Rose McGowan says someone in Harvey Weinstein’s inner circle offered her $1 million in late September to stay quiet about sexual assault allegations against the Hollywood mogul, The New York Times reported.
The “Charmed” actress said she initially responded to the offer, which required her to sign a nondisclosure agreement, by asking for $6 million instead, but quickly asked her lawyer to withdraw the counter.
“I had all these people I’m paying telling me to take it so that I could fund my art,” McGowan, 44, told the Times in a interview published Saturday. “But I was like — ew, gross, you’re disgusting, I don’t want your money, that would make me feel disgusting.”
The Times published a damning exposé in early October that described multiple women’s sexual harassment allegations against Weinstein. Days later, The New Yorker published an article detailing even more allegations, ranging from inappropriate comments to rape.
A representative for Weinstein has denied “any allegations of non-consensual sex.”
McGowan, who alleged she was raped by Weinstein in his hotel room roughly 20 years ago, reached a $100,000 settlement with him in 1997, but didn’t know know until this summer that it had not included a confidentiality clause. She had spoken publicly about being sexually assaulted by a powerful Hollywood executive in the past, though she didn’t identify her alleged abuser as Weinstein until after the New Yorker report came out.
Dozens of women, including Angelina Jolie and Kate Beckinsale, have come forward accusing Weinstein of sexual abuse since the initial allegations became public. The reports prompted Weinstein’s dismissal from The Weinstein Company, which he co-founded in 2005, and his removal from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Representatives for McGowan and Weinstein did not immediately return requests for comment.