A woman who sued shock rocker Marilyn Manson for sexual assault has recanted her claims and now says Manson’s ex-girlfriend, actress Evan Rachel Wood, pressured her to make her accusations.
On Thursday, model Ashley Morgan Smithline filed a declaration in the Los Angeles County Superior Court affirming that her previous allegations are not true and that she succumbed to pressure by Wood to file her lawsuit. Smithline says Wood told her that having no memory of an assault “did not necessarily mean that it did not happen.”
The declaration is part of a defamation lawsuit filed by Manson against the Westworld actress, BuzzFeed reported.
Smithline said the alleged pressure by Wood made her question her own feelings. “While at first I knew Mr. Warner did not do these things to me, eventually I began to question whether he actually did,” Smithline said in her declaration.
Manson filed his suit against Wood last March claiming that Wood fabricated the accusations and also elicited another woman, Illma Gore, to fake documents and make false accusations against him.
Smithline also now says that Gore even wrote the statement she posted to Instagram accusing Manson of abuse.
Wood’s representative says that Smithline’s new proclamations are untrue.
“It was Ashley who first contacted Evan about the abuse she had suffered,” Woods’ spokesperson told BuzzFeed. “It’s unfortunate that the harassment and threats Ashley received after filing her federal lawsuit appear to have pressured her to change her testimony.”
(Exclusive Access) Actress Evan Rachel Wood and musician Marilyn Manson arrive for the after party for a special screening of “Across The Universe” at Bette on September 13, 2007 in New York City. (Scott Wintrow/Getty Images)
Smithline had filed suit against Manson for assault in 2021. However, a judge dismissed the case this year after Smithline fired her attorney, Jay Ellwanger, and then failed to hire a new attorney or file any status reports on her case.
In the new filing, Smithline claimed that the statement her fired attorney filed was inaccurate.
“The complaint contained untrue statements about Mr. Warner, including that there was violence and non-consensual sexual activity in our brief relationship and that I had repressed memories of the same until meeting with Ms. Wood, Ms. Gore, and others in 2020,” Smithline now says.
Smithline also says she fired attorney Ellwanger, who also represents Esme Bianco, another woman who has accused Manson, when he allegedly pressured her to go on a press tour to make accusations against Manson. The goth singer settled the Bianco in January.
In his suit, Manson — whose real name is Brian Warner — says Wood publicly defamed him “as a rapist and abuser — a malicious falsehood that has derailed Warner’s successful music, TV, and film career.”
Manson and Wood first became a couple in 2007, and were briefly engaged to be married in 2010 before breaking up. By 2017, Wood jumped in with the #MeToo movement and began accusing Manson of horrific behavior against her and other women.
The Beautiful People singer soon found himself a subject of a slew of lawsuits and accusations that have had sharp consequences for his recording career.
Manson has lost friends as well as business opportunities. He was even dumped by his manager and pulled from AMC. And the lawsuits are still piling up. Only a few weeks ago Manson was accused of grooming and sexually assaulting an under aged girl in the 1990s.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston
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