After two women claimed that they were sexually harassed by Chris Noth on separate occasions, the actor released as statement insisting the allegations are “false.”
Chris Noth has responded to allegations of sexual assault from two different women, which were published in The Hollywood Reporter on Dec. 16. “The accusations made against me by individuals I met years, even decades ago, are categorically false,” Chris says in a statement to HollywoodLife. “These stories could’ve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago — no always means no — that is a line I did not cross. The encounters were consensual. It’s difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I don’t know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.”
The Hollywood Reporter is using pseudonyms — Zoe, now 40, and Lily, now 31, for the women to protect their privacy. The women do not know each other and did not speak before separately making their allegations to the publication. They claim their respective alleged incidents with Chris took place in Los Angeles in 2004 and New York in 2015. Chris has been in headlines for the last two weeks due to reprising his Sex and the City role for And Just Like That…, and the women said this has “stirred painful memories” for them, according to THR.
Zoe claims that Chris exhibited inappropriate behavior with her while she was working an entry-level job in L.A. in 2004. “He would walk by my desk and flirt with me,” she alleged. “Somehow he got my phone number from the directory and was leaving messages on my work phone.” Zoe says that Chris invited her to hang out at the pool at his West Hollywood apartment. She alleges that he kissed her at his apartment, and says she kissed him back. However, things allegedly took a turn after that when Chris allegedly “pulled her toward him, moved her toward the bed, pulled off her shorts and bikini bottom and began to rape her from behind,” according to Zoe. She insists that she yelled at him to “stop,” but claims that he would not.
After the alleged incident, Zoe says she went to the hospital and revealed that she had been assaulted. However, she did not tell staff or the two police officers who arrived who her assaulter was. “She feared that she would not be believed and felt she would be fired if she accused [Chris] publicly, or even at her workplace,” THR reported.
Meanwhile, Lily, who works as a journalist, says she was working as a server at a New York City nightclub in 2015 when she first met Chris. She alleges that he “hit on [her]”, then asked for her phone number and asked her out, despite being married. Lily willingly (and excitedly) went to the dinner, according to her account. She also willingly went back to his apartment afterward, but was under the impression that they were just “going to drink whiskey and talk about his acting career.”
Lily admits to “cautiously entertaining” a makeout with Chris, but alleges that he then “pulled down his pants” and “thrust his penis into her mouth.” She also alleges that the actor started “having sex with [her] from the back” while she was “kind of crying.” The next day, Lily says she worried that she was overreacting about the situation. However, she also shared alleged texts between herself and Chris from the weeks after the alleged incident. In one message, Lily allegedly told Chris, “I certainly enjoyed your company. Great conversation. Not to go into specifics over text message, but I did feel slightly used. Perhaps this is better as a phone conversation but I can’t talk at the moment.” They allegedly spoke for a few more weeks in a “friendly but noncommittal way,” but never saw each other again.