Jonathan Leder Accused of Sexually Assaulting Actress

After Emily Ratajkowski accused photographer Jonathan Leder of sexual assault in an essay penned for The Cut, another woman, actor Nola Palmer, has come forward to accuse Leder of abuse.

In Ratajkowski’s essay, “Buying Myself Back,” the model recounted a story Leder had told her about a “‘crazy’ actress” with whom he’d had an affair. According to Ratajkowski, Leder told her the actress lived with him for a time while working for him on a short film, and was central to the undoing of his marriage.

“He showed me naked pictures, Polaroids, he’d taken during their affair,” wrote Ratajkowski. “She seemed so vulnerable in Jonathan’s photos, even though I could tell she was trying to look strong and grown up from the way she held her face square to the camera, chin up, her hair falling perfectly over one eye.”

Palmer has since come forward as the “crazy actress” from Ratajkowski’s essay, taking to Instagram to pen a lengthy caption detailing Leder’s abuse, which she says began when she was just 17 years old.

“I have been carrying around the pain and trauma of Jonathan and his abuse for a decade now,” wrote Palmer in the Instagram caption, adding that she went as far as to change her name in an attempt to distance herself from Leder.

“I have spent ten plus years emotionally tied to my abuser, unable to let him fully go because at seventeen he broke me down and built me back up into his own image, an image I have been at war with ever since,” Palmer continued. “But for the first time I am able to publicly say, Jonathan Leder was my abuser and that is thanks to Emily Ratajkowski and her bravery.”

Leder has denied Ratajkowski’s allegations of assault via a rep, who called the model’s claims “outrageous,” and accused her of being on a “never-ending search for press and publicity.”