Evan Rachel Wood has accused her ex-partner Marilyn Manson of years of “gruesome” abuse.
In an Instagram post, the actor wrote:
My abuser name is Brian Warner, also known as Marilyn Manson. He started taking care of me when I was a teenager and horribly abused me for years. I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I have finished living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail. I’m here to expose this dangerous man and name the many industries that made him possible, before ruining any more lives. I stand behind the many victims who will no longer be silent.
Four other women – Ashley Walters, Sarah McNeilly, Ashley Morgan and Gabriella (no last name) – have also been abused via public Instagram posts. McNeilly and Walters allege physical and emotional abuse, including conduct they label as torture; Morgan alleges sexual and physical violence and coercion; Gabriella alleges rape, physical violence and that Manson forced her to use drugs.
Rock singer Manson has not commented on their allegations. The Guardian has contacted representatives from its management company and record company for comment.
Manson has “categorically denied” an earlier allegation of sexual abuse by an anonymous woman in 2018 in response to incidents dating back to 2011, which was discarded for “lack of confirmation” and because the statute of limitations had expired. Manson’s lawyer had called the charges “completely delusional.”
Wood and Manson started dating in 2007 when she was 19 and he was 37. She inspired his 2007 song Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand). Their relationship ended in 2008. Manson told an interviewer in 2009, “I have fantasies every day about smashing her skull with a sledgehammer,” saying that he injured himself after the breakup. They reconciled, became engaged in 2010, and separated again later that year.
In 2018, Wood appeared before the US House Judiciary Committee as part of a campaign for the 2016 Survivors’ Bill of Rights Act to be enacted in the US, providing detailed information about her experiences of various forms of abuse by an unnamed person.
She said she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, injured herself, and attempted suicide in the aftermath of the attacks. All four of the other women who allege assault against Manson say they have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
In 2019, Wood testified before the California Senate Public Safety Committee in support of a bill to expand the rights of victims of domestic violence. She said an unnamed abuser, whom she met in her late teens, “threatened my life, sometimes with lethal weapons” amid alleged domestic violence, including torturing and starving her, monitoring her phone use and threatened with blackmail.
Manson was quizzed about the testimonials in an interview with Metal Hammer in 2020, and dropped the interview. A press representative later said, “Evan Rachel Wood was in a relationship with multiple people around the time she was dating Manson” and said the “sledgehammer” comment “was clearly a theatrical rock star interview promoting a new record, and not. factual report “. They complained of “gossip and suspicion,” highlighting a 2015 interview with Wood in which she said of Manson, “I appreciate everything he’s taught me.”
Wood said earlier in 2018, “There are many rumors about who I spoke of in my testimony. I’d like to clarify something and say it wasn’t Mickey Rourke. We were never ‘together’. “
In 2018, Manson was also accused of harassing women on the set of the TV drama House, which he did not comment on. In 2001, he was charged with assault and sexual misconduct after rubbing his crotch in the face of a guard, later reduced to a charge of disorderly conduct. He paid a fine of $ 4,000 and settled a lawsuit out of court.
Since his debut in 1994, Manson has had a long career with his cartoonish gothic metal. Nine of his 11 studio albums have reached the US Top 10 – most recently We Are Chaos in September 2020 – with 1998’s Mechanical Animals and 2003’s The Golden Age of Grotesque reaching No. 1.
Wood is a successful film and television actor who broke her break with a Golden Globe-nominated performance in the 2003 film Thirteen. Since then, she has starred in such films as Down in the Valley, The Wrestler and Charlie Countryman, and had a voice role in the successful sequel to Frozen. Since 2016, she has had a starring role in the sci-fi TV series Westworld, contributing to TV credits in True Blood, an Emmy-nominated role in Mildred Pierce and more.