Marilyn Manson’s sex abuse accuser Ashley Morgan Smithline has filed new court documents recanting her allegations against the artist, saying she “succumbed to pressure” from Evan Rachel Wood to make false allegations.
Smithline alleges Wood, who accused Manson of abusing her when she was his girlfriend, “manipulated” her into making false statements about Manson, according to Billboard. Manson is currently suing Wood for allegedly orchestrating an “organized attack” of false rape accusations against him.
Smithline is one of several women to come forward with allegations against Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, in the past two years. “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,” Smithline wrote in the sworn statement, according to Billboard.
Marilyn Manson’s ex-accuser claims Evan Rachel Wood ‘manipulated’ her into lying: suit https://t.co/Xs70FFLtR5 pic.twitter.com/BYWwrKZuNJ
— Page Six (@PageSix) February 23, 2023
Smithline claims she was pressured to “spread publicly false accusations of abuse” and that she eventually “started to believe that what I was repeatedly told happened to Ms. Wood and [others] also happened to me.” Smithline’s case was dismissed in January when she removed herself and her lawyer from the case.
Manson has firmly denied all allegations against him and filed his own defamation lawsuit in March 2022 claiming that Wood and a woman named Illma Gore “secretly recruited, coordinated, and pressured prospective accusers to emerge simultaneously” with false accusations against him, according to Billboard.
Smithline’s declaration supported Manson’s allegations against Wood.
Her statement indicated she was repeatedly told she was abused and simply might not remember it. “While at first I knew Mr. Warner did not do these things to me, I eventually I began to question whether he actually did,” Smithline wrote in her declaration, according to Billboard. (RELATED: Marilyn Manson Settles Sexual Assault Lawsuit With ‘Game Of Thrones’ Actress Esmé Bianco)
Ashley Morgan Smithline, who previously sued Marilyn Manson for sexual assault, recanted her previous allegations and now claims that she was “manipulated” into speaking out against the singer. https://t.co/KkkwL7RNI7
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) February 23, 2023
“On numerous occasions, I was told … that I may just be misremembering what happened, repressing my memories of what happened, or that my memories had not yet surfaced — which they said happened to people against whom these acts were perpetrated,” she added.
Smithline claims that Gore connected her with a lawyer named Jay Ellwanger, who allegedly pressured her to go public.
“Leading up to the filing of the complaint, I felt pressured by Mr. Ellwanger to go on a press tour, which included an interview on The View and an interview and photoshoot with People magazine,” Smithline wrote in her declaration, according to Billboard. “I was very uncomfortable doing this press but felt pressured to do it.”
Smithline also asserted that she had not received any money from Manson in exchange for retracting her allegations.