A woman who publicly accused singer Marilyn Manson of rape has come out and admitted that the allegations were fabricated.
Ashley Morgan Smithline, 38, argued that she had been "manipulated" by the singer's ex-girlfriend, Evan Rachel Wood, into making false accusations about his conduct.
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"I succumbed to pressure from Evan Rachel Wood and her associates to make accusations of rape and assault against [Manson] that were not true,” Smithline said in a declaration obtained by Page Six.
Smithline, who dated Manson briefly in 2010, explained that she was coerced by Wood and her girlfriend, Illma Gore, into participating in group meetings with other women who claimed the singer had abused them.
During the meetings, Smithline was allegedly asked whether Manson "whipped, chained, tied up, branded, cut, assaulted while sleeping, beaten, or raped" her, but she denied that anything like that had taken place.
She claimed that Wood refused to accept her answers, and suggested that, "just because she could not remember" such things, that "didn't necessarily mean that it did not happen." Wood even went so far as to posit that Smithline had "repressed" potentially traumatic memories.
Smithline said she eventually began to question things herself, and filed a lawsuit against Manson in 2021. The suit was later dismissed, however when the story first broke, Smithline appeared on The View and went into detail about the alleged abuse she suffered at the hands of Manson.
Smithline, who is Jewish, accused Manson of raping her while cutting her with a swastika-covered knife, and putting his hand in her mouth during sex.
According to Page Six, Smithline eventually contacted Manson's lawyer Howard King to apologize to the singer for having lied. In the letter, she also noted that she had never been motivated by money, and hadn't received any financial compensation for fabricating the story.
Smithline is one of a dozen women who have accused Manson of sexual abuse, however no formal charges have been filed in any case.
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