Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, the 24-year-old Italian model who was sexually harassed by Harvey Weinstein, says her life was made a misery after the encounter.

She said she was crucified by the US tabloid press as a publicity seeker after she accused Weinstein of groping her breasts and putting his hand up her skirt during a meeting at his office in 2015.

She said the alleged assault, which happened in Weinstein’s offices in the Tribeca Film Center in Lower Manhattan, was all the more distressing because her father used to beat her and her mother.

“They (the press) said horrible things about me. I don’t allow myself to be touched easily, and not just because of morals. My father used to beat me and my mother. When a man stretches his arms out to me, I retreat instinctively, even if it is someone I’m in love with,” she told Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper.

She said that after making a complaint to the NYPD, she was portrayed as a blackmailer in the press – and paid the consequences.