Evan Rachel Wood Names Marilyn Manson As Her Abuser

Actress Evan Rachel Wood has alleged that her ex-fiancée Marilyn Manson abused her while they were in a relationship.

Wood has publicly talked about being a survivor of domestic violence since 2016, and even testified before Congress in 2018 about her experience in order to advocate for a bill that would increase legal protections for abuse survivors in all 50 states. But this is the first time that she’s claimed that the person responsible was Manson.

On her Instagram on February 1, Wood posted a statement that read: “The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson. He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years. I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail. I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives. I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.”

Wood (now 33) and Manson first made their relationship public in 2007 when she was 19 and he was 38. The pair got engaged in 2010, but broke up a few months later that year. 

Following Wood’s statement, Vanity Fair published excerpts of statements from three other women accusing Manson of abuse “in a show of solidarity.” A fourth reportedly also came forward, but deleted her post. Their accounts include allegations of emotional abuse, sexual assault, and coercion. "I have night terrors, PTSD, anxiety, and mostly crippling OCD. I try to wash constantly to get him out or off of me…. I am coming forward so he will finally stop," wrote Ashley Lindsay Morgan, one of the accusers.

"I suffer from mental health issues and PTSD that have affected my personal and professional relationships, self-worth and personal goals," wrote another accuser named Sarah McNeilly. "I believe he gets off on ruining people’s lives. I stand in support of all that have and all will come forward. I want to see Brian held accountable for his evil.” Manson has not yet responded to these allegations.

Manson has denied similar allegations in the past, most recently in November 2020. His PR team released a lengthy statement in response to questions about his relationship with Wood in an interview with Metal Hammer, using his friendships with other exes like Rose McGowan and Dita Von Teese to somehow prove that he wasn't Wood's alleged abuser. “You mention Manson’s ex fiancée Rose McGowan in your questions," they wrote. "Rose is one of the bravest and most outspoken figureheads of the Me Too movement. Manson remains friends with McGowan and she talks very fondly of their three a half years together."

During Wood's 2018 Congressional testimony advocating for the Sexual Assault Survivor’s Bill of Rights Act, she explained her experience with domestic violence as “toxic mental, physical and sexual abuse which started slow but escalated over time, including threats against my life, severe gaslighting and brainwashing, waking up to the man that claimed to love me raping what he believed to be my unconscious body.” In 2019, Wood created and testified in California for the Phoenix Act — a bill that extended the statute of limitations on domestic violence from three to five years (it was signed into law in January 2020). She described more of her alleged abuse from the same perpetrator (allegedly Manson), including a time when she tried to leave him and in response he tied her up and "shocked sensitive parts of [her] body with a torture device called a violet wand" in order for her to "prove [her] loyalty."

In May 2018, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that a police report was filed against Manson, which cited sex crimes that allegedly took place back in 2011. A few months later, Los Angeles District’s Attorney office said that it was wouldn't pursue the case any further because it lacked "corroborating evidence." Manson’s attorney told THR that the “allegations made to the police were and are categorically denied by Mr. Warner and are either completely delusional or part of a calculated attempt to generate publicity…. Any claim of sexual impropriety or imprisonment at that, or any other, time is false.”

Refinery29 reached out to Manson for comment.