Alyssa Milano: Giving birth to my first child reminded me 'of being sexually assaulted'

Left-wing activist and actress Alyssa Milano said giving birth to her first child reminded her "of being sexually assaulted," People magazine reported.

What are the details?

Milano — who two years ago said "my life would be completely lacking all its great joys" had she not gone through with two abortions in 1993 — appeared this week on the magazine's new podcast "Me Becoming Mom" and reflected on her experience giving birth to her son Milo Thomas, now 10.

"I remembered at one point [during childbirth] really not enjoying the fact that lots of people had access to my vagina and thinking to myself, 'Why does — I don't like this. Why does it feel so familiar? I've never had a baby before. Why does this invasive feeling feel so familiar?'" Milano recalled, People reported. "That was just a fleeting moment, a tick in time, but I didn't forget about it."

Milano added to the podcast that going through therapy for her postpartum anxiety and depression helped her connect the dots.

'Very reminiscent of being sexually assaulted'

"After going through therapy after giving birth to Milo and remembering that one moment of feeling like I was being held down and had things being done to me that I didn't want, to me, was very reminiscent of being sexually assaulted," she said, according to People. "It triggered all of these memories that I thought I had dealt with. I think anyone who has dealt with trauma has the moments where you're like, 'Yeah, I'm fine. I've dealt with that.' Versus the moments where you go, 'Oh, no I didn't. I just tried to tuck it away so no one could see them or I couldn't see them or feel them anymore.'"

Milano — who also has a 7-year-old daughter, Elizabella Dylan, with husband David Bugliari — also said part of her childbirth emotion was feeling "like I wasn't in control," the magazine said.

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Back in 2018, Milano was one of several celebrities who spoke out about surviving sexual assault using the hashtag #WhyIDidntReport on social media to protest then-President Donald Trump. She wrote on Twitter, "I was sexually assaulted twice. Once when I was a teenager. I never filed a police report and it took me 30 years to tell my parents."

Weeks later, the actress recounted her experience with sexual assault during an emotional speech at Sen. Susan Collins' office. Milano recalled that while at a concert as a 19-year-old, there was a stampede with people "smashed against each other" to the point she "couldn't breathe; I thought I was gonna die."

"From behind me, I felt a hand up my skirt, and I was punched repeatedly in the vagina," she explained at the time, according to the magazine. "I couldn't turn around. I looked to the stage, and I looked to the security guards, and I said, 'Please help me,' and they couldn't help me. They shook their heads. I managed to break free, and I climbed up the stage to get away from my predator. I turned around, and I didn't know which one it was. I looked to the sea of people, and I couldn't find him."

Anything else?

Milano has been actively promoting left-wing causes for a number of years — arguably eclipsing her acting notoriety — and her outspokenness against sexual assault and harassment has been a big focus.

But it hasn't always gone well.

In 2019, Milano defended then-presidential candidate Joe Biden against allegations from two women of inappropriate and unwanted touching and emphasized his claim that his actions carried no bad intentions.

"Just as we must believe all women that decide to come forward, we cannot assume all women's experiences are the same," the #MeToo activist said.

Yet when Christine Blasey Ford claimed without corroborating evidence that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers, Milano had no problem believing Ford and said Kavanaugh's confirmation to the high court served to "institutionalize sexual violence."

Then Tara Reade — a former Biden staffer who in 2019 accused him of sexually assaulting her — ripped Milano for hypocritically supporting Biden despite Reade's credible allegations.

Milano said in an interview around that time that she "never thought [#MeToo] would be something that was going to destroy innocent men" and that "we have to find this balance in the 'Believe Women' movement, and also giving men their due process."

But after Reade called her out and media backlash hit, Milano changed her tune, tweeting that she was "aware of the new developments in Tara Reade's accusation against Joe Biden. I want Tara, like every other survivor, to have the space to be heard and seen without being used as fodder. I hear and see you, Tara."