Naked in bed, MeToo Asia and boy of 17 she denied having sex with
HARVEY Weinstein accuser Asia Argento has admitted having illicit sex with a former child star in a series of texts allegedly sent by her to a friend.
The messages emerged yesterday alongside a photo that appeared to show the actress, who was 37 at the time, naked in bed with Jimmy Bennett, who was then 17.
The MeToo figurehead had insisted on Tuesday that she had ‘never had any sexual relationship’ with the teenager after reports that she paid him £300,000 to stop a legal case against her.
But in the text messages obtained by the showbiz gossip website TMZ yester-
‘I didn’t know he was a minor’ The horny kid jumped me ... I had sex with him it felt weird Alleged text from Asia Argento to a friend
day, the star appears to acknowledge that the pair had sex in 2013 but claimed the ‘horny kid jumped me’.
In one of the messages, Miss Argento, now 42, tried to justify having sex with Bennett, saying: ‘ When I was 17, I was with a 33-year-old man for years.’
The Italian actress became a leading figure in the MeToo movement after accusing disgraced producer Weinstein of raping her at the Cannes Film Festival when she was 21.
But on Monday the New York Times reported that she had been served with a notice to sue by lawyers for Bennett, who accused her of ‘sexual battery’.
The texts released yesterday appear to contradict her strenuous denials on Tuesday. One of the messages said: ‘I had sex with him it felt weird. I didn’t know he was a minor until the shakedown letter.
‘The public knows nothing, only what NYT wrote. Which is one sided. The shakedown letter. The horny kid jumped me.’
Miss Argento has known Bennett, now 22, since he was seven, when he played her son in her 2004 film All initially Last Things, The night sought Heart which Bennett to Is she resolve Deceitful directed. said the he Above matter had privately, adding he was ‘ashamed and afraid to be part of the public narrative’. In a statement he said: ‘ My trauma resurfaced as she came out as a victim herself. I have had to overcome many adversities in my life, and this is another that I will deal with, in time. I would like to move past this event in my life, and today I choose to move forward, no longer in silence.’
The source of yesterday’s texts and photo is not known but TMZ claimed they were between Miss Argento and a friend. Asked in the series of messages about the picture of her and Bennett apparently in bed together, she responded: ‘You can see my t***. That’s all. It doesn’t mean s***.’ Monday’s report revealed that in November she received a notice to sue over the incident said to have taken place in a hotel room in Marina del Rey, California, in 2013.
The age of consent in the American state is 18.
The legal notice claims Miss Argento lured the teenager to her room and plied him with alcohol before pushing him on to the bed and performing a sex act on him. She then allegedly climbed on top of him and had sex with him.
The original notice asked for £2.7million in damages for the ‘infliction of emotional distress, lost wages, assault and battery’.
Bennett’s lawyers claimed the ‘sexual battery’ was so traumatic it affected his acting career. Miss Argento settled the claim out of court earlier this year for £300,000.