Harvey Weinstein’s prison interview reveals he felt betrayed after Gwyneth Paltrow went public with harassment account

Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein has described the sense of betrayal he felt when former protege Gwyneth Paltrow went public with claims he had sexually harassed her.

Weinstein, 73, made the comments to the Hollywood Reporter in his first major interview from the maximum-security prison at Rikers Island in New York.

Weinstein was convicted of rape and sexual assault in 2020 and sentenced to 23 years’ prison in New York.

In 2022, he was sentenced to an additional 16 years for sexual misconduct convictions in Los Angeles.

“This person who was a friend, who owes her career to me, just stabs me in the back,” he said.

“She wanted to be part of the crowd. I won’t forgive her for that.”

Paltrow was considered the “golden girl” of Weinstein’s Miramax production company in the 1990s.

Presenting himself as her mentor, Weinstein championed her for roles in the blockbusters Emma in 1996 and her Oscar-winning turn as Viola de Lesseps in Shakespeare In Love in 1999.

The actor later claimed the relationship was abusive, recounting one incident in which Weinstein allegedly propositioned her to go to a hotel room for massages.

Paltrow said the incident “was really almost the least of it in terms of how onerous that relationship was, and it was very quid pro quo and punitive”.

“I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,” she added.

Weinstein told the Hollywood Reporter she made a “big deal over nothing”.

“I walked out of a nice meeting with her and said, ‘How about a massage?’ And she just went, ‘No, I don’t think so’.

“I got the message. I never put my hands on her’,” he said, adding Paltrow’s then-boyfriend Brad Pitt later confronted him about the incident.

“[Pitt] said, ‘Don’t do anything like that with my girl.’ I said ‘Don’t worry, Brad. I got it’.”

Weinstein also reportedly lied about having slept with Paltrow to other up-and-coming actors to persuade them to have sex with him.

“He’s not the first person to lie about sleeping with someone,” Paltrow said.

“But he used the lie as an assault weapon.”

He claimed Paltrow knows “nothing happened” and was upset she shared her account with radio host Howard Stern and the New York Times.

More than 100 women have accused Weinstein of sexual harassment, including Paltrow, with their allegations sparking the #MeToo movement in 2017.

Many said he threatened to blackball their careers if they spoke out or rejected his advances.

He has denied the allegations.

“Rose McGowan, Rosanna Arquette, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie — they just exaggerated,” Weinstein told the Hollywood Reporter.

“They wanted to be victims. They wanted to be part of the club. And they destroyed me.

“Did I make a pass at some of these women unsuccessfully? Did I overplay my hand? Yes. Was I pushy or overly seductive? Yes to all of that.

“But did I ever sexually assault a woman? No. I never did that.”

The New York Post reported Weinstein is due to appear in court in New York next month for a retrial after he successfully appealed his convictions there.