Harvey Weinstein and his wife Georgina Chapman at the 2017 Vanity Fair Oscar Party. Chapman has given her first interview about her disgraced husband. Photo / Getty
Harvey Weinstein and his wife Georgina Chapman at the 2017 Vanity Fair Oscar Party. Chapman has given her first interview about her disgraced husband. Photo / Getty
Harvey Weinstein's estranged wife Georgina Chapman has broken her months-long silence about his sexual assault scandal saying she was "terribly naive" about the disgraced film producer.
The 42-year-old, who has filed for divorce from Weinstein, told Vogue that she has moments of rage about her estranged husband's behavior and now cries for the couple's two children.
"There was a part of me that was terribly naive - clearly, so naive," Chapman said. "I have moments of rage, I have moments of confusion, I have moments of disbelief!"
Georgina Chapman was a regular with Weinstein at major industry events such as the Academy Awards. Photo / Getty
The British fashion designer said she worries mostly about their two children - India, 7, and Dashiell, 5 - and the effect the scandal will have on them.
Asked if she was ever suspicious about Weinstein's behaviour, Chapman said: "Absolutely not. Never". She added that he frequently traveled for work and she had never obsessed about where he was.
"That's what makes this so incredibly painful: I had what I thought was a very happy marriage. I loved my life."
Chapman, who co-founded the fashion label Marchesa, said she hadn't offered up any of her dresses to celebrities for the past awards season.
"We didn't feel it was appropriate given the situation. All the women who have been hurt deserve dignity and respect, so I want to give it the time it deserves. It's a time for mourning, really," she said.
"A lot of people reached out and said, 'Let me wear something'," she added about her loyal followers. Scarlett Johansson wore a Marchesa gown to this year's Met gala.
Scarlett Johansson wore a design by Georgina Chapman's label Marchesa to the Met Ball - the first time the label has been seen on the red carpet since the Weinstein scandal broke. Photo / AP
Chapman added that she had shut herself off from the world in the five months after the scandal first broke and hadn't been out in public since.
"I was so humiliated and so broken... that... I, I, I... didn't think it was respectful to go out," she said.
"I thought, Who am I to be parading around with all of this going on? It's still so very, very raw. I was walking up the stairs the other day and I stopped; it was like all the air had been punched out of my lungs."
The couple's six-story home in New York's West Village, which has recently been sold, has now been stripped of anything Weinstein-related, Vogue reporter Jonathan Van Meter noted.
Chapman and Weinstein reached a divorce agreement back in January. The prenuptial agreement she signed will reportedly pay her out between $15 and $20 million after 10 years of marriage. She will also get custody of their daughter and son.
When the allegations against Weinstein first became public in a series of exposes in the New York Times and The New Yorker, Chapman said it took about two days for the scandal to sink in.
"I lost 4.5kg in five days. I couldn't keep food down," she said.
"My head was spinning. And it was difficult because the first article was about a time long before I'd ever met him, so there was a minute where I couldn't make an informed decision. And then the stories expanded and I realised that this wasn't an isolated incident. And I knew that I needed to step away and take the kids out of here."
She fled to Los Angeles and eventually back to London where her parents live.
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge speaks to Harvey Weinstein and Georgina Chapman as she attends a reception in December 2014 in New York. Photo / Getty
Chapman noted that she had become friends with Huma Abedin, the estranged wife of disgraced politician Anthony Weiner, in the months before the Weinstein scandal broke.
The pair got to know each other during playdates between their sons.
Abedin, who was also interviewed by Vogue, said their relationship strengthened in the wake of the sex assault claims.
"We just... bonded," Abedin, a Hillary Clinton aide, said.
"This particular club, ironically, it's not such a small one: women who have had to endure it in such a public way, women like Georgina and me.
"People don't feel sorry for us; you don't get that empathy. People think you're beautiful, you're thin, you're rich, you're photographed on the red carpet, and you get stuck in this category. There's so much more depth beyond all that with Georgina.
Producer Harvey Weinstein was a highly feted film producer before his dramatic downfall. Photo / Getty
"You look at her from the outside, if you don't know her, and you think, She's perfect.
"She could be a model for the clothes she designs. But when you go to the house, she opens the door without any makeup on, and she's stunning, and she's funny and goofy with her children - who are clearly the most important people in her life.
"She's at the stove making chicken fingers and French fries, and she's one of the realest people I know. There's nothing entitled about her. You believe she is someone who works really hard at being a good and present mom, and doing her job really well."
