‘Gone Girl’ Actress Says Ulster Man Touched Her Inappropriately

Model and actress Emily Ratajkowski is claiming an Ulster County photographer took advantage of her during a photoshoot and is now publishing the photos.

If you don't know her name, you probably know Emily Ratajkowski's face. The model started her career appearing in videos for Robyn Thicke's "Blurred Lines and Maroon 5's "Love Somebody." After that, she posed for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue for two years in a row before winning the role of Ben Affleck's mistress in the movie Gone Girl.

Before all of her fame, Ratajkowski was a 20-year-old struggling model with a resume that only included a few appearances on Nickelodeon's I-Carly as a child actor. Desperate for work, her agent booked her on an unpaid, overnight shoot with photographer Jonathan Leder at his home in Woodstock.

In an essay for The Cut, Ratajkowski recounts the evening of the photoshoot in detail. After Leder's children were picked up from his home and a makeup artist had left, the then under 21-year-old model claims she was given wine and asked to pose in lingerie and in the nude. She then goes into specific detail about lying on a couch where she says Leder began touching her.

Most of what came next was a blur except for the feeling. I don’t remember kissing, but I do remember his fingers suddenly being inside of me. Harder and harder and pushing and pushing like no one had touched me before or has touched me since. I could feel the shape of myself and my ridges, and it really, really hurt. I brought my hand instinctively to his wrist and pulled his fingers out of me with force. I didn’t say a word. He stood up abruptly and scurried silently into the darkness up the stairs.

After waking up with a hangover, Ratajkowski says she returned home and tried to put the situation behind her. She was relieved to learn that Leder only used some of the more tasteful photographs for a magazine layout. Flash forward to a few years later; after appearing in Gone Girl and on the pages of Sports Illustrated, Ratajkowski was shocked to find out that photos from her evening with Leder had reappeared, and this time they were extremely raw and provocative.

Ratajkowski says that Leder decided to capitalize on her fame by forming his own publishing company and coming out with an $80 book that featured her most "revealing and vulgar" polaroids from their photoshoot.

The model claims that she did not sign a release for the photos and after Leder supplied a document signed by Ratajkowski's agent, claimed that the letter was forged. To make things worse, Leder was now giving interviews about their night together and even held a public exhibit of the photographs. Ratajkowski launched a public protest over the book and exhibit, but to her dismay, it only drew more attention to the photographs and put more money in Leder's pocket.

We looked for a response to the claims by Retajkowski and found a quote supplied to People by his publishing company. It reads,

Mr. Leder completely denies her outrageous libelous allegations of being ’assaulted’. It is grotesque and sad that she is so vindictive about the publication of the photos

Ratajkowski says she has contemplated suing Leder but isn't convinced that it would be "money well spent." Instead, she has decided to continue to speak out and be true to herself. The essay she wrote about Leder, she says, is part of "(carving) out control where she can find it."