Melanie Martinez is the first woman to be ensnared in the ongoing Hollywood sex scandal.
A contestant on Season 3 of The Voice, Martinez has been accused by fellow musician Timothy Heller of committing sexual assault.
In a four-part tweet on Monday evening, Heller detailed a night during which she “repeatedly said no” to Martinez’s sexual advances.
However, Heller says Martinez ignored her very clear requests.
She says Martinez proceeded to forcefully penetrate her with a sex toy, among other disturbing acts.
(Based on a deep dive into their respective social media pages, we can deduce that Martinez and Heller have been friends since 2015.)
In the first of her Tweets last night, Heller comes right out and says “my best friend raped me.”
“She took me in, which I was so grateful for. I felt like I owed her my life,” Heller writes, referring to Martinez as “perfect” and “different,” in a positive way at first.
The artist goes on to allege, however, that Martinez soon gained an unhealthy “power” and “control” over her.
For example, “I had to apologize for having an extreme panic attack… because it ruined her night.”
It was a “codependent” relationship, Heller Tweeted.
“One night during a sleepover, she became increasingly interested in my sexual preferences,” Heller says, after admitting she had a difficult time “saying no” to this person.
Heller says she had previously been assailed and found the topic awkward, but the friend persisted.
“She began asking me while in bed if I would have sex with her… I repeatedly said no.”
The next night, after smoking marijuana, Heller said she hoped she’d be able to just fall asleep. But this friend brought up the sex question again, over and over and over again, even though Heller “said every form of no I could think of.”
The friend kept asking things such as “Can I just touch your boobs,” even “begging” to do so, in Heller’s recounting.
Finally, exhausted, Heller allowed for this one act. But “this led to her touching the rest of me,” as she “used her power over me and broke down.”
Heller insists she kept saying NO.
“Just so there is no confusion,” she emphasized on Twitter. “I was molested by my best friend.”
She goes on to say she was later “penetrated by a sex toy without being asked” and that this individual performed oral sex on her.
Heller and the friend never discussed what happened after the night in question and Heller ended up in a kind of denial, her head “messed up” and confused over what transpired.
Due to “recent event,” a clear reference to many Hollywood stars being exposed these days as sexual predators, Heller hopes people will believe her story. But she’s “terrified” about the response.
But she does want everyone to know the following:
“Girls can rape girls. Best friends can rape best friends.”
Heller never names the friends in her array of Tweets, but then wrote the following after posting her troubling tale:
“When I wrote this story about my assault, I initially wasn’t going to make the abuser. But I think it’s important for you all to know this is about Melanie Martinez.”
In turn, the singer, who rose to fame on The Voice Season 3, has responded.
Seemingly admitting to a sexual interaction between the pair, Martinez Tweeted late Monday:
“I am horrified and saddened by the statements and story told by Timothy Heller.
“What she and I shared was a close friendship … We tried to help each other. We both had pain in dealing with our individual demons…
“She never said no to what we chose to do together. And although we parted ways, I am sending her love and light always.”
We’ll update this story with further details if/when news breaks.
