After a suspension earlier in the day from Twitter, actress Rose McGowan forcefully re-emerged on Friday, stating more frankly what she has long suggested: “HW raped me.”
“HW” was apparently in reference to Harvey Weinstein, the embattled former Weinstein Co. co-chairman.
“Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr Weinstein,” his representative Sallie Hofmeister said.
Ms McGowan last year said that she had been raped by a “studio head.” The New Yorker expose that ran on Tuesday reported that Mr Weinstein had allegedly sexually assaulted three women, though the third woman was unnamed.
The New York Times had earlier reported that Weinstein paid a financial settlement of $1,00,000 to Ms McGowan in 1997 over an incident in a hotel room at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
The settlement included provisions about speaking about the case in the future. But Ms McGowan appeared emboldened to describe more outright her past experience with Mr Weinstein. Shortly before a series a tweets addressed to Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, Ms McGowan tweeted a woman warrior picture with a “Rosearmy” hashtag and stated “It’s on.”
“I told the head of your studio that HW raped me,” said McGowan in tweets directed to Bezos. “Over and Over I said it. He said it hadn’t been proven. I said I was the proof.”
