. this is "nightline." >> after the scandal in hollywood, millions of women joining the me too campaign to speak out about sexual harassment and assault. now the star of bring it on getting personal, sharing her harrowing experience of being raped at gunpoint. >> i grabbed the gun and i did my best to try to kill him. i really felt i was about to die. >> and opening up about her marriage to the nba star dwyane wade and their painful struggles about fertility. >> if there's anything wrong with you, you're somehow less of a woman. >> plus, before putting her own issues front and center, julia michaels was the spark behind

some of the biggest hits. ♪ is it too-related >> the minute she said that. we have to write that. that's incredible. >> stories you'll be sorry to miss about working with bad liar singer selena gomez. first the five. when you're a double-dipping pension-padder

like steve sweeney, it's important to maintain a certain... lifestyle. that's why sweeney spent over a hundred grand of his campaign funds on high-priced meals and other gifts. we're talking fine cigars, fancy watches, pricey restaurants, and expensive wines - all to charm the type of folks who helped him raise your taxes 145 times. too many in south jersey are struggling. but steve sweeney's looking out for himself, not for us.

>> jimmy: good evening. with the harvey weinstein scandal reverberating through american culture, millions are hitting social media the share their stories of sexual harassment and assault using the hashtag me too. this comes as more hollywood a-listers step forward and tonight we're with one star who has been living with the trauma of rape for decades. here'sed my "nightline" co-anchor. >> the silence in hollywood now shattered. last night, reese witherspoon adding her voice to the chorus denouncing what is being called a culture of sexual abuse. at a women in hollywood event the actor and producer revealing this explosive secret saying she feels true disgust at the director who assaulted me and anger at the agents and producers who made me feel that

silence was a condition of my employment. witherspoon's personal and painful account follows dozens of women coming forward with sexual assault and harassment against harvey weinstein. >> then he comes back out. >> he starts massaging my neck. >> i said no a million times. >> and he exposed himself. >> those stunning allegations lifting the vaeil on a dark reality prompting millions around the globe in a me too campaign. a series of tweets writing, sexual or physical violence, harassment, demeaning language is not the price one should pay for seeking or maintaining employment. period. this morning gabriella dressed the idea of me, too on, gma. >> i've been talking about being a sexual assault survivor for over two decades now. with the goal of never having to hear me too. ever again. >> while hollywood is now

grappling with an ugly truth, accusations of sexual assault are something gabrielle confronted publicly last year. promoting her film birth of a nation. should have plays a slave who is raped. she spoke out about the movie's director and star, nate parker, after it came pout decades earlier as a college student, he had been accused and acquitted of sexual assault. years later after struggling with depression, his accuser committed suicide. nate parker telling this to robin robert last year. >> i was falsely accused. i was proven innocent and i'm not going to apologize for that. i feel terribly about that situation. >> instead of remaining silent, gabrielle close to then he writing about the murkiness of consent and why education on this issue is so vital. >> there were those who criticized you for tacit approval and then there were

others who said, you sabotaged this movie by speaking out. >> it was an impossible situation. i opted for as much education as possible. letting people know that rape is the most underreported crime in the world. while also acknowledging as black men in the history of the united states, there has been a very well documented history of false accusation that's have led to murder. what kind of response did you get? >> overwhelmingly, 90% positive. the 10% negative feeling like with faced with a choice between my blackness and my womanness, i didn't choose my blackness. >> the wider issue of sexual assault is a deeply personal one for gabrielle, herself a survivor. still dealing with the trauma being raped at gunpoint at the shoe store she worked at when

she was 19. >> what happened was graphic and violent and life changing, life altering. the woman in that back room at payless is dead. and i'm the phoenix rose from the ashes. >> describe the survival instinct at the moment as you grab a gun and try to shoot it at your assailant. >> it is like an out of body experience. that me on the ground that got raped, i did my best to try to kill him. i felt i was about to die. >> she is exposing new details in a new book, the sound of the gunshot reverberating in my ears. the smell of gunpowder filling the air and the realization that i missed. it was either him or me and it wasn't going to be me. not on that day. and i just fought for my life. >> my heart is racing right now hearing you tell this story. what is it like to talk about

it? to be so public? >> nauseous every time. >> you say you didn't leave your house for a year unless you had to. >> dwhi, i had to ma'am out my exact route. how to get where i needed to go and back in the shortest amount of time. >> and you write about the fact that women will see you and say me too. >> yesterday this woman came up and said can i hug you? immediately i knew. i could see the whole thing. >> you apologize more than any person i know. >> gabrielle came of age on television. one of the few black women on seventh heaven and friends. >> do you two know each other? >> no no. >> later, the mean girl writer. she is now one half of a power couple. miami heat star turned cavalier

dwyane wade. the confident and outspoken star didn't start out that way. her new book we'll need more wine detailing some of the challenges she faced growing up in a mostly white suburb of california. one thing i was interested in, you being pretty for a black girl. >> that was my life. >> what was the message that was sending you? >> people who look like you are not the standard of beauty. but look ought sneaking in there. like surprise! >> you were called very nasty names my family calls me nicki. my middle name of monique. i don't know if it was catchy. >> it is a theme that echos even now as she helps raise three step sons with dwyane wade as

