Maureen O'Hara 'ready to quit Hollywood' over sexual harassment - in 1945

Irish Hollywood star Maureen O'Hara was ready to walk away from stardom over sustained sexual harassment in 1945, an interview unearthed from the period reveals.

In it, the movie icon said: "Because I don’t let the producer and director kiss me…or paw me, they have spread word around town that I am not a woman", adding they were instead saying she was as cold as a statue.

She acidly remarked: "I guess Hollywood won’t consider me as anything except a cold hunk of marble until I divorce my husband, give my baby away and get my name and photograph in all the newspapers.

"If that's Hollywood's idea of being a woman, I'm ready to quit now."

O'Hara, who died in 2015 when she was 95, was just 25 when she made the statement, and is being praised again now for having the courage and wit to issue so withering a put-down to those harassing her.

The 1945 Mirror article was shared by pianist James Rhodes on Twitter, who simply remarked: "What a woman."