Update (1:45 P.M.): Ed Westwick has denied raping Kristina Cohen, and claims in a tweet that he does not know her.
“I do not know this woman,“ Westwick writes. “I have never forced myself in any manner, on any woman. I certainly have never committed rape.“
The original post continues below.
Ed Westwick, best known for playing Chuck Bass in the CW’s Gossip Girl and current star of the BBC series White Gold, is the latest Hollywood figure to be accused of rape.
In a lengthy Facebook post published Monday, actress Kristina Cohen alleges that the actor assaulted her three years ago while she visited his house with a man she was seeing at the time, whom she identified only as “the producer.”
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“It was a dark time in my life,” Cohen writes. “My mom was dying of cancer and I didn’t have the support system or time to process and deal with the aftermath of the rape. I buried my pain and guilt to make space for the onslaught that came after my mom’s death, just three months later. Even now, I grapple with feelings of guilt.”
Cohen states that the producer she was seeing was friends with Westwick and that she met the ex-Gossip Girl star the day of the alleged assault.
Representatives for Westwick have not yet responded to Vanity Fair’s request for comment.
On Gossip Girl, Westwick’s character, Chuck Bass, was initially portrayed as a lascivious attempted rapist; by the end of the series he had become the show’s romantic hero. Now Westwick stars in the BBC comedy White Gold, which got renewed for a second season over the summer. V.F. has reached out to BBC to find out if Cohen’s allegation will affect plans for the show, as well as to Netflix, which carries the series internationally.
Netflix’s The Ranch is also under fire, as one of its stars, Danny Masterson, faces four rape allegations of his own. (In response to the allegations, Masterson's attorney told V.F. that the L.A.P.D. "already investigated this matter twice. The first time in 2004 and then again earlier this year. Both investigations have been closed. No charges have been filed against our client. Any suggestion that there is ‘overwhelming’ evidence against Mr. Masterson flies in the face of reason. If there were overwhelming evidence of felony conduct against anyone, let alone a celebrity, law enforcement would arrest and charge that individual immediately.”) The streaming service has also already severed ties with Kevin Spacey, star of House of Cards, which was filming its sixth and final season until production was suspended following misconduct allegations against Spacey.)
“I hope my coming forward will help others to know that they are not alone, that they are not to blame, and it is not their fault,” Cohen wrote on Facebook. “Just as the other women and men coming forward have helped me to realize the same. I hope that my stories and the stories of others help to reset and realign the toxic environments and power imbalances that have created these monsters.”