Chris Noth accused of sexual assault by 2 women
Chris Noth has been accused of sexual assault by two women.
The 67-year-old actor best known for playing Mr. Big on Sex and the City and its spin-off And Just Like That... denies the past allegations, which the women claim occurred in 2004 and 2015.
"The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false," Noth, who also stars in TV's The Equalizer says to Yahoo Entertainment in a statement. "These stories could've been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago — no always means no — that is a line I did not cross. The encounters were consensual. It's difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I don't know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women."
The Hollywood Reporter outlines the allegations made by two women, who approached the outlet separately. For the story, they go by the pseudonyms Lily, who is a journalist, and Zoe, who works in the entertainment industry, as the women are fearful of repercussions.
Zoe, who contacted the outlet in October, claims she was assaulted in Los Angeles in 2004 — the year the hit Sex and the City ended its initial run. She said at age 22 she was working in an entry-level job for a high-profile firm where Noth, then 49, and other celebrities did business. He would flirt with her and got her number and soon started leaving voicemails for her at work. ("This was peak Sex and the City," she said. "He was like a god to us.")
The NYC-based actor invited her to a West Hollywood apartment and went with a friend to meet him at the pool in the building. He later invited her to his apartment, under the guise of returning a book he left for her to look at. She claimed that as soon as she walked into his apartment, he started to kiss her. She wasn't initially startled — thinking it would be a funny story to tell friends "Mr. Big" kissed her — but as she tried to leave, she claims he pulled her toward him, took off her clothes and raped her from behind. Saying "stop" didn't work nor did asking him to "at least get a condom," she said. She claimed he laughed in response to the latter.
Zoe said there was blood on her shirt when she fled to her friend's apartment in the same building. That friend drove her to Cedars-Sinai hospital, where she said she told staff she had been assaulted and was given stitches, medicine and counseling. Police came, but she didn't name him.
Zoe's former boss said she called her after she left the hospital and said Noth attacked her. At Zoe's request, the former boss did not disclose the attack to anyone. Zoe's friend also corroborated Zoe's account. Cedars told the outlet they do not keep records dating back to 2004.
Zoe said she had nightmares and flashbacks after and had trouble concentrating at work. In 2006, she sought counseling at the UCLA Rape Crisis Center with treatment lasting months.
The second accuser, Lily, contacted THR in August. She was 25 when she met Noth, then 60, in 2015 when she was a server in the VIP section of a now-closed NYC nightclub. She said she knew him from SATC and Law & Order, admitting she was "truly star-struck. He was hitting on me, for sure. I was flattered. I knew he was married, which is shameful of me to admit."
Noth — who has been married to Tara Wilson, with whom he shares two sons, since 2012 — took Lily's number and invited her to dinner at Il Cantinori, which was featured in a SATC episode. When she arrived at the time he picked, the kitchen was closed, so they had drinks at the bar. She ended up having too much to drink on their "date," she admitted, but hadn't blacked out, and he invited her to his nearby Greenwich Village apartment.
"I was not super sexually active, not wild and crazy," Lily told the outlet. She now finds it “humiliating” to admit she didn’t think he would try to sleep with her. "I thought, 'We're going to drink whiskey and talk about his acting career.' It sounds so stupid."
She said Noth kept trying to make out with her and she "should have said 'no' more firmly and left." However, "the next thing I knew, he pulled down his pants and he was standing in front of me." She said he forced her to perform oral sex. Then next thing she knew, "He was having sex with me... I was kind of crying as it happened." She went to the bathroom after "feeling awful" and "totally violated" and then called an Uber to pick her up.
Lily claimed Noth later left a voicemail, saying something like: "I had a nice time and would really appreciate it if you wouldn't talk to your girlfriends. If we could keep this between you and me, that would be great." She provided texts to the outlet with one reportedly asking how she felt about their night, she replied that she felt "slightly used" and said it was better as a phone conversation. He tried to make plans to meet, including inviting her back to his apartment, and she replied in a friendly manner. At one point she agreed to meet him at dinner but then canceled. They never met again with Noth writing after she apparently stopped replying, "Oh mysterious one… where did you go."
THR spoke to Lily's friend, who said she called her from her Uber ride home. The friend said Lily was "pretty hysterical" saying Noth "pretty forcibly" had sex with her. Lily wouldn't let her friend contact the police.
Noth is part of the SATC reboot, HBO Max's And Just Like That..., which premiered on Dec. 9. His character, the businessman husband of Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw, had a pivotal plotline in the first episode. He subsequently starred in a new TV ad because of it and it's been a big deal. He has gotten a lot of press for it over the last week. But it's all spoilers galore for the show, so click on the links at your own will.
