Lucy Hale cryptically alluded to being sexually assaulted earlier this year in a string of since-deleted tweets, and now, she's spoken directly to the experience.

In a new interview with Haute Living Los Angeles, the Pretty Little Liars actress said that while her assault may not have been as bad as some others, it still left her changed and in pain.

“I’ve experienced stuff on the small side, but assault is assault,” she said. “I think there are a lot of people who have been intoxicated and taken advantage of. It’s happened to me and people I know. It’s very common. Luckily, I’ve been unscathed; nothing’s hurt me too badly.”

Hale noted on Twitter and Instagram in January: “I never understood sexual assault until tonight. I always sympathized, but I never felt the pain of it until right now. My dignity and pride was broken. I am completely at a loss of words.”

She added in the interview that movements like #MeToo are hugely encouraging to women who have experienced similar traumatic events.

“I feel grateful to have people that I look up to that are speaking up about things,” she said. “Not just women — I think men have sometimes suffered the same way that women have. And as long as a conversation is going or a conversation has started, which it has, that’s the best thing you could ever ask for because that makes people feel not alone. I think if powerful people can make a difference by speaking up, which they are, that will trickle down hopefully.”

“My whole thing is I never want to be someone who makes it all shiny and rainbows all the time, because it’s not,” she added. “No one ever feels like that 24/7.”

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