Evan Rachel Wood released a statement Monday morning alleging that Marilyn Manson abused her during the course of their relationship, which ended in 2010. They began dating when Wood was 19 in 2007 and Manson was 38, getting engaged in 2010 before breaking up.
“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.”
A representative for Manson did not respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment, but the singer’s rep told Metal Hammer last year, in response to queries about the allegations, “Personal testimony is just that, and we think it’s inappropriate to comment on that. You then go on to talk about Manson being accused of ‘terrible things’ by unnamed ‘critics’ but offer no guidance on who these critics are and what these things are, so it’s not possible to comment.”
Wood spoke about suffering abuse with Rolling Stone in 2016 but did not mention specific names. “I’ve been raped. By a significant other while we were together. And on a separate occasion, by the owner of a bar,” she said the day after the 2016 presidential election. “I don’t believe we live in a time where people can stay silent any longer. Not given the state our world is in with its blatant bigotry and sexism.”
Wood created the Phoenix Act — which was signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019 — to extend the statute of limitations on domestic violence from three years to five. It took effect in January 2020. While testifying before the California Senate, Wood spoke about violence suffered at the hands of a former partner. She did not name her alleged abuser, but she did tell the Senate: “I mustered the courage to leave several times, but he would call my house incessantly and threaten to kill himself. On one occasion, I returned to try and defuse the situation, he cornered me in our bedroom, and asked me to kneel. Then he tied me up by my hands and feet. Once I was restrained he beat me and shocked sensitive parts of my body with a torture device called a violet wand. To him it was a way for me to prove my loyalty. The pain was excruciating. It felt like I left my body and a part of me died that day.”
In the wake of Wood’s post, at least four other women have come forward with similar stories about Manson, according to Vanity Fair.
“As he was wooing me, I would come to find out he was torturing others,” accuser Sarah McNeilly wrote. “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.”
“He would tie me up for the first of many times and rape me,” alleged a woman named Gabriella. “I sobbed on the floor of the hotel room and when I looked at him, he was smiling. He told me he knew that’s how I loved him because of my reaction.” Gabriella goes on to allege that Manson forced her to take drugs that were “more than my body could handle.” She later claimed her relationship with Manson caused her to attempt suicide.
“I repressed this because I felt no one around me could comprehend the severity of what I had gone through,” she wrote. “He gaslit me so much I began to gaslight myself.”
“There was abuse, sexual violence, physical violence and coercion. I still feel the affects every day. I have night terrors, PTSD, anxiety and mostly crippling OCD,” wrote another accuser Ashley Morgan. “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.”
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From Rolling Stone US
