Marilyn Manson has responded to allegations of abuse, which actor and singer Evan Rachel Wood detailed in a Monday Instagram post. "He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years," she posted. At least four other women shared their own allegations of abuse in response.
Manson denied these claims.
"Obviously, my art and my life have long been magnets for controversy, but these recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality," Manson wrote in a statement shared on his Instagram. "My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how — and why — others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth."
Rumors of abusive behavior have followed Manson, born Brian Warner, for years. In May 2018, Manson had a police report filed against him for unspecified sex crimes dating back to 2011. As The Hollywood Reporter wrote at the time, the district attorney declined the case, citing that the statute of limitations had expired and an "absence of corroboration," according to the court filing.
Manson's attorney, Howard E. King, denied the claims in a statement also, saying: "The allegations made to the police were and are categorically denied by Mr. Warner and are either completely delusional or part of a calculated attempt to generate publicity . . . Any claim of sexual impropriety or imprisonment at that, or any other, time is false."
Earlier that year, "House" actress Charlyne Yi wrote in a series of since-deleted tweets that Manson harassed several of the show's actresses during a set visit.
"Ugh don't even get me started on Marilyn Manson," she tweeted. "Yes this happened a long time ago – on the last season of House he came on set to visit because he was a huge fan of the show & he harassed just about every woman asking us if we were going to scissor, rhino & called me a China man."
In September 2020, Dan Cleary, who previously worked for Manson as his personal assistant, wrote on Twitter that he'd witnessed Manson act abusively to a girlfriend identified as Lindsay.
"He would threaten to kill her, cut her up, bury her, embarrass her to the world," he tweeted. "Making her cry & fear him made him feel good. He would remind her that she'd be homeless without him and make fun of her learning disabled family member."
In 2018, Wood testified in a 2018 House Judiciary Subcommittee as part of an effort to get the Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill of Rights passed in all 50 states. While she did not name a perpetrator at the time, she said that her experience with domestic assault included "threats against my life, severe gaslighting and brainwashing, waking up to the man that claimed to love me raping what he believed to be my unconscious body."
Manson and Wood were briefly engaged after the couple had dated for three years; she was 19 and he was 38 when their relationship became public in 2007.
In response to the allegations, Manson was dropped from his record label, Loma Vista Records, who told The Hollywood Reporter that they would no longer promote Manson's past work or collaborate with him in the future.
Manson's short recurring role on Starz's "American Gods" has been cut and the remaining upcoming episode that includes Manson will not air until his character has been edited out. Finally, a segment of the Shudder series Creepshow that was set to star Manson in the upcoming season will be replaced and not air, a spokesperson for AMC Networks confirmed on Monday.
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