Rose McGowan apologizes to Asia Argento

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 9/28/2018, 1:55 p.m.
Rose McGowan has apologized to Asia Argento. McGowan issued her mea culpa on Thursday, following a demand from Argento that …
Rose McGowan has apologized to Asia Argento. McGowan issued her mea culpa on Thursday, following a demand from Argento that the actress retract an earlier statement that she knew Argento slept with actor Jimmy Bennett when he was a teen.

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) -- Rose McGowan has apologized to Asia Argento.

McGowan issued her mea culpa on Thursday, following a demand from Argento that the actress retract an earlier statement that she knew Argento slept with actor Jimmy Bennett when he was a teen.

"On 27 August I released a statement about Asia Argento, which I now realized contained a number of facts that were not correct," McGowan's statement read. "The most serious of these was that I said that the unsolicited nude text messages Asia received from Jimmy Bennett had been sent since Jimmy was 12 years old."

Earlier in the month, Argento tweeted that McGowan had 24 hours to retract and apologize for "the horrendous lies made against me in your statement of August 27th."

Asia Argento demands that Rose McGowan retract statement

Last month, the New York Times reported that after publicly accusing Harvey Weinstein of rape, Argento made a deal with Bennett, who had accused her of sexual assault.

New York Times: Asia Argento, #MeToo leader, paid sexual assault accuser

Argento and McGowan were among the first women to accuse now-disgraced movie mogul Weinstein of sexual misconduct and have been leading figures in the #MeToo movement.

The New York Times said it had lawyers' documents showing that Bennett alleged Argento sexually assaulted him in 2013, when he was 17 and she was 37.

According to the publication, Bennett said the assault took place at a hotel in California, where the age of consent is 18. Bennett played Argento's son in the 2004 movie "The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things."

The Huffington Post reported a statement from Argento, obtained by journalist Yashar Ali, in which the actress denied ever having had a sexual relationship with Bennett. The statement read: "I strongly deny and oppose the contents of the New York Times article dated 20 August 2018, as circulated also in national and international news. I am deeply shocked and hurt by having read news that is absolutely false. I have never had any sexual relationship with Bennett."

Rain Dove, McGowan's partner, told CNN that Argento complained that she was being extorted for money by Bennett and initially denied having sex with him.

Rain Dove speaks out about Asia Argento allegations

Argento later contradicted herself in an alleged text exchange with Dove, which Dove shared with CNN.

"The Public knows nothing, only what the NYT wrote. Which is one sided. The shakedown letter. The horny kid jumped me...," an alleged text from Argento read.

"So it was rape? Or an attempted sexual action?" Rain Dove replied in a text viewed by CNN.

"I had sex with him it felt weird. I didn't know he was a minor until the shakedown letter," Argento allegedly wrote in response.

In a statement to CNN, Bennett's attorney, Gordon K. Sattro, called Argento's response, "hypocritical," and "non-sensical."

Dove told CNN on August 29, "the whole entire thing really just tipped at the point of yes, this person engaged with this individual when they were a minor and that is considered in California, I believe it's statutory rape."

On September 7, Argento tweeted a screen shot that she said was a deleted tweet from Dove who is gender-nonbinary and uses the pronoun they.

The screen shot shows Dove saying they made a mistake in interpreting the texts.

Argento called on McGowan to do the same.

"It is a shame that @rosemcgowan is not prepared to accept when she is wrong," Argento tweeted. "@raindovemodel accepted she was wrong, but her tweet has been deleted. Rose's statement continues to make false claims."

McGowan addressed the texts between Dove and Argento in her tweet Thursday.

"In fact, I had misunderstood the messages that Asia exchanged with my partner Rain Dove, which made clear that Jimmy had sent Asia inappropriate text messages only after they met up again when he was 17 (still legally a minor in California, but notably different from a 12 year old)," she wrote.

"I do not feel that it is my place to comment further on what happened at the Ritz Carlton in Marina del Rey hotel in May 2013, save to say that I now appreciate that it was not as I thought it was previously," the "Charmed" star continued. "In my statement, I challenged why Asia had not acted as I think any responsible adult would if they received sexually explicit messages from a 12 year old, which of course do not apply in the same way as when the situation involves a 17 year old."

McGowan ended the statement with an apology to Argento.

"I deeply regret not correcting my mistake sooner and apologize to Asia for not doing so," McGowan wrote.

Argento responded via Twitter.

"Although I am grateful to @rosemcgowan for her full apology following her groundless allegations about me, if she had issued it earlier, I may have kept my job on X-Factor and avoided the constant accusations of paedophilia [sic] which I have been subjected to in real-life and online," Argento tweeted along with the tweet of McGowan's apology.