Evan Rachel Wood Accuses Ex Marilyn Manson Of Abusing Her For Years

Actress and activist Evan Rachel Wood, along with four other women, have alleged that Marilyn Manson abused them.

Wood posted a statement on Instagram on Monday morning: “The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson. He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years. I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail. I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives. I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.”

Wood’s relationship with Manson first went public in 2007 when she was 19 and he was 38. They were engaged in 2010, but broke up later that year.

Wood has been a longtime advocate for domestic abuse survivors, and has been open about the violence she has experienced in her past relationship, but has always declined to name Manson specifically.

In 2019, Wood supported the Phoenix Act, which increased the statute of limitations on domestic violence from 3 years to 5 years in California. The act was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) after Wood described her experience with domestic abuse during her testimony.

She said at the time: “I mustered the courage to leave several times, but he would call my house incessantly and threaten to kill himself. On one occasion, I returned to try and defuse the situation, he cornered me in our bedroom, and asked me to kneel. Then he tied me up by my hands and feet. Once I was restrained he beat me and shocked sensitive parts of my body with a torture device called a violet wand. To him it was a way for me to prove my loyalty. The pain was excruciating. It felt like I left my body and a part of me died that day.”

Various news sources have reached out to Manson’s team for comment though they have yet to make any public statement.

In 2018, during the height of the #MeToo movement, a police report was filed in Los Angeles County against Manson for sex crimes that took place in 2011. The case was later dropped due to a lack of corroborating evidence, according to the L.A. District Attorney’s Office. At the time, Manson’s lawyer Howard E. King, said, “The allegations made to the police were and are categorically denied by Mr. Warner and are either completely delusional or part of a calculated attempt to generate publicity … Any claim of sexual impropriety or imprisonment at that, or any other, time is false.”

Wood, who is now 33 years old and best known for starring in West World, is one of five women who have come out with statements against Manson, according to Vanity Fair. These women said that Manson coerced, intimidated, psychologically and sometimes physically abused them and sexually assaulted them.

Model Sarah McNeilly wrote that she was “locked in rooms when I was ‘bad’ sometimes forced to listen to him entertaining other women,” and “verbally berated for hours upon hours.”

“I was thrown up against a wall and he threatened to bash my face in with the baseball bat he was holding, for trying to get him to pick out a pair of pants prior to a music video,” she claimed in the post.

“I have been afraid to bring any spotlight upon myself as to avoid winding up in his crosshairs again,” she said. “As a result of the way he treated me, I suffer from mental health issues and PTSD that have affected my personal and professional relationships, self-worth and personal goals. I believe he gets off on ruining people’s lives. I stand in support of all that have and all will come forward. I want to see Brian held accountable for his evil.”

The other women’s statements are below, though one post made by Ashley Walters has been deleted from Instagram.

“I continue to suffer from PTSD, and struggle with depression,” Walters said. “I stayed in touch with quite a few people who went through their own traumas, under his control. As we all struggled, as survivors do, to get on with our lives, I’d keep hearing stories disturbingly similar to our own experiences. It became clear the abuse he’s caused; he continues to inflict on so many and I cannot stand by and let this happen to others. Brian Warner needs to be held accountable.”