Former model Natasha Prince alleges that David Blaine raped her at a private home in the Chelsea neighborhood of London in the summer of 2004. Photos / Getty Images
Former model Natasha Prince alleges that David Blaine raped her at a private home in the Chelsea neighborhood of London in the summer of 2004. Photos / Getty Images
WARNING: Disturbing content
British authorities are investigating rape allegations against superstar magician David Blaine, it was reported on Thursday.
Scotland Yard has summoned Blaine to the United Kingdom for an 'interview under caution' after a rape complaint was submitted against him by former model Natasha Prince, the DailyMail reported.
Prince alleges that Blaine drugged and anally raped her at a private home in the Chelsea section of London in the summer of 2004, The Daily Beast reported.
Blaine appeared in his popular TV series. Photo / Supplied
Blaine, through his attorney, denied the allegations but said he will cooperate fully with the investigation because "he has nothing to hide".
"Officers from the Met's Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command are investigating an allegation of rape," Scotland Yard said in a statement to The Daily Beast.
"The allegation was reported to police on 17 November 2016 by a woman who alleged she was raped at an address in Chelsea in June or July 2004 when she was aged 21. There have been no arrests at this stage and inquiries continue."
Prince, who entered the modeling world briefly when she was 15 and full time at 18, was on the cover of 25 different magazines before inexplicably ending her modeling career whens he was 24. During those six years she was on the covers of German Vogue, French Elle, and Italian Glamour, among others. She was also prominently featured in Louis Vuitton, Levi and Diesel campaigns.
Speaking to the Daily Beast, Prince said that the alleged attack happened on the night after she met Blaine at the Wellington - an upscale nightclub in the Knightsbridge neighborhood of London in June or July of 2004.
Around that time was when Blaine was fist making it big in the world of Magic. He gained huge notoriety after a trick in late 2003 called 'Above the Below,' during which he suspended himself 30 feet above the River Thames in London for 44 days, surviving on nothing but water.
Blaine was pictured in London in both June and July of 2004, when Prince claims the alleged rape took place.
The night after she said they met, she claims he called her to invite her to a party - and when she initially declined he offered to send a car.
"I thought, 'Okay, he must really like me'," Prince explained.
Once in the apartment, Prince said she didn't really talk to anyone else at the gathering as they were all rapt in conversations. After some time she said Blaine disappeared into the kitchen and came back with a vodka soda.
Roughly 20 minutes later he led her into an adjacent bedroom, told her to kiss him, and then told her to finish her drink, she claims.
After that she says she doesn't remember anything going forward, except for one moment during intercourse when she said things got so rough she was woken up.
"At some point, I was on the bed, face-forward, and he was behind me. I think it woke me up a little bit, because I'd never had that [anal sex] done to me before," she told the Daily Beast.
The next morning she had to wake up and do a shoot for New Look, a British clothing store, but said the whole day was blurry and confusing.
"The next thing I remember, I was sitting in a makeup chair getting my makeup done, and thinking 'What did I do last night? Did I have sex with David Blaine? But I didn't want to...'" she claimed.
"I felt hazy, completely out of it. I don't remember taking a shower, where I changed, leaving his house or anything."
In a statement to The Daily Beast, Blaine's lawyer, Marty Singer, insisted Prince's allegations are false.
"My client vehemently denies that he raped or sexually assaulted any woman, ever, and he specifically denies raping a woman in 2004,' Singer said in a statement.
"If, in fact, there is any police investigation, my client will fully cooperate because he has nothing to hide."
Blaine pre-breathes pure oxygen on stage before holding his breath underwater for over ten minutes at ACL Live on July 18, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Photo / Getty Images
In a subsequent statement, Singer addressed the specific allegation by Prince, saying: "This would include Natasha Prince."
Following the alleged attack, Prince claims she developed severe social anxiety and anorexia, and found herself turning to alcohol to cope when thrust into social situations.
She had four more encounters with Blaine after that, she alleges.
The first was when she was back in New York and she says he called her.
"I was very freaked out; he seemed to be checking up on me. He sounded very creepy and it made me feel a bit bullied," she says.
Prince claims the pair saw each other again the following year when they were both invited to the same party. There, she claims he cornered her in a bathroom ad told her: "You were really good in bed."
The next encounter came six years later when she ran into him on the Subway in Manhattan while he was with his girlfriend and her daughter. She claims they exchanged small talk, but nothing more.
She saw him one final time a few days later when he appeared outside of the art gallery she worked in. Prince claims he called her name and that she felt "embarrassed" and invited him in.
Blaine has said he met Prince in a statement provided by Singer to the Daily Beast, and that the model approached him.
Singer also confirmed the meeting at the art gallery, but said that Prince went up to his client on the streets of New York and "invited him to see her at the Gagosian Gallery, where she works."
The lawyer also said the conduct alleged by Prince is "completely inconsistent".
"Anyone can make a claim - especially with this Harvey Weinstein thing," Singer told the Daily Beast in a phone interview.
However, Prince spoke to London police roughly 10 months before the New York Times published an article about the multiple allegations of sexual harassment and assault by Weinstein during his career.
he said she is coming forward about the alleged attack now after years of flashbacks and self-blame.
Additionally, because there is no statute of limitations for sex crimes in Britain, she said she wants to "expose" Blaine.
