Ms Fonda also revealed she was once fired from a job because she would not have sex with her boss.

In the interview, to mark International Women's Day next week, the 79-year-old said that "the women's movement" had made victims realise that rape and abuse are "not our fault".

"To show you the extent to which a patriarchy takes a toll on females; I've been raped, I've been sexually abused as a child and I've been fired because I wouldn't sleep with my boss and I always thought it was my fault; that I didn't do or say the right thing," she said in The Edit magazine.

The mother-of-three said she had come across girls who were unaware they had been sexual assault victims.

"I know young girls who've been raped and didn't even know it was rape," she said. "They think, 'It must have been because I said 'no' the wrong way.' One of the great things the women's movement has done is to make us realise that [rape and abuse is] not our fault. We were violated and it's not right."