‘Gossip Girl’ Actor Ed Westwick Denies Raping Actress Kristina Cohen
UPDATE: The Los Angeles Police Department have officially launched an investigation into allegations made by Cohen against Westwick after the actress filed a police report Wednesday.
Ed Westwick issued a statement via Instagram denying Cohen’s accusations Tuesday. “I do not know this woman,” the statement reads. “I have never forced myself in any manner, on any woman. I certainly have never committed rape.”
ORIGINAL STORY: Gossip Girl actor Ed Westwick is the latest Hollywood player to be accused of sexual misconduct. Actress Kristina Cohen penned a lengthy Facebook post Monday detailing an incident three years ago in which Westwick allegedly sexually assaulted her.
“I was briefly dating a producer who was friends with the actor Ed Westwick,” Cohen wrote. “It was this producer who brought me up to Ed’s house where I met Ed for the first time. I wanted to leave when Ed suggested ‘we should all fuck.’ But the producer didn’t want to make Ed feel awkward by leaving.”
Cohen recounted how Westwick apparently insisted that the couple stay for dinner, but Cohen, in an attempt to get out of the situation, said she was tired and wanted to leave. Westwick then offered up the guest bedroom for her to lie down for a bit, which she did.
The producer told her they would leave after 20 minutes.
“I was woken up abruptly by Ed on top of me, his fingers entering my body,” the actress claimed. “I told him to stop, but he was strong. I fought him off as hard as I could but he grabbed my face in his hands, shaking me, telling me he wanted to fuck me. I was paralyzed, terrified. I couldn’t speak, I could no longer move. He held me down and raped me.”
In her Facebook post, Cohen admitted to feeling conflicted about the alleged incident, her emotions compounded by the fact that her mother was dying of cancer at the time, and she “didn’t have the support system or time to process and deal with the aftermath of the rape.”
Her then-boyfriend’s reaction didn’t help either. According to Cohen, the producer placed blame on her, telling her she was an “active participant,” and that she couldn’t tell anyone about what happened, or else “Ed will have people come after me, destroy me, and that I could forget about an acting career.”
Cohen noted that she chose to come forward now because she wants to help others realize they are not alone in their suffering. “Just as the other women and men coming forward have helped me to realize the same,” she wrote. “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.”
Westwick has not yet publicly responded to the allegations. Rolling Stone has reached out to his representatives for comment.