuals send unsolicited explicit images online, and spoke about the issue in Parliament in 2022.