American singer Marilyn Manson has withdrawn the defamation lawsuit he had filed against actress Evan Rachel Wood two years ago after accusing him of sexually abusing her, local media report.
Marilyn Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, and Evan Rachel Wood reached an agreement on November 19, according to court documents obtained by People magazine.
According to the agreement, the musician, 55, will pay around $327,000 (about 310,000 euros) to Wood, 37, in legal fees and court proceedings.
“After four years of fighting a battle in which he has been able to tell the truth, Brian (Manson) is pleased to dismiss his pending lawsuits and appeals to close the door on this chapter of his life,” Manson’s lawyer told People , Howard King.
For his part, a representative for Wood explained to that medium that Manson filed the lawsuit “as a publicity stunt to try to undermine the credibility of his many accusers and revive his musical career.” “But their attempts to silence and intimidate Ms. Wood failed,” the actress’ representative stressed. Marilyn Manson has released his new album (Assassination Under God – Chapter 1) just five days ago, on November 22nd.
Manson sued Wood in March 2022, a year after she publicly accused Brian Warner of sexually abusing her during their on-again, off-again relationship, which began when the actress, from North Carolina, was 18 years old.
The abuse occurred, according to the actress, during the recording of the video clip Heart Shaped Glasses and were denounced in a documentary titled Phoenix Rising which premiered at the Sundance independent film festival.
The film narrates the tortuous relationship between the protagonist of Westworld and the singer between 2006 and 2011, when, in his words, “he managed to undertake a final escape.”
“We are talking about a simulated sex scene (in Heart-Shaped Glasses), but once the cameras started rolling, he started to really penetrate me. I had never agreed to that. It was complete chaos. I didn’t feel safe. Nobody took care of me. It was a really traumatizing experience,” explains Wood in the documentary directed by Amy Berg.
The Los Angeles Police then opened an investigation against Manson after Wood’s complaints, which were joined by others from film industry workers.
For his part, Manson denied the allegations in his defamation lawsuit, calling them “horrible distortions of reality.”
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