Aziz Ansari Responds To Sexual Assault Claims

An anonymous woman came forward on Saturday and accused Aziz Ansari of sexual assault last September.

AZIZ ANSARI RESPONDS TO SEXUAL ASSAULT CLAIM AGAINST HIM

The 23-year-old woman provided an essay and a text message chain to the website Babe that showed an exchange between herself and the comedian. In her story, Grace (the alias given to the accuser by Babe) met Ansari at a 2017 Emmy Awards afterparty where the pair bonded over photography. They exchanged numbers and flirted via text before setting a date to meet up.

After a hastened dinner, Ansari took Grace back to his New York City apartment where he quickly tried to engage in sexual activity. “He said something along the lines of, ‘How about you hop up and take a seat?'” she explained after she had complimented his marble countertops. She says he started to kiss her and, “in a second, his hand was on my breast.” Grace says she felt uncomfortable with how quickly things were going and how aggressive the actor was being toward her. “He probably moved my hand to his d–k five to seven times. He really kept doing it after I moved it away.”

Grace described the evening like a long game, where Ansari would pursue her and she would decline, but he wouldn’t stop. After their initial brief encounter, Ansari tried again and asked, ‘Where do you want me to f–k you?’ “I wasn’t really even thinking of that, I didn’t want to be engaged in that with him,” Grace explained. “But he kept asking, so I said, ‘Next time.’ And he goes, ‘Oh, you mean second date?’ and I go, ‘Oh, yeah, sure,’ and he goes, ‘Well, if I poured you another glass of wine now, would it count as our second date?'”

Later on, the comedian continued to touch and kiss Grace, even after she made it clear that she didn’t “want to feel forced.” He then said, “Oh, of course, it’s only fun if we’re both having fun.” But regardless, he continued to try to engage in sexual intercourse.

“I just remember looking in the mirror and seeing him behind me. He was very much caught up in the moment and I obviously very much wasn’t,” Grace said. “After he bent me over is when I stood up and said no, I don’t think I’m ready to do this, I really don’t think I’m going to do this. And he said, ‘How about we just chill, but this time with our clothes on?'”

When Grace left, Ansari called her a car and made sure she made it home. Grace described crying the whole way home. She later texted the actor to let him know how she was feeling and that she was upset with the way he had handled the evening. “Last night might’ve been fun for you it wasn’t for me,” she said. “When we got back to your place, you ignored clear non-verbal cues; you kept going with advanced. You had to have noticed I was uncomfortable.”

“I’m so sad to hear this,” Ansari responded that night. “All I can say is, it would never be my intention to make you or anyone feel the way you described. Clearly, I misread things in the moment and I’m truly sorry.”

Since the Babe article was published, Ansari has responded publicly about the claims. “In September of last year, I met a woman at a party. We exchanged numbers. We texted back and forth and eventually went on a date. We went out to dinner, and afterwards we ended up engaging in sexual activity, which by all indications was completely consensual,” he said. “The next day, I got a text from her saying that although ‘it may have seemed okay,’ upon further reflection, she felt uncomfortable. It was true that everything did seem okay to me, so when I heard that it was not the case for her, I was surprised and concerned. I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said. I continue to support the movement that is happening in our culture. It is necessary and long overdue.”