LONDON (AP) – Three British information organizations reported Saturday that comic and social influencer Russell Model has been accused of rape, sexual assault and abuse primarily based on allegations from 4 ladies who knew him over a seven-year interval on the peak of his fame.
Model denied the allegations and stated that each one of his relationships have been consensual.
The Sunday Instances, The Instances of London and Channel 4’s “Dispatches” stated that one girl alleged she had been raped, whereas three others accused him of sexual assault. One of many ladies additionally stated he had been bodily and emotionally abusive.
The ladies stated that they solely felt prepared to inform their tales after being approached by reporters, with some citing Model’s newfound prominence as an internet wellness influencer as an element of their determination to talk.
Earlier than the tales had been revealed, Model posted a video on-line denying the allegations, which had been outlined in two “extraordinarily disturbing letters” from a “mainstream media” tv firm and a newspaper. He didn’t establish the information organizations by title.
“Amidst this litany of astonishing, fairly baroque assaults are some very critical allegations that I completely refute,” he stated. “These allegations pertain to the time after I was working within the mainstream, after I was within the newspapers on a regular basis, after I was within the films and, as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I used to be very, very promiscuous.”
“Now throughout that point of promiscuity the relationships I had had been completely, all the time consensual,” he added. “I used to be all the time clear about that then, nearly too clear, and I’m being clear about it now as effectively.”
Model additionally steered that the stories had been a part of a coordinated assault designed to discredit him due to his views. Model has been criticized for expressing skepticism about COVID-19 vaccines and interviewing contentious podcasters like Joe Rogan.
“To see that transparency metastasized into one thing felony, that I completely deny, makes me query, is there one other agenda at play?” Model stated.
Model rose to fame as a stand-up comedian in Britain within the early 2000s, which led to starring roles on Channel 4 and later BBC Radio, the place he capitalized on a status for outrageous habits and risque banter.
He later made the leap to Hollywood, showing in movies equivalent to “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” in 2008 and the remake of “Arthur” in 2011. Model was married to U.S. pop star Katy Perry from 2010-2012.
Lately, he remodeled himself right into a political commentator and influencer posting YouTube movies on topics equivalent to private freedom and the COVID-19 pandemic.
