Rose McGowan apologized to Asia Argento on Twitter over comments she made regarding the sexual harassment accusations made against the actress by Jimmy Bennett.
“On 27 August I released a statement about Asia Argento, which I now realized contained a number of facts that were not correct,” said McGowan in a statement. “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.”
“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).”
.@asiaargento pic.twitter.com/yn96UGUJ7a
— rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) September 27, 2018
In her response, Argento said she accepted the apology, but said that McGowan’s comments had damaged her career. Last week, Argento threatened to sue McGowan for libel for her statement.
“Although I am grateful to [McGowan] 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 which I have been subjected to in real-life and online,” she tweeted.
“Now go on, live your life and stop hurting other people, will you Rose? Best wishes.”
Now go on, live your life and stop hurting other people, will you Rose? Best wishes.
— Asia Argento (@AsiaArgento) September 27, 2018
After emerging as a leader in the #MeToo movement after accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault (a claim his lawyers have denied), Argento found herself facing accusations of her own when Bennett came forward to claim he engaged in unwanted sex with Argento when he was 17 and she was 37.
Argento agreed to pay Bennett $380,000 last year as part of a private settlement. According to a statement this month from her attorney Mark Jay Heller, Bennett received $250,000 but will not receive the balance.