Today is Reagan’s birthday. Did Ronald Reagan rape a woman in the 1950’s? This has bothered me over the past few years. Kitty Kelly says that he did in her unauthorized biography of Nancy Reagan. Here is Kelly’s story, as well as a quote from the lady who alleged rape in 1991, Selene Walters:
KELLEY CLAIMS: Reagan met starlet Selene Walters in a Hollywood nightclub in the cart) 1950s. Although I was on a date,” she quotes Walters as saying, “Ronnie kept whispering in my ear, ‘I’d like to call you. How can I get in touch with you?’ ” Hoping that Reagan, then president of the Screen Actors Guild, could boost her career, Walters gave him her address and was surprised when he came calling at 3 A.M. “He pushed his way inside and said he just had to see me. He forced me on the couch…and said, ‘Let’s just get to know each other.’ It was the most pitched battle I’ve ever had, and suddenly in a matter of seconds I lost…. They call it date rape today….”
SELENE WALTERS SAYS: Kelley’s account of his late-night visit is essentially accurate, although he never forced his way into her apartment. “I opened the door. Then it was the battle of the couch. I was fighting him. I didn’t want him to make love to me. He’s a very big man, and he just had his way. Date rape? No, God, no, that’s [Kelley's] phrase. I didn’t have a chance to have a date with him.” Walters says she bears Reagan no ill will, and has even voted for him: “I don’t think he meant to harm me.”
ALSO WORTH NOTING: Walters, who writes a column in Spotlight Casting Magazine and lives with her third husband, a CPA, in an apartment in Beverly Hills, hopes to find a publisher for a book she has written about her Hollywood experiences.
See here.
Granted, Kitty Kelly makes a lot of goofy claims, as the link above indicates. But what about that of Selene Walters?
Reagan’s response was this, according to Slate magazine (see here): The weekend the book was released, a reporter asked Reagan for a comment about it as he entered church. “I don’t think a church would be the proper place to use the word I would have to use in discussing that,” he said.