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Since 2018, actress Evan Rachel Wood has spoken up about the alleged domestic violence that she suffered from a former partner so she can gather support for a law that would help sexual abuse survivors. In an Instagram post on Feb. 1, she named ex-fiance Brian Warner, known as rock musician Marilyn Manson, as one of her alleged abusers.
Wood wrote in the post: “The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson. 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.”
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Today, Manson responds with his own Instagram post denying the allegations. “Obviously, my art and my life have long been magnets for controversy, but these recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality,” said Manson. “My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how—and why—others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth,”
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Vanity Fair reports that “at least four other women posted their own allegations against Manson, detailing harrowing experiences that they claim included sexual assault, psychological abuse, and/or various forms of coercion, violence, and intimidation.” The publication also stated that “his representatives were not immediately available for a comment, but his team has ‘categorically denied’ similar accusations in the past.”
In light of this, Manson’s label Loma Vista Recordings has announced that it “will cease to further promote his current album, effective immediately” and that it has also “decided not to work with Marilyn Manson on any future projects.”
Wood has recounted in the past that she met Manson when she was 18 and he was 36. The two were engaged in 2010 before they broke up later that year. In a 2018 testimony before a House Judiciary Subcommittee for the passage of the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights, she said in part: “My experience with domestic violence was this: Toxic mental, physical and sexual abuse which started slow but escalated over time, including threats against my life, severe gaslighting and brainwashing, waking up to the man that claimed to love me raping what he believed to be my unconscious body.” She did not name her alleged perpetrator at the time.
Model Sarah McNeilly, one of the women who came forward with allegations against Manson, said in her statement: “I have been afraid to bring any spotlight upon myself as to avoid winding up in his crosshairs again. 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. I stand in support of all [who] have and will come forward. I want to see Brian held accountable for his evil.”
Photo screengrabbed from the “We Are Chaos” music video
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