Actor Mary Lynn Rajskub has opened up about the infamous moment when right-wing media personality Rush Limbaugh forcibly kissed her on the lips.
Rajskub - who played Chloe O'Brian in the hit TV drama '24' - explained the uncomfortable fallout she suffered from the event in her memoir FAME-ISH: My Life At The Edge Of Stardom.
In 2006, she and her fellow 24 cast members were invited to attend a panel event in Washington. As a popular terrorism drama, the actors were a natural fit for the event which was called 'America's Image in Fighting Terrorism: Fact, Fiction, or Does It Matter?'
Conservative media titan Limbaugh was moderating the event. When he welcomed Rajskub onto the stage, he bent down and gave her a kiss full on the lips.
The moment was caught by many photographers and made headlines around the world. However, in her memoir, Rajskub explained that the kiss was entirely nonconsensual - but that somehow, she still got blamed.
"His way of saying 'hello' was to bend down behind me," Rajskub recalled in an extract published by The Daily Beast.
"I turned to look up and that’s when it happened. When I turned he was coming down to give me a kiss… on the lips?! I have no idea how he got his body around so quickly for a full-on kiss. As it happened, tons of camera flashes went out," the extract continued.
"He had to have known what he was doing. He knew there were 10 photographers there — I did not. I should have but I didn’t. I also didn’t know how to stop the kiss from happening," it added.
Rajskub went on to describe how photos of the moment implied she was a fan of Limbaugh and his politics, saying it turned her into a "right-wing darling".
"In one shrewd move of his, an image went out into the world that showed I was a supporter of the right-wing cause. I was not," she wrote. "It also showed I found Rush Limbaugh attractive. I did not. The kiss was weird. Intentional for him, and accidental for me."
As well as affecting her public image, Rajskub said that the kiss affected her own relationships, describing how an old boyfriend lampooned her after assuming she and Limbaugh were dating.
"Thank god it didn’t last more than one news cycle," she added.
Limbaugh passed away in February 2021 at the age of 70.
