Viewers were stunned today when sixties showband star Eileen Reid revealed on Midday that she was blacklisted for work over her refusal to have sex with a director.
The singer opened up about the situation to the TV3 panel, including Today FM’s Paula MacSweeney, author Teena Gates and solicitor Susan Webster, who were discussing the issue of sexual abuse of women in the entertainment industry.
Eileen said: “When I started out, I did a show and there was a big do afterwards. The director was sitting there. Someone came over and told him they set him up with someone. He said ‘No I’m alright here’. I turned to stone.
“’I’ve to go to the toilet is that alright?’ He grabbed me and said ‘you come back’. I went out and got on the phone and asked Jimmy [Eileen’s husband] to collect me.
The 60’s star went on to say that she “wasn’t on television until that person died”, explaining that it was because she didn’t sleep with the man in question.
“I let him down,” she explained. “That’s all it could have been. It was done all over the place, especially the entertainment business, it was rampant.”
Eileen previously made a huge revelation on the show last year by opening up about her multiple affairs over two decades and an unplanned pregnancy.