‘I Started To Feel Very Insecure With My Body’: Harvey Weinstein’s New Accuser, a Polish Model, Takes the Stand in His Rape Retrial

Harvey Weinstein’s new accuser, who was added to the charges for his rape retrial, took the stand on Wednesday and will continue her testimony on Thursday, when she is expected to claim that the movie mogul allegedly forced oral sex on her.Wearing high heels and a light blue sweater, the tall and thin former model, Kaja Sokola, 39, didn’t look at Mr. Weinstein as she walked to the witness stand for the first time on Wednesday afternoon. Appearing shy and softspoken, Ms. Sokola told the jury that she has made a career as a psychotherapist and psychologist. “I decided to study psychology because I really wanted to help myself,” she testified. Before she embarked on getting her master’s degree in psychology, she had worked as a successful model. Her modeling career began when she was only 14 years old in Poland, where she was born and raised, and would eventually bring her to New York, where she would meet the defendant, Mr. Weinstein.Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan on May 7, 2025. Spencer Platt/Getty Images“I couldn’t believe that someone could consider me pretty,” Ms. Sokolad told the jury, as she described how her mother and sister had taken photographs of her and submitted them to a modeling contest, run by a Polish modeling agency, which was affiliated with Next Management, a leading global modeling agency based in New York. Ms. Sokola ended up winning the contest, which resulted in her signing a contract with the agency. She told the jury that she used to “have some problems” with her “self-esteem” and that she had cosmetic surgery at the age of 16 because she was uncomfortable with her own body. “I had breast implants. It was my idea. I started to feel very insecure with my body after my travels … and I told my mom that I was very uncomfortable with my body.”After modeling in Europe, she first traveled to New York from Poland in 2002, alone, without her mother, who had often accompanied her on photoshoots in France and Italy, at the age of 16, to work with Next Management. “I was looking at the skyline and could not believe I was here,” she testified on Wednesday. Witness Ewa Sokola, sister of Harvey Weinstein accuser Kaja Sokola, arrives in state court in Manhattan on May 7, 2025. Spencer Platt/Getty imagesMs. Sokola appeared slightly nervous as she answered prosecution questions, her voice trembling at times. Meanwhile, Mr. Weinstein, in his wheelchair, looked toward her from the defense table.In the afternoon, the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, entered the courtroom and watched the questioning of his witness. It was his office that brought the charges against Mr. Weinstein. Before testimony wrapped up for the day, prosecutors did not have time to ask Ms. Sokola about how she met Mr. Weinstein in 2002, nor about the alleged sexual encounter, which Ms. Sokola claims took place four years later, in 2006, inside a hotel room in Manhattan, while her older sister was waiting downstairs in the lobby. However, the older sister, Ewa Sokola, was questioned about the incident when she took the witness stand in the morning and offered little to back up the accusations.Witness Mimi Haley arrives to testify in the case against former film producer Harvey Weinstein as his retrial continues at Manhattan criminal court on April 30, 2025. Curtis Means-Pool/Getty ImagesDr. Sokola, who is a cardiologist and in her early 50s, told the jury that her younger sister had invited her out to lunch with Mr. Weinstein at a hotel in Manhattan in 2006. She said they met the producer in the lobby and spoke about movies and about Mr. Weinstein’s heart condition. Then, her younger sibling and the producer left the lobby together, supposedly to look at some scripts in Mr. Weinstein’s room, leaving Dr. Sokola waiting.When her younger sister returned about half an hour later, Dr. Sokola testified, she appeared tense, “like somebody waiting for the result of an exam.”But she “didn’t notice anything strange,” and when she asked her sister if everything was alright. “She said, yes,” Dr. Sokola said. “She was quiet. But she was fine.” Dr. Sokola testified she first found out about the alleged sexual assault in a 2022 Rolling Stone article. She said that she was shocked because her sister had always spoken well about Mr. Weinstein. She said her sister was “proud” of knowing the Oscar-winning producer, who had produced iconic films like “Pulp Fiction” and “The English Patient.” The prosecution’s key witness, Jessica Mann, center, arrives at Manhattan criminal court to testify at the sex assault trial of Harvey Weinstein on January 31, 2020. David Dee Delgado/Getty ImagesThe two sisters became estranged about a year ago, the Daily News reports. Mr. Weinstein was convicted in February 2020 of sexual assault charges against two other women. Ms. Sokola had made her claims days after the trial started but prosecutors say they hadn’t finished an investigation before Mr. Weinstein was found guilty.An appeals court vacated Mr. Weinstein’s conviction last year and ordered a retrial. The grounds for the retrial were that in the first trial, prosecutors had called women to the stand, including the “Sopranos” star Annabella Sciorra, who were not included in the charges, but who gave vivid accounts of Mr. Weinstein assaulting them. The higher court found that these testimonies prejudiced the jury. For his retrial, without being able to use Ms. Sciorra’s powerful story, prosecutors added one charge based on Ms. Sokola’s accusations.Ms. Sokola will return to the stand on Thursday morning, as the trial continues, and will face cross examination after the prosecution finishes its questioning.Harvey Weinstein appears during his rape and sexual assault re-trial in Manhattan criminal court May 7, 2025. Yuki Iwamura-Pool/Getty ImagesMr. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. His lawyers say the sexual encounters were all consensual by women hoping to get opportunities in the film industry.Ms. Sokola’s attorney, Lindsay Goldbrum, said in a statement on Wednesday, as reported by Courthouse News Service, “Today, Kaja Sokola took the stand to share her truth, standing not just as a survivor but as an accomplished psychotherapist and psychologist. … Nearly two decades ago, Kaja was a teenager, vulnerable to the power and influence of Harvey Weinstein, a wealthy 54-year-old Hollywood mogul. As you will hear from Kaja, he made sure she understood his control over her future, telling her he had the power to make or break careers. Now, she faces him in open court, reclaiming her voice and her story.”

‘I Started To Feel Very Insecure With My Body’: Harvey Weinstein’s New Accuser, a Polish Model, Takes the Stand in His Rape Retrial

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