[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Chris Noth has been accused of sexual assault by two women.
The And Just Like That… star has come back into the public eye in recent weeks following his reprisal of Mr. Big on the Sex & The City reboot for HBO Max. But now, in a new report from THR, two women have come forward with claims that Noth allegedly sexually assaulted them in separate incidents in 2004 and 2015.
Related: Chris Noth First Fought Hard Against That Major ‘And Just Like That…’ Twist
According to the report, a now-40-year-old woman pseudonymously identified as Zoe and a now-31-year-old anonymously named Lily say that media promotion and press reports of the new revival triggered “painful memories of incidents they say occurred” years ago. The two women allegedly approached THR “separately, months apart,” and “do not know each other.”
The woman who identified as Lily is now reportedly a journalist in the entertainment industry fearful of the consequences if her identity becomes known. She reached out to the media outlet back in August.
In an email, she wrote to The Hollywood Reporter (below):
“I’m not sure how you go about this sort of story and how you find the other victims… seeing that [Noth] was reprising his role in Sex and the City set off something in me. For so many years, I buried it. [It’s time] to try to go public with who he is.”
According to Lily, she was a 25-year-old server at a NYC nightclub in 2015 when she first met Noth. The two made plans to go to dinner, eventually spending an evening talking and drinking wine at a bar in the city. At the end of the night, Lily alleged that Noth invited her back to his place in Greenwich Village, where he told her he had a collection of whiskeys “that they could sample.”
Lily recalled:
“I was not super sexually active, not wild and crazy. I thought, ‘we’re going to drink whiskey and talk about his acting career.’ It sounds so stupid. [The apartment] was an amazing place. We were listening to music, and he has all these books about art and fashion. He tried to make out with me. I cautiously entertained it. He’s older and looked older. He kept trying and trying and trying, and I should have said no more firmly and left. And then the next thing I knew, he pulled down his pants and he was standing in front of me.”
At that point, the THR report alleges, Noth reportedly “thrust his penis into her mouth.” After Lily asked him about being married — Noth tied the knot in 2012, and at the time of the alleged incident had one child — the actor supposedly responded negatively to the existence of monogamy.
Lily alleged:
“He said marriage is a sham. Monogamy is not real. [Then] he was having sex with me from the back in a chair. We were in front of a mirror. I was kind of crying as it happened. [Afterwards] I went to the bathroom and put on my skirt. I was feeling awful. Totally violated. All of my dreams with this star I loved for years were gone.”
Wow.
Related: ‘Lovely Bones’ Author Pens Apology To Man Exonerated Of Her Rape After 40 Years
As for the woman identified as Zoe, she reportedly graduated from college in 2004 and then, at 22 years old, moved to Los Angeles to work for “a high-profile firm” where Noth and other celebs “regularly had business.” She claimed she first met Noth as he would “walk by my desk and flirt with me,” and eventually he “somehow got my [office] number from the directory” and began leaving messages on her work phone.
One day, Noth allegedly invited Zoe to a pool at a building in West Hollywood where he had an apartment. She went there with a friend, and hung out in the pool and jacuzzi with Noth one afternoon. At one point, the actor allegedly left the pool to return to his apartment to take a call, leaving behind a book that, he claimed to Zoe, he was considering using for a film project. He asked her to look through it and bring it back to his apartment with her thoughts.
She did that, and returned the book to Noth’s apartment, where he reportedly “kissed her as she stepped through the door.” After “tentatively” kissing him back, Zoe attempted to leave, content to chalk the kiss up to “a fun story to tell her friends.” But suddenly, she alleges, Noth “pulled her toward him” and moved her towards the bed, reportedly pulling off her shorts and bikini bottom along the way.
Zoe alleged that he then supposedly “began to rape her from behind,” explaining to THR:
“It was very painful and I yelled out, ‘stop!’ And he didn’t. I said, ‘can you at least get a condom?’ and he laughed at me.”
When it was over, she recalled going back to her friend’s apartment, which happened to be in the same building:
“I realized there was blood on my shirt. I got out of there. I went to my friend’s apartment [in the same building]. I walked right in and went to the bathroom and tried to get the blood out of my shirt. They wanted to know what happened. I said, ‘I just want to go home.'”
Whoa.
Zoe claimed she was soon thereafter taken to Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles by the concerned friend, where she informed staff that she’d been assaulted. She recalled:
“I had stitches. Two police officers came. I wouldn’t say who it was. They gave me a little crisis counseling brochure and some medicine.”
THR reports that Cedars Sinai officials told the outlet that they do not keep records dating back to 2004. Noth did release a statement to the outlet about the two allegations (below):
“The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false. These stories could’ve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago — no always means no — that is a line I did not cross. The encounters were consensual. It’s difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I don’t know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.”
You can read the full THR report HERE.
Such an unsettling situation all around.
[Image via Jeff Grossman/WENN]