Aziz Ansari has issued a statement in response to some pretty damning allegations.
Over the weekend, a photographer went public with details of date gone horribly wrong she says took place between her and Ansari in September.
The woman, who goes by the name “Grace” in her account to Babe.net, says she me the actor at a post-Emmys party last fall.
After exchanging phone numbers, she and the Master of None star went out one night before ending up back at Ansari’s apartment.
It was then, the woman alleges, that Ansari became sexually aggressive.
She says he immediately went to get a condom, not long after the two started kissing, and that she continually placed her hand on his penis.
“He probably moved my hand to his dick five to seven times,” she told the aforementioned website. “He really kept doing it after I moved it away.”
Grace explained that Aziz briefly performed oral sex on her and vice versa, but that she also made it clear she didn’t want anything to progress further.
In her recounting of the incident, Grace emphasizes that Ansari ignored her “verbal and non verbal cues.”
After finally stopping their hook-up and collecting her emotions in the bathroom, Grace says she hoped to finish the night on a happy note.
But even after acknowledging that he didn’t want to pursue sex if Grace wasn’t also having “fun,” Ansari pressured her again into going down on him and into making out a lot more.
“It took a really long time for me to validate this as sexual assault,” she told Babe, adding:
“I was debating if this was an awkward sexual experience or sexual assault.
“And that’s why I confronted so many of my friends and listened to what they had to say, because I wanted validation that it was actually bad.”
After their encounter, Grace sent Ansari a text that detailed how he made her feel, saying in part:
“You kept going with advances. You had to have noticed I was uncomfortable.”
The actor responded with contrition.
Grace shared both of these messages with Babe.net. First, a look at hers:
Now, a look at what Ansari said in reply:
The alleged victim concluded that this was the “worst experience” she ever had with a man and that it made her sick to see Ansari with a Time’s Up pin at the Golden Globes, claiming to support the #MeToo movement.
A few hours after she made these claims, Ansari responded with a statement through his publicist.
It reads as follows:
In September of last year, I met a woman at a party. We exchanged numbers.
We texted back and forth and eventually went on a date. We went out to dinner, and afterwards we ended up engaging in sexual activity, which by all indications was completely consensual.
The next day, I got a text from her saying that although ‘it may have seemed okay,’ upon further reflection, she felt uncomfortable.
It was true that everything did seem okay to me, so when I heard that it was not the case for her, I was surprised and concerned.
I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said.
I continue to support the movement that is happening in our culture. It is necessary and long overdue.
We’ll continue to update this story as more news breaks.
Do you think Ansari deserves to be included among the accused men of Hollywood for his actions in this case?