Natalie Wood was sexually assaulted by Kirk Douglas, her sister writes in new memoir

• Natalie Wood's sister writes in her new memoir that Kirk Douglas sexually assaulted the late actress.

• Lana Wood writes in "Little Sister" that Douglas assaulted Natalie when she was a teen in 1955.

• Lana wrote in her memoir that she didn't speak out before because she made a "promise" to Natalie.

Natalie Wood's younger sister wrote in her upcoming memoir that Kirk Douglas sexually assaulted the Hollywood actress in 1955 when she was a teen.

An actress later known for her roles in "Miracle on 34th Street" and "West Side Story," Natalie was rising to fame when she met Douglas, an already established movie star, best known then for his role in "Spartacus."

In her memoir, "Little Sister: My Investigation into the Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood," set to come out next week, Natalie's younger sister, Lana, wrote about the alleged incident.

In a copy read by Insider, Lana said that the alleged incident occurred in the summer of 1955 at Los Angeles' Chateau Marmont hotel. Lana wrote that their mother, Maria Zakharenko, set up a meeting between Natalie, who was in her late teens, and Douglas, who was in his late 30s, in the hopes that "many doors might be thrown open for her, with just a nod of his famous, handsome head on her behalf."

"It seemed like a long time passed before Natalie got back into the car and woke me up when she slammed the door shut. She looked awful," the 75-year-old wrote. "She was very disheveled and very upset, and she and Mom started urgently whispering to each other."

"I couldn't really hear them or make out what they were saying," Lana continued in the book. "Something bad had apparently happened to my sister, but whatever it was, I was apparently too young to be told about it."

Lana noted in her memoir that she was only 8 at the time of the alleged incident so she didn't find out more details until she and Natalie were both adults.

"He hurt me, Lana," Lana remembered Natalie telling her, according to the memoir. "It was like an out-of-body experience. I was terrified, I was confused."

Lana wrote that both her sister and their mother agreed to not talk publicly about the alleged incident with Douglas to protect Natalie's career. She added that Zakharenko's advice to Natalie was to "suck it up."

Lana wrote that she's coming forward with Douglas' name now because both parties are dead. Douglas passed away in 2020 at the age of 103, and authorities are still looking into the 1981 death of Natalie, which is the primary focus of Lana's memoir.

"With no one still around to protect, I'm sure she'll forgive me for finally breaking that promise," the actress wrote in "Little Sister."

Douglas' son, the actor Michael Douglas, told AP in a statement in response to the allegations: "May they both rest in peace."

Douglas wrote about meeting Natalie in his own memoir, 'The Ragman's Son'

In his 1988 memoir, "The Ragman's Son," Douglas wrote that he met Natalie for the first time during a random encounter, according to the AP.

Douglas wrote, per the AP, that he was stopped at a red light on his way home one night when "a pretty little girl wearing a suede jacket" hopped out of the car in front of him and asked him to sign her jacket.

"'Oh, Mr. Douglas, would you please sign my jacket?'" Natalie said at the time, according to Douglas' book. "As I obliged, the woman who was driving got out and introduced her. 'This is my daughter. She's in movies, too. Her name is Natalie Wood.' That was the first time I met Natalie. I saw her many times afterward, before she died in that cruel accident."

Lana's memoir, set for release on November 9, mostly focuses on Natalie's 1981 death after her body was found near Catalina Island in California.

After being initially ruled as an accidental drowning, the case was reopened in 2011, according to the NY Post. Insider's former entertainment reporter, Carrie Wittmer, reported in 2018 that the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department said then that they were getting closer to solving the case.

In "Little Sister," Lana holds 91-year-old actor Robert Wagner, Natalie's husband at the time, responsible for her death. He's also been named a "person of interest" by Los Angeles sheriff's officials, according to the AP.

Insider reached out to a representative for Wagner, but didn't immediately hear back. Still, his rep had no comment when reached by the NY Post.

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