Last week, hot yoga founder Bikram Choudhury took part in an incendiary interview on the October edition of HBO’s “Real Sports” where he was questioned by veteran journalist Andrea Kremer about the sexual assault allegations against him as well as the alleged health benefits of his revered Bikram yoga practice. Kremer also speaks to the women involved. Choudhury’s responses to Kremer were downright appalling, calling the women accusing him of rape “trash” and asserting that a “drop of his sperm is worth a million dollars.” Here are some of the most shocking moments from the interview that have shaken the world of yoga to its core:
On hot yoga as a “cure-all”
Bikram Choudhury: I cure Parkinson’s disease, AIDS, cancer. Doctor knows very little about human body. Bikram Choudhury: I don’t eat. I don’t sleep. I work 24 hours a day.
His teaching style
Bikram Choudhury: I try to kill them. They don’t die. I own– I torture them. Andrea Kremer: You can be pretty harsh. You never have any regrets about any of the things that you say? Quotes from his alleged rape victims:
Jill Lawler: He knew that he was in a position of power and he manipulated me and took advantage of it.
Maggie Genthner: He pulled me on the bed. I’m, like, screaming like, ‘No. Stop. Don’t do this. Please don’t do this.’ And he starts calling me an idiot, just over and over again. And then he penetrates me and I scream, ‘You’re hurting me. You’re hurting me.’ I screamed it. And he replies, ‘It’s supposed to hurt.’ All of a sudden, like, the veil lifts, the veil of who I think this person is. Jill Lawler: I just remember being like, ‘I’m sorry, I really can’t do this. I just don’t want this. This isn’t what I want.’ And then he just, like, pushed me — my face into his crotch. And he raped me. Bikram’s response to his alleged victims:
Andrea Kremer: Sarah Baughn, Jill Lawler, Maggie Genthner, they felt sexually violated by you. The current installment of “Real Sports,” featuring the segment on Bikram Choudhury, is available the whole month of November on HBO GO, HBO NOW and HBO On-Demand.
Andrea Kremer: You know more than doctors?
Bikram Choudhury: Million times, billion times. I teach doctors. I don’t go to doctors. Every doctor in the world, they come to me.
Andrea Kremer: How does somebody not eat–
Bikram Choudhury: For–
Andrea Kremer: –sleep, or–
Bikram Choudhury: That’s what yoga does.
Andrea Kremer: And you have to do that? You have to torture them?
Bikram Choudhury: I love it.
Bikram Choudhury: Of course not. Why should I? I have to yell, scream, shout. ‘You fat ass. What the f—’s wrong with you? What’s wrong with you? You don’t listen to me. You dumb– you dumb f—.’ Because she doesn’t listen.
Andrea Kremer: No doubt in your mind that it was not consensual?
Jill Lawler: It was not consensual.
Bikram Choudhury: Okay. Lie, lie, and lie. I don’t need to do that—
Andrea Kremer: Rape or sexually assault?
Bikram Choudhury: —Sexually assault. If I need women I can make a line. The most beautiful, famous, rich women in the world. If I have to sleep with women, then I have to sleep, you know, 5,000 girls every day.
Andrea Kremer: 5,000 women a day wanna sleep with you?
Bikram Choudhury: Yeah. And—they commit suicide. Four of them.
Andrea Kremer: You’re saying that four different women—
Bikram Choudhury: Four different women.
Andrea Kremer: —each killed themself because you would have sex with them.
Bikram Choudhury: Yeah all died. Why I have to harass women? People spend $1 million for one drop of my sperm. I can make million dollars a day every drop. You are that idiot or dumb to believe those trash?
Andrea Kremer: The women are the trash?
Bikram Choudhury: Yeah. I pick them from trash and give them life.
Andrea Kremer: Did you sexually assault Sarah Baughn or…
Bikram Choudhury: Of course not. I will never even piss on her face with—nuts like that she is. She is psychopath.
The most shocking moments from Bikram Choudhury’s ‘Real Sports’ interview on HBO
HBO/Real Sports