they navigate growing up black in america. >> you're supposed he to educate yourself out of racism. when uncle lebron is on the biggest stage, what did his children wake up to? [ bleep ] on his front gate. so as you try to preach the message of be the bigger person, turn the other cheek. what are we supposed to tell our children? >> offscreen she struggles raising kids and a high profile career. and one can't help see the metaphors. >> i'm realizing, i think i might be enough. >> first of all, you play an empowered anchor person on tv. so much of it is struggle between the career and the man. >> people have felt that mary jane has put too. emphasis on her love life. the audience is why can't she do

it all? >> for gabrielle, the open question recently revealing the couple's painful struggle with infertility. the failed struggles, the eight or nine miscarriages. >> fertility isn't a curse for waiting too long. and that's what you get for waiting so long. >> what do you think when people say you would make beautiful babies? >> my ego is like, of course. it feels like pressure for something that hasn't happened and it is not for lack of time. >> how do you self care? >> realistically, tequila and therapy. i can't sugar coat that. i wish i had better coping skills. that's where i'm at. the good news, you're not a real woman if you can't carry a baby or if you can't produce or if

there's anything wrong with you, you're somehow less of a woman. >> which is why she says breaking the silence that surrounds that shame matters so much. in malibu, california. >> next -- she may have issues but lack of talent is not one of them. julia michaels for some of the biggest names in hollywood. afi sure had a lot on my mind. my 30-year marriage... ...my 3-month old business... plus...what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me? so i made a point to talk to my doctor. he told me about eliquis. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. not only does eliquis treat dvt and pe blood clots.

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>> jimmy: you might not know her name but she's probably been a part of your life for years. julia michaels is behind some of the biggest hits in pop music. after hits, she's now going solo. ♪ she is julia michaels. her song issues is one of 2017's biggest hits. straight from the heart revelations, it is craving for emotional and physical he intimacy that got her performing career off to a sizzling start. >> what is it like to be standing in front of people you don't know and sharing with them so many intimate things about your life? >> it can be pretty vulnerable but i'm an open book. if i didn't want people to know these things about me, i

wouldn't write them and i wouldn't sing them. >> reading from frank sexual desire to depth and back again on her album nervous system. that you for this 23-year-old, born in iowa, homeschooled, stardom -- ♪ her lyrics push pop's top talent to and poess their naked needs. justin he bieber's "sorry." >> britney spears's slumber party. >> i grew up on britney. being in the studio was really magical. ♪ >> with serena, there is not a lot of pride. she is a super open book. >> what i try to do is make

people feel comfortable enough to tell me things. i think the best he songs are the honest ones. few can get someone you don't really know to connect with you and you can get that person to connect with tons and tons of people. ♪ >> michaels listened as the no doubt singer read out loud to her some diary-like thoughts about her marriage. >> she had kind of these notes that she had written down on her computer. i don't know why i cried but i think it was because i remembered for the first time that i loved you, that i hated you. we have to write that. that's incredible. and she was like, okay. fit that into a melody. ♪

>> you can see her creative process at work. >> julia let us look if at her public record studios where she joined in. together they collaborated with justin to write friends for justin bieber. today they're back in the control booth on the spot. top lining lyrics and melody. >> and are you thinking first in terms of a word or a line that will match the music? >> it just depends on the chords, really, for me. it is weird. i can't really explain it. i need a certain feel and then i sing it.

>> it is a far cry from her first song writing collaboration when as a team she wrote the theme song. >> i was 17 at the time. and i was like, what? freaking out. >> what does the moment feel like when your future opens up for you? >> right before that, my dad was like, maybe you should go to college. and then when that happened i never heard a people about it. such candor used by joni mitchell. ♪ >> wasn't until i was 13 or 14 when i heard fiona apple. how she could write things so the poetally but it still made

perfect sense. writing about personal experiences but still felt like she was speaking to you. >> as a performer, this was only the second time she had sung before a live audience. at the rio olympics in 2016. >> i think i blacked out. i woke up eating pizza. >> she teamed one the guitarist to perform herself the songs she's written for others. >> these vonsongs are just as m a part of me as those. ♪ >> the day sorry became her biggest hit is the same day she wrote issues after a disagreement with a boyfriend. >> i guess so. it was so much my point of view that it felt uncomfortable making it somebody else's.

it was a turning point when i realized it was mine. ♪ i've got issues >> setting the stage for her performing career and her bond with fans who hear their inner lives in her words and voice. >> this young girl had followed me around france trying to find me. once she found me, she cried. and just threw herself into my arms. i love that somebody feels comfortable enough to not even know me but feel like they know me because i sing something that they feel connected to. he ♪ >> they feel so connected to me they can drop in my arms and feel safe. and that's a really special, beautiful thing.

it really is. and after doing this, just for a year, sorry, that really got me. i wouldn't give that up. ♪ i've got issues ♪ and one of them is how bad i need you ♪ >> in los angeles. >> thanks. that was great. >> our thanks. we'll be right back. ♪ (cheering) a triangle solo? surprising. what's not surprising? how much money sam and yohanna saved by switching to geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

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