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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Ben Beaumont-Thomas

Miley Cyrus speaks out against man who groped her in public

Miley Cyrus pictured at the Met Gala, New York, May 2019.
Miley Cyrus, who was accosted by a man in the crowd in Barcelona at the weekend. Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images/Met Museum/Vogue

Miley Cyrus has spoken out after a man grabbed and kissed her following a festival performance in Barcelona last weekend. She posted footage of the incident to her Instagram and Twitter feeds, which shows the man grabbing at her hair, then pulling her towards him by wrapping his arm around her neck, and kissing her head. Clearly rattled, she breaks free and moves quickly away.

Captioning the footage, Cyrus wrote: “She can be wearing what she wants. She can be a virgin. She can be sleeping with 5 different people. She can be with her husband. She can be with her girlfriend. She can be naked. She CAN’T be grabbed without her consent. #DontFuckWithMyFreedom.”

She reposted critical comments made to her on social media following the incident, including “You wanted to be ‘sexy’, what do you expect?”, along with the hashtag #stillnotaskingforit.

Cyrus has also thrown her support behind abortion rights, announcing a charity fashion project involving her, designer Marc Jacobs, LGBT and homelessness charity Happy Hippie foundation, and US sexual healthcare organisation Planned Parenthood.

The singer launched the initiative by posting an image of herself eating a cake featuring the words “Abortion is healthcare”, though was accused of plagiarism by Becca Rea-Holloway, AKA The Sweet Feminist, who had created an identical cake in May 2018. Rea-Holloway described it as “direct theft of my own original art”. Cyrus apologised, saying: “We saw the image online and didn’t realise it was yours. We will absolutely tag you for your work.”

Cyrus released her new EP, She Is Coming, last week, and stars in the latest episode of the Netflix series Black Mirror, which launches today.

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