Narrator: For decades, it was the most persistent open secret in Hollywood. A name whispered in corridors, a punchline at awards shows, a warning passed from one young actress to another. The name was Harvey Weinstein, and the secret was his alleged pattern of sexual harassment and abuse. Many journalists had tried to pin down the story, but they all hit the same wall of fear, legal threats, and non-disclosure agreements. The secrets were locked away in settlements, buried under layers of power and influence. How do you expose a story that everyone knows but no one will confirm? How do you break a silence that has been bought and paid for over decades?

The definitive account of that monumental task is found in the book She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. The Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters detail their painstaking investigation, revealing not just the story of one powerful predator, but the entire system that enabled him and silenced his victims.

Narrator: The initial challenge for Kantor and Twohey was not a lack of rumors, but a surplus of them. The problem was converting whispers into on-the-record, verifiable facts. They discovered that Weinstein’s power was protected by a sophisticated architecture of silence, built on fear, legal intimidation, and financial settlements. Actresses and employees were terrified of being blacklisted, their careers ruined for speaking out. This fear was reinforced by a legal machine designed to suppress the truth.

A stark example of this system was the case of Zelda Perkins, a former assistant to Weinstein in London. Two decades before the investigation, Perkins and a colleague, Rowena Chiu, had confronted Weinstein about his behavior, which included an alleged assault on Chiu. They resigned and sought legal action, but instead of a public reckoning, they were funneled into a settlement process. The resulting agreement paid them a sum of money but came with an NDA so restrictive it was designed to be unbreakable. It prevented them from speaking to anyone—including therapists—without prior permission and from retaining a copy of the agreement itself. For twenty years, Perkins was legally bound to silence, a prime example of how the system used the very tools of justice to bury the truth and protect the powerful.

Narrator: The investigation revealed that Weinstein did not operate in a vacuum. His behavior was enabled by a network of enablers, both willing and unwilling. This network included lawyers, public relations experts, and even board members who looked the other way. The book exposes the shocking role of figures like David Boies, a celebrated lawyer who represented the New York Times in some cases while simultaneously working to kill their investigation into his client, Weinstein. He even signed a contract with Black Cube, an Israeli intelligence firm hired by Weinstein to spy on and discredit his accusers and the journalists reporting the story.

Even more complex was the role of Lisa Bloom, a lawyer famous for representing women in harassment cases. The book reveals a memo Bloom wrote to Weinstein, outlining a cynical public relations strategy to discredit his accusers, specifically Rose McGowan. Bloom suggested planting negative stories and portraying Weinstein as a "dinosaur" who was "learning." This illustrates a profound ethical breakdown, where advocates for women were co-opted into the machinery of suppression, profiting from a system that silenced victims while claiming to help them.

Narrator: The breakthrough in the investigation came not from a famous actress, but from deep within The Weinstein Company. The reporters connected with Irwin Reiter, a senior accounting executive who had worked with Weinstein for thirty years. Reiter was deeply conflicted, disgusted by his boss's behavior but also a long-time loyal employee. Over a series of clandestine meetings, Reiter provided crucial internal documents.

The most explosive of these was a memo written in 2015 by a young executive named Lauren O'Connor. The memo was a desperate plea to the company's board, detailing a "toxic environment for women." O'Connor described how Weinstein would appear naked demanding massages and how female assistants were used to facilitate his sexual conquests. She wrote, "I am a 28-year-old woman trying to make a living and a career. Harvey Weinstein is a 64-year-old world-famous man and this is his company. The balance of power is me: 0, Harvey Weinstein: 10." The memo proved that the company's leadership knew about the abuse and had done nothing. It transformed the story from a historical account of past misdeeds into an urgent report on a clear and present danger.

Narrator: Even with internal documents, the story needed a human face. It needed women who were willing to attach their names to their accounts, a terrifying prospect given Weinstein's history of retaliation. The reporters spoke with many women, including Gwyneth Paltrow, who shared her story of being harassed by Weinstein but was, at the time, too afraid to go public. The turning point came from actress Ashley Judd.

In 1996, Judd had been lured to Weinstein's hotel room under the guise of a business meeting, where he appeared in a bathrobe and asked her to watch him shower. Judd, feeling trapped, made a deal to escape: she would let him touch her when she won an Oscar in one of his movies. For years, she had shared the story with friends and family. When Kantor called, Judd deliberated intensely. She went for a run, consulted her lawyers, and considered her obligations as a woman and a public figure. Finally, she made a decision. She called Kantor and said she would go on the record. Her reasoning was simple: "Women have been talking about Harvey amongst ourselves for a long time, and it’s simply beyond time to have the conversation publicly." Judd’s courage provided the story with its anchor and gave other women the cover they needed to come forward.

Narrator: On October 5, 2017, the story was published. The fallout was immediate. Weinstein was fired from his own company, and his legal and PR team began to abandon him. But the true impact was far greater. The article did not end the conversation; it started one. The dam of silence broke. In the following days, more women, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, came forward. The hashtag #MeToo, created a decade earlier by activist Tarana Burke, went viral, as millions of women around the world began sharing their own stories of harassment and abuse.

The book connects this explosion to the later testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. While Kavanaugh was confirmed, Ford's testimony had a seismic cultural effect, demonstrating how the movement had fundamentally changed the public's understanding of sexual assault. It showed that the questions ignited by the Weinstein story—about accountability, fairness, and systemic power—were now at the center of the national conversation, marking a profound and permanent shift in society.

Narrator: The single most important takeaway from She Said is that systems of abuse are not dismantled by accident. They are brought down by the painstaking, methodical work of investigative journalism and the immense courage of individuals who choose to speak the truth, even at great personal risk. The book is a testament to the power of facts and the profound impact of what happens when one person, and then another, and then another, decides that silence is no longer an option.

Ultimately, She Said leaves us with a challenging question that extends far beyond Harvey Weinstein: Now that the silence has been broken, what will we build in its place? The work of creating a world with fair rules, true accountability, and genuine safety for everyone is not finished; it has only just begun.