McCord, older man split: report McCord stuns fans with abuse story   Play video

Actress AnnaLynne McCord has stunned fans by opening up about how she was "taken advantage of" sexually by an acquaintance when she was younger.

The 90210 star made the confession last Saturday during a Los Angeles benefit for the Somaly Mam Foundation, which aims to help women who have been previously forced into sex slavery.

She told the audience, "Has anyone ever been raped? Sexually abused? Not said 'no' when you felt you didn't have the right to? I know what it feels like."

Opening up about the incident to Us Weekly after the event, McCord says, "I had a very similar experience to what these girls go through 20 times a night. It happened to me once by somebody that I knew, and it is a very interesting thing to feel that you do not have the voice to say 'no'.

"It wasn't an attack or anything like that - I just had no voice. I did not know how to say, 'I don't want this. Please do not do this to me.'

"It was a situation where I found myself in my own home being hospitable, and that hospitality was taken advantage of at an extreme level. I did not have a voice, and now I do, and I'm practising using my voice for others. Finally I can say I was taken advantage of - not from my own shame that I did something to deserve that - and now I can have a clear conscience."