‘It was perverse, ugly’: Alfred Hitchcock sexually assaulted me, actress Tippi Hedren says in new book

American actress Tippi Hedren alleges in a new autobiography that Alfred Hitchcock sexually assaulted and intimidated her while they were working together in the 1960s, according to reports.

Hedren has accused the director of sexual harassment on a number of previous occasions, notably in interviews around the 2012 release of the HBO movie The Girl, which depicts his alleged obsession with her.

But the publication of Tippi: A Memoir on Tuesday goes further and marks the first time she has written about her treatment herself.

Hedren, plucked from obscurity by Hitchcock to star in his 1963 masterpiece The Birds, alleges that the director became obsessed with her shortly after signing her to a five-year contract.

He demanded that other cast members steer clear of her, and became upset if he saw her talking to other men, she writes, according to the New York Post and Daily Mail, which obtained access to the memoir.

She says Hitchcock once threw himself on top of her and tried to kiss her in the back of his limousine, the newspapers report.