A Model Who Previously Sued Marilyn Manson For Sexual Assault Now Says Evan Rachel Wood Pressured Her To Make The Allegations

A model who previously accused Marilyn Manson of sexual assault now says that Westworld actor Evan Rachel Wood pressured her into making the allegations.

In a declaration filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday, Ashley Morgan Smithline said the allegations were not true and that she eventually gave in to the pressure to make the accusations after Wood repeatedly told her that just because she couldn't remember "did not necessarily mean that it did not happen." Attorneys for Manson, whose legal name is Brian Hugh Warner, filed the declaration as part of the musician's defamation suit against Wood and Ashley Gore, also known as Illma Gore.

"While at first I knew Mr. Warner did not do these things to me, eventually I began to question whether he actually did," Smithline said.

The model said that on "numerous occasions" she was told by Wood and Game of Thrones actor Esmé Bianco, who recently settled a lawsuit accusing Manson of rape, about what happened to them. In 2021, Wood, who had spoken for years about being in an abusive relationship, identified Manson as the former partner on social media as Smithline and three others also posted about the alleged sexual, physical, and emotional abuse they suffered from Manson.

Wood, who was engaged to Manson in 2010, said on her Instagram that the singer started “grooming” her when she was a teenager and continued to abuse her for years.

"I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission,” she wrote.

In her declaration, Smithline said Wood, Bianco, and others had asked whether the same things had happened to her and told her that she "may just be misremembering what happened" or "repressing [her] memories of what happened."

"Eventually, I started to believe that what I was repeatedly told happened to Ms. Wood and Ms. Bianco also happened to me," Smithline said.

Smithline also claimed that Gore had drafted and posted the statement on her Instagram accusing Manson of abuse after Wood had encouraged her and others to go public with their allegations when she did.

A spokesperson for Wood denied Smithline's claims, saying that the actor "never pressured or manipulated" the model.