Television host Kat Alano, formerly of the defunct "Wowowee" noontime show, admitted she was raped nine years ago by a public figure. This she said during the April 24 episode of DJ Mo Twister's podcast “Good Times with Mo."
It can be remembered that the TV host-actress took to social media to share her thoughts about rape last January, when Vhong Navarro was facing rape claims from model Deniece Cornejo. This made many netizens speculate that she was a victim of sexual abuse.
In the April 24 episode of DJ Mo Twister's podcast “Good Times with Mo,” Kat finally opened up about being a victim of rape.
“You know, rape is a funny thing. People think they assume to know all sorts of things about rape victims but they really don't know them at all. And when they react to people saying things about rape, they have no idea what they're talking about,” she said when asked by Mo why she chose to open up about her own rape.
Alano, who refused to reveal the identity of her rapist, said she met the guy through work on television “a couple of times.”
“I was out in a club and I was drinking with my friends and I had been there for a while so I drank quite a bit. And I saw him out and you know showbiz... when you met someone that you know, you say ‘hi’. You hang out, hey kumusta, beso beso,” she narrated.
She added, “We drank together. He buys me a drink, we're hanging out. I'm with my friends so there's a bunch of people. After a little while, I wanna go home, I started to feel tired. And I'm like, I wanna drive home. I decided I wanna go home. And he goes, 'Let me drive you home'.”
The actress said she initially declined the guy's offer to drive her home but he insisted on accompanying her as she appeared drunk.
“He's like, 'I’ll get my driver to follow in my car and I’ll drive your car because you're drunk and I’ll take you back to your place and I'll go home right afterwards' So I'm like, I'm drunk, okay, why not? His driver's right there, he's gonna go afterwards, why not,” she said.
“When you meet someone through work you don't assume something bad is gonna happen, which is the worst thing... And you meet them through other people, you automatically assume you can trust them, right?”
In the car, Alano said she started to “feel confused.” “I started to think to myself, 'What did I drink? Because I feel weird right now',” Alano said, admitting she drank a lot when she was younger.
After Mo suggested that she was drugged by the guy, Alano said: “I'm saying in my whole life before that and after that, I never felt that way before nor have I felt it again.”
“And we get to my place, and he parked the car. And I'm like, 'I'm gonna go upstairs now, thank you so much.' And his driver's right there and he was like, 'No, no, I'll take you upstairs',” she said.
Alano said she declined his offer, but the guy again insisted. “He started to usher me towards the elevator and I'm like, I don't want to go but I can't stop it. I can't control my body. I'm saying no... there's something in me that's already freaking out,” she said.
Alano further said she blacked out the moment they got into her apartment. “I don't know what happened next. The only thing I know is that I woke up, I was passed out on my floor with my arms above my head and my legs were up in the air and he was pulling off my jeans. He looked really surprised that I was awake, and I blacked out again,” she said, adding she was in and out of consciousness at that point and would see the guy on top of her and kissing her.
'I knew I needed to speak up'
“It's like when I pass out, I have no clue. It's like a reset button. It's like, “Where am I? What the hell is going on?' And you know what he says to me? He's like, 'Don't worry, nothing's gonna happen, calm down, don't worry.' Until I pass out again and then he does it again. And I wake up and I start to freak out again. And again he sits down and says, 'Don't worry, nothing's gonna happen.' And he tries to calm me down and whatever until I pass out again,” she said.
Alano said the scandal concerning model Deniece Cornejo and Cedric Lee triggered something inside her. The name of Vhong Navarro was not mentioned throughout her conversation with Mo even as the TV host-actress said she does not know Cornejo and Lee personally.
“It broke me wide open,” Alano said when asked what her own case had to do with the Navarro-Cornejo scandal. “It brought back these feelings that I didn't even know that I had. It's incredible how in nine years you can think that you're totally fine and then one thing just sparks it all off and all these feelings you never thought you had or never had to deal with just came flooding back.”
She added, “It triggered things inside of me and I knew I needed to speak up. And I needed to tell you what happened to me.”
However, Alano said she isn't ready to take the case to court just yet because she “can't afford the legal aspect of it.” She sees her admission as a part of “freeing” herself
“This is why I'm saying this now. I'm admitting that I was raped. Because that is part of freeing yourself,” she said.--Source: Philstar
