Andy Murray says he was angry and upset when he discovered his mother Judy had been sexually assaulted eight years ago.
Judy Murray wrote about the incident in her newspaper column last month, revealing it had occurred at an after-dinner panel for a major education establishment and involved “a very senior person from that organisation”. It had left her feeling “sick to my stomach” after the man first put his hand on her knee and then down her trousers.
She was inspired to speak out about the incident for the first time after a sexist after-dinner speech at last week’s Scottish Football Writers’ Association gala dinner sparked a walkout.
Andy Murray was told about the incident by his mother ahead of the article being published.
“My brother [Jamie] was aware of that, I wasn’t,” Murray told Emma Barnet Meets on Bloomberg Quicktake. “My mum did message me at the time to let me know that there was an article coming out about it. And yeah, I was obviously really upset for her. I was pretty angry, but also I didn’t know quite exactly what to say.
“And obviously, I messaged my mum, I called her the following day to talk to her to make sure that she was OK. It’s obviously a familiar story for a lot of women, and that sort of behaviour shouldn’t be tolerated anywhere.”
Writing in the Sunday Post, Judy Murray had explained: “Towards the end of the meal, it was clear he had had quite a bit to drink and he put his hand firstly on my knee. I didn’t know what to do so I removed his hand and leaned forward to pour myself some water and as I did he slipped his hand down the back of my trousers.
“At that point, I got up and went straight to the bathroom. I wanted to throw up. It rocked me so badly. I sat in the loos for ages and decided to do the speech – the show must go on and all that – but I didn’t go back into the room until I knew it was time for me to go on stage.
“As soon as I had done my bit, I walked back to the table, picked up my bag and left. I spoke to nobody. The incident left me feeling sick to my stomach for a long time.”
Andy Murray is hopeful of being fit for Wimbledon, which begins on Monday.
