Rose McGowan Says ‘My Heart Is Broken’ Following Sexual Assault Claim Against Asia Argento
Rose McGowan is speaking out following a report that claims that Asia Argento, her friend and fellow Harvey Weinstein accuser, agreed to pay $380,000 to a former child actor accusing her of sexual assault.
“I got to know Asia Argento ten months ago. Our commonality is the shared pain of being assaulted by Harvey Weinstein,” the 44-year-old actress tweeted on Monday morning, hours after The New York Times published the bombshell report.
“My heart is broken,” she added, before remarking that despite the report, she “will continue my work on behalf of victims everywhere.”
McGowan also asked that people remain as civil as possible as the story unfolds.
“None of us know the truth of the situation and I’m sure more will be revealed,” she continued. “Be gentle.”
I got to know Asia Argento ten months ago. Our commonality is the shared pain of being assaulted by Harvey Weinstein. My heart is broken. I will continue my work on behalf of victims everywhere.
— rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) August 20, 2018
None of us know the truth of the situation and I’m sure more will be revealed. Be gentle.
— rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) August 20, 2018
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Citing documents sent to the newspaper anonymously and verified with three people familiar with the case, the Times report says that in the months after her allegations against Weinstein last October, the 42-year-old Italian actress reached a financial settlement with Jimmy Bennett, who once played her son in 2004’s The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, a film she also directed and co-wrote.
The actor and musician, now 22, claimed that in 2013, then-37-year-old Argento sexually assaulted Bennett in a California hotel room two months after he turned 17, the report says. (In California, 18 is the age of consent.)
Bennett claimed in the documents that Argento kissed him before performing oral sex on him and engaging in intercourse at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey, California, according to the Times.
The outlet went on to report that Gordon K. Sattro, Bennet’s attorney, wrote in the notice of intent that Bennett’s “feelings about that day were brought to the forefront recently when Ms. Argento took the spotlight as one of the many victims of Harvey Weinstein.”
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Argento and McGowan are two of the over 60 women who have accused disgraced movie mogul Weinstein of sexual assault, harassment, and rape. In October, Argento alleged that Weinstein forced oral sex on her in 1997.
Argento also told Farrow that she had “consensual sexual relations with [Weinstein] multiple times over the course of the next five years” after the alleged assault. She described the incidents as “one-sided and ‘onanistic,’” Farrow wrote, and worried Weinstein would “ruin her career if she didn’t comply.”
A spokesperson for Weinstein previously told PEOPLE in a statement that “any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances.”