Days after Cuba Gooding Jr. was accused of groping two women without consent, blogger Claudia Oshry told listeners on her podcast The Morning Toast that the actor sexually assaulted her when she was 16 years old.
"At the end of the day, like, I don't know if I've ever considered myself to be, like, a victim of sexual assault because I'm not," she said on June 11. "There are people who are real victims that I would never compare myself to them. But yes, when I was in high school—I was fucking 16 years old—Cuba Gooding Jr. put his finger up my butt, and I felt wild. Like, I felt—I don't even know what the right word is. And now, it's just become, like, a part of who I am. It's a part of my story."
In response to the allegations, Gooding's lawyer Mark Heller denied Oshry's account and claimed the actor does not know who the blogger is. "Cuba says this incident never happened and he has no recollection of this individual either," he explained.
During her segment, Oshry said that she has incorporated her alleged encounter with Gooding into her standup sets as part of her Dirty Jeans comedy tour. "You want to put your finger up my butt without my consent? Fine. But I'm going to use it for all that it's worth," she said. "It's become, like, this really funny bit in my story."
She also noted that because she entertains audiences with the story of Gooding's alleged behavior, she has had people come up to her after shows and tell her that they experienced similar encounters.
"At the end of the day, when I tell people this at my meet-and-greets and just anyone who's ever come to my show, there's, like, at least once every show, someone who comes up to me, they're like, ‘Oh my God! Me and my friends were at a club and the same thing happened to me' or ‘the same thing happened to my friend,'" Oshry said. "This is not the first time that I've heard, but this is the first time I've heard that police are involved."
She also praised the anonymous woman who came forward the week prior with accusations against Gooding for forcible touching. "Good on this girl," she said. "Because how many fucking people is he going to grope before one of them calls the police? Mine was 10 years ago!"
On June 13, the actor turned himself in to the New York Police Department and was charged with a misdemeanor for forcible touching. He denied the allegations that on two separate occasions, he touched a woman's breast and another woman's butt without consent.
