Jewel is opening up about being the victim of sexual harassment as young as age eight and the hardships she faced before making it big at age 18.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Picking Up the Pieces singer said men preyed on her because they could sense her vulnerability.
“I've had men hitting on me, sadly, since I was really young," she said. "At 8, I had men putting dimes in my hands saying, 'Call me. It'd be so great to f--- when you're older.' And just horrible stuff."
She said as time went on, she used “wit and usually humor” to make it clear she wasn’t available in that way and got “very good at handling men in a way that sort of didn't anger them.”
Before she signed to Atlantic Records, she was living out of her car writing songs. Her boss fired her when she declined his sexual advances, she explained, leaving her unable to pay her rent.
"I've never been more propositioned by businessmen in my life," she said about that time period. "It was almost like they were sharks that could smell blood, like of vulnerability."
image via INFphoto.com