Actress Rose McGowan has issued a public apology to Asia Argento. And though Argento, who is embroiled in her own sexual assault scandal, accepted, she implied that it came too late.
“Although I am grateful to @rosemcgowan for her full apology following her groundless allegations about me, if she had issued it earlier, I may have kept my job on X-Factor and avoided the constant accusations of paedophilia which I have been subjected to in real-life and online,” the Italian actress tweeted on Thursday.
Argento was fired as a judge on X-Factor Italy in late August just after compromising photos of her and her former costar Jimmy Bennett surfaced.
She added: “Now go on, live your life and stop hurting other people, will you Rose? Best wishes.”
Argento and McGowan fostered a friendship this year as outspoken voices of the #MeToo movement. But the women, who both accused disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct, have been at odds in recent weeks over accusations by Bennett alleging that Argento sexually assaulted him when he was 17 and paying him $380,000 (Dh1.39 million) in hush money. (The payments were reportedly made by Argento’s boyfriend, the late chef Anthony Bourdain.)
Argento threatened McGowan with legal action earlier this month if the Charmed star did not retract and apologise for what Argento called the”horrendous lies” McGowan leveled against her in an August 27 statement.
In those alleged “lies,” McGowan contended that her partner, model Rain Dove, told her that in a series of text messages that Argento admitted to having sex with Bennett, 20 years her junior, in 2013.
Argento has repeatedly denied Bennett’s allegation of assault, which resurfaced this week when the young actor shared his story on Italian television.
But on Thursday, McGowan, issued her apology on Twitter and appeared to recuse herself from the scandal.
“I deeply regret not correcting my mistake sooner and apologize to Asia for not doing so,” she wrote.
McGowan said she realised that her August 27 statement “contained a number of facts that were not correct,” then proceeded to explain what she got wrong.
“I said that the unsolicited nude text messages Asia received from Jimmy had been sent since Jimmy was 12 years old,” McGowan said. “In fact, I had misunderstood the messages that Asia exchanged with my partner Rain Dove, which made clear that Jimmy had sent Asia inappropriate text messages only after they met up again when he was 17 (still legally a minor in California, but notably different from a 12-year-old.”
McGowan said she challenged why Argento had not acted as “a responsible adult would” if they received sexually explicit messages from a 12-year-old.
And she realised that does not apply in the same way when the situation involves a 17-year-old, “who had admitted harboring misguided fantasies about their mentor since they were 12,” she added.
McGowan also said she would not comment further on what allegedly transpired between Argento and Bennett.
