Actor Ed Westwick is the latest Hollywood star to be accused of appalling acts of sexual assault.
In a Facebook post published last night, actress Kristina Cohen claims that Westwick–who is best known for his work on the 2007-2012 CW series Gossip Girl–raped her in 2014.
“The last month has been incredibly difficult,” Cohen begins.
“Like so many women I too have a story of sexual assault, and the outpouring of stories have been both triggering and emotionally exhausting.
“I was sexually assaulted three years ago. It was a dark time in my life. My mom was dying of cancer and I didn’t have the support system or time to process and deal with the aftermath of the rape.”
“I buried my pain and guilt to make space for the onslaught that came after my mom’s death, just three months later.”
From there, Cohen goes into detail and identifies Westwick as her attacker:
“I was briefly dating a producer who was friends with the actor Ed Westwick,” she writes. “It was this producer who brought me up to Ed’s house where I met Ed for the first time. I wanted to leave when Ed suggested ‘we should all f-ck.’
“But the producer didn’t want to make Ed feel awkward by leaving. Ed insisted we stay for dinner. I said I was tired and wanted to leave, trying to get out of what was already an uncomfortable situation.
“Ed suggested I nap in the guest bedroom. The producer said we would stay for just another 20 more minutes to smooth everything over, and then we could leave.”
Cohen adds:
“So I went and laid down in the guest room where I eventually fell asleep, I was woken up abruptly by Ed on top of me, his fingers entering my body. I told him to stop, but he was strong.
“I fought him off as hard as I could but he grabbed my face in his hands, shaking me, telling me he wanted to f-ck me. I was paralyzed, terrified. I couldn’t speak, I could no longer move. He held me down and raped me.
“It was a nightmare, and the days following weren’t any better,” she writes.
From there Cohen tells a tale of systemic abuse and repression that’s all too familiar to so many women in Hollywood:
“The producer put the blame on me, telling me I was an active participant,” she writes.
“Telling me that I can’t say anything because Ed will have people come after me, destroy me, and that I could forget about an acting career. Saying there’s no way I can go around saying Ed ‘raped’ me and that I don’t want to be ‘that girl.’
“And for the longest time, I believed him. I didn’t want to be ‘that girl.’
Cohen says she was inspired to share her story not only by the dozens of women who come forward in recent weeks with allegations about Harvey Weinstein and other powerful men in Hollywood, but also by the adoration and respect that Westwick continues to receive from the public.
“I hope my coming forward will help others to know that they are not alone, that they are not to blame, and it is not their fault,” she writes.
“Just as the other women and men coming forward have helped me to realize the same. I hope that my stories and the stories of others help to reset and realign the toxic environments and power imbalances that have created these monsters.”
Westwick has yet to publicly respond to Cohen’s allegations.
We will have further updates on this story as more information becomes available.
