Riverdale star Camila Mendes is going public with her story of sexual assault. She covers the October issue of Women’s Health, and inside tells her harrowing story of attack and survival.

She explains that while she was a freshman at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, someone slipped the date rape drug known as a “roofie” into her drink. 

Mendes says: “I had a very, very bad experience. I was roofied by someone who sexually assaulted me.”

She didn’t share details, but did say that she got a tattoo above her rib cage in lettering that reads, “to build a home” — an ethos she said “reminds her to strengthen both her sense of self and the environment around her.” 

Mendes says: “I’ve always, always wanted nothing more than stability,” explaining that she moved 12 times before the age of 18, due to divorce and job changes. 

She continues: “Moving around throughout my whole childhood was a bit traumatic. You’re constantly saying goodbye to people, and you’re constantly being removed from your identity. When you start to feel like you’re connecting with a group of people, an environment, and a home — a physical home— it can be destabilizing when you’re uprooted and taken somewhere else.”

Now, when she travels, she stays at the same hotels, visits the same cafes and takes the same yoga and Pilates classes.