Evan Rachel Wood released a statement this morning (February 1) accusing Marilyn Manson, her former boyfriend, of abuse. The actor had previously spoken about the alleged abuse she was subjected to by an ex, but declined to name the perpetrator.
“The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson,” Wood wrote on Instagram. “He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years. I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail. I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives. I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.”
Wood, who stars in HBO’s Westworld and is a member of the electropop duo Rebel and a Basketcase, began dating Manson in 2007 when she was 19 and he was 38, and the two were briefly engaged in 2010. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2016, Wood said she had suffered “physical, psychological, [and] sexual” abuse at the hands of a partner, and that she had been raped “by a significant other while we were together.” In 2018, Wood testified before a House Judiciary Subcommittee as part of an attempt to get the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights passed in all 50 states. The following year, she testified before California legislators in support of the Phoenix Act, which extends the statute of limitations for crimes involving domestic violence from three to five years. The act was passed 2019.
Vanity Fair also published statements from four more women who came forward with similar stories about Manson.
“I continue to suffer from PTSD, and struggle with depression,” Ashley Walters wrote. “I stayed in touch with quite a few people who went through their own traumas, under his control. As we all struggled, as survivors do, to get on with our lives, I’d keep hearing stories disturbingly similar to our own experiences. It became clear the abuse he’s caused; he continues to inflict on so many and I cannot stand by and let this happen to others. Brian Warner needs to be held accountable.”
“As he was wooing me, I would come to find out he was torturing others,” wrote Sarah McNeilly. “Before long, I was the one being tortured. I was emotionally abused, terrorized and scarred … I was thrown up against a wall and he threatened to bash my face in with the baseball bat he was holding … As a result of the way he treated me, I suffer from mental health issues and PTSD that have affected my personal and professional relationships, self-worth and personal goals. I believe he gets off on ruining people’s lives.”
“The reason I’m finally sharing this traumatic experience is for my healing and because I’m done being silent,” a woman named Gabriella wrote. “I don’t believe it’s fair for someone to not be held accountable for their horrific actions. I’m not a victim. I’m a survivor.”
“There was abuse, sexual violence, physical violence and coercion,” wrote Ashley Morgan. “I still feel the affects every day. I have night terrors, PTSD, anxiety and mostly crippling OCD. He made me feel like him cutting me, burning me, his fist in my mouth was ‘our thing.’ There is so much more that happened.”
As Pitchfork points out, a sexual assault case against Manson dating back to 2011 was publicly revealed in 2018. His lawyer at the time had “categorically denied” the allegations. According to Vanity Fair, Manson’s representatives were not available for comment prior to the publication of its story on Monday.
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Crisis Text Line
UK: Rape Crisis
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