Ashley Morgan Smithline has recanted sexual abuse allegations against Marilyn Manson, and now says she was “manipulated” by Manson’s ex-girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood to come forward with false claims in 2021.
Attorneys for Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, submitted a statement from Smithline today (Feb. 23) in a Los Angeles court relating to his defamation suit against Wood and her former partner, Illma Gore. Manson has denied all allegations of sexual abuse and assault; one suit against him was dismissed last May, and another was settled out of court last month with former Game of Thrones actress Esme Bianco. Smithline’s own suit against Manson was dismissed in early January.
The statement says Smithline, who began a “brief, consensual sexual relationship” with Manson in 2010, was encouraged to “spread publicly false accusations of abuse” against him. “I succumbed to pressure from Evan Rachel Wood and her associates to make accusations of rape and assault against Mr. Warner that were not true,” she said. “Eventually, I started to believe that what I was repeatedly told happened to Ms. Wood and [others] also happened to me.”
“Evan never pressured or manipulated Ashley,” a spokesperson for Wood said in a statement. “It was Ashley who first contacted Evan about the abuse she had suffered. It’s unfortunate that the harassment and threats Ashley received after filing her federal lawsuit appear to have pressured her to change her testimony.”
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