Rose McGowan, who accused Harvey Weinstein of rape, says that a month ago she was offered a large sum of money by “someone close to” the producer in exchange for her silence.
The actress declined the $1 million offer one day before the Oct. 5 New York Times exposé revealed decades of alleged sexual harassment and misconduct by Weinstein.
Through her lawyer, McGowan told the Times on Saturday that “someone close to Mr. Weinstein” offered her $1 million in exchange for signing a nondisclosure agreement that would prevent her from speaking out against Weinstein.
READ MORE: Rose McGowan delivers powerful speech in 1st public appearance since Weinstein allegations
According to the Times, the offer came just as several women were about to come forward with their claims of sexual misconduct against Weinstein in the exposé published by the newspaper.
The Times had initially reported that McGowan had reached a $100,000 settlement with Weinstein after a 1997 incident in a hotel room at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. McGowan did not comment in the Oct. 5 story.
McGowan said she considered the offer but countered with $6 million.
“I had all these people I’m paying telling me to take it so that I could fund my art,” she said. “I figured I could probably have gotten him up to three. But I was like, ‘Ew, gross, you’re disgusting, I don’t want your money, that would make me feel disgusting.’”
WATCH: The latest on Rose McGowan and Harvey Weinstein
-
![]()
Rose McGowan calls out Seth MacFarlane and ‘Game of Thrones’ in message to Hollywood -
![]()
Thousands join Twitter movement with #WomenBoyCottTwitter -
![]()
Ashley Judd says she had ‘no warning’ prior to meeting with Harvey Weinstein -
![]()
Actress Natassia Malthe accuses Harvey Weinstein of rape -
![]()
Over 50 different women have now made accusations against Harvey Weinstein
%20Good%20Morning%20America%20-%20Videos(3).00_00_03_02.Still001.jpg?w=1200&quality=70&strip=all)
READ MORE: ‘Sopranos’ actress Annabella Sciorra says Harvey Weinstein raped her
Get breaking National news
Within a day of the Times publishing the story, McGowan directed her lawyer to pull the offer. She told the Times that she became aware of the fact that her settlement did not include a confidentiality clause.
Weinstein, through his spokesperson, has denied “any allegations of non-consensual sex.”
After the initial Times story mentioning McGowan’s settlement was published, a lawyer for Weinstein said in a statement that the article is “saturated with false and defamatory statements” and that “No company ever talks about settlements, and neither does the recipient, so I don’t know how the Times came to this conclusion, but it is pure conjecture; the reporters have made assumptions.”
McGowan also spoke to the Times about her 1997 alleged encounter with Weinstein. She said that her manager at the time told her to meet the producer at a restaurant and that they were directed upstairs to Weinstein’s suite by the maître d’.
READ MORE: Women’s Convention builds on #MeToo to discuss sexual abuse, women in politics
She said she passed two male assistants on the way in and said “they wouldn’t look me in the eye.”
McGowan said she had a brief business meeting with Weinstein and that she sat at the far end of a couch, while he sat in a chair. On the way out, she said he pointed out that the hotel had a hot tub.
“And then what happened, happened,” she said. “Suffice it to say a door opened and my life changed.”
She declined to elaborate but she said she fought back tears as she left the hotel suite and went to a press event where she claims she told Ben Affleck and her then-manager Jill Messick about what had happened.
READ MORE: Harvey Weinstein sues The Weinstein Co. for company records
McGowan said she was made to feel as though filing criminal charges against Weinstein would have been hopeless, and recalled being told, “You’re an actress, you’ve done a sex scene, you’re done.”
The news came one day after she publicly broke her silence since her Weinstein allegations, during the Women’s Convention in Detroit.
McGowan delivered a powerful speech at the Women’s Convention, calling on women to fight back against a culture of sexual harassment, saying “the scarlet letter is theirs; it is not ours. We are pure, we are strong, we are brave and we will fight.”
“I have been silenced for 20 years,” McGowan began. “I have been slut-shamed. I have been harassed. I have been maligned, and you know what? I’m just like you because what happened to me behind the scenes happens to all of us in this society.”
Comments