British star hits back at actress’s rape allegation on Facebook
BRITISH actor Ed Westwick last night denied accusations by an American actress that he had raped her.
The 30-year-old, who is best known for his lead role in US drama Gossip Girl, is alleged to have attacked Kristina Cohen following dinner with a producer at his Hollywood Hills home in 2014.
However, the London-born actor, who is set to star in a BBC Agatha Christie remake this Christmas, fiercely denied the reports yesterday, saying he did not know Miss Cohen, has ‘never forced himself on any woman’ and has ‘certainly never committed rape’.
In a post on her public Facebook account, Miss Cohen said she had been left ‘paralysed’ and ‘terrified’ by the alleged ordeal after falling asleep in Mr Westwick’s home in Los Angeles, and had decided to speak out after the sexual assaults scandal around Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
The 27-year-old wrote: ‘So I went and laid down in the guest room. I was woken up abruptly by Ed on top of me. 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*** me. I was paralysed, terrified. I couldn’t speak, I could no longer move. He held me down and raped me.’
But Mr Westwick, who now lives in east London, took to social media yesterday to rubbish the allegations, writing: ‘I do not know this woman. I have never forced myself in any manner, on any woman. I certainly have never committed rape’.
In the lengthy Facebook post, Miss Cohen said she met Mr Westwick through a boyfriend, a producer who was friends with the actor. She wrote: ‘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***”. 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 an uncomfortable situation. Ed suggested I nap in the guest bedroom.’
After telling the unnamed producer about the alleged rape, she said he told her she should not tell anyone as Mr Westwick had the ‘power’ to ‘destroy’ her career.
Mr Westwick is the son of an educational psychologist and university lecturer, and grew up in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, with no connections with the acting world.
But after studying a GCSE in drama at school, and taking part in a two- week course at the National Youth Theatre, he later moved to LA to pursue a career and quickly rose to fame, eventu- ally moving into a £7million mansion. He became most well-known for playing hedonistic Chuck Bass in Gossip Girl, which ran for six seasons between 2007 and 2012.
Representatives for Mr Westwick and Miss Cohen did not respond to requests for comment.