Bella Thorne Recounts Disturbing Interaction She Had With Director As A Child Actor

Bella Thorne is speaking out about a disturbing interaction she had with a director when she was just a child. As many fans will already know, Thorne shot to fame as a child actor, appearing in the likes of "My Own Worst Enemy" alongside Christian Slater and Taylor Lautner way back in 2008. Thorne later got her big break as a Disney star, landing the role of CeCe Jones alongside Zendaya in the hit "Shake It Up," which debuted on the Disney Channel in 2010.

Thorne has been very open about the difficulties she faced growing up in the industry and being in the spotlight from such a young age, telling Keke Palmer on "Strahan And Sara" in 2019 that it doesn't exactly surprise her when childhood stars exhibit some unusual behavior as grownups. "You've been raised to only please people," she explained, noting of what happens when former child stars get older, "They finally get to please themselves for once or ask themselves what does please me? Because I don't even know at this point." Thorne added of her own journey to adulthood, "I was 12, I'm 21 now. And in that time I've experienced so much s***, so think about what age that puts me at mentally. If you've been working 17 like every day since you were a little kid, what do you think you're going to act like?"

Now, Thorne is shedding more light on growing up in the industry with an alarming allegation.

Bella Thorne opened up about a seriously disturbing time early on in her acting career, claiming a director accused her of flirting with him while she auditioned for a role at just 10 years old. Speaking to Emily Ratajkowski on the December 27 episode of her "High Low" podcast, Thorne admitted she still thinks about the moment a lot. "[I'm] trying to find almost fault in myself. Like, 'What did you do, Bella? What did you do? You made him feel like this,'" she shared, revealing she's now learned she was not to blame for what happened — no matter what she said or did at the time. "You're in a director session, you can't really say or do anything. You do the scene, you say hello and you walk out. There's no time to go sit on your lap or make you uncomfortable," she said. Plenty shared their support for Thorne on social media, with one person writing, "The industry is the worst place any child to grow up in."

Thorne's been extremely candid before about her harrowing experiences growing up, including sharing she was molested for eight years from the time she was 6 years old. "It's pretty hard... everyone thinking they know me and talking about me, but having no idea the type of mistreatment that I was still dealing with at that time," she shared on "BUILD Series" in 2019.

If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).