Chris Noth Is Accused of Sexual Assault By Two Women

Following the return of Sex and the City in its modern-day reboot And Just Like That…, Chris Noth, who briefly reprised his role as Mr. Big, has been accused of sexual assault by two women, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter. The women, using the pseudonyms Zoe and Lily, contacted the outlet separately months apart and claimed Noth had assaulted them in 2004 and 2015 respectively.

Zoe told THR that she had “buried” the memory of the incident “for so many years,” but “seeing that he was reprising his role in Sex and the City set off something in me.” Zoe said she met Noth at the firm she worked at shortly after moving to Hollywood at 22, and one day Noth invited her and a friend to the pool of his West Hollywood apartment building. When he asked Zoe to bring a book he left by the pool to his apartment, she says he assaulted her shortly after entered.

Per THR:

He pulled her toward him, moved her toward the bed, pulled off her shorts and bikini bottom, and began to rape her from behind. She was facing a mirror. “It was very painful and I yelled out, ‘Stop!’” she says. “And he didn’t. I said, ‘Can you at least get a condom?’ and he laughed at me.”

When it was over, she says, “I realized there was blood on my shirt. I got out of there. I went to my friend’s apartment [in the same building].” The friend visiting from college was already there, she says. “I walked right in and went to the bathroom and tried to get the blood out of my shirt. They wanted to know what happened. I said, ‘I just want to go home.’” The visiting friend pursued her, and said, “You’re scaring me.”

Zoe’s friend told THR that Zoe seemed different when she came back from Noth’s apartment and recalls that the two went to Cedars-Sinai hospital, where Zoe got stitches. They told staff at the hospital that Zoe had been assaulted but didn’t disclose who had done it, as Zoe feared she would get fired if she publicly accused Noth. Two years after the incident, still struggling with nightmares and flashbacks, Zoe told THR she sought treatment at UCLA’s Rape Crisis Center, which confirmed that she had received counseling from them.

Lily, now a journalist, also reached out to THR and told the outlet that in 2015, when she was a server, she met Noth at a nightclub and he asked her to dinner. As a super-fan of his work on Law and Order and Sex and the City, she agreed. Lily said she “was not super sexually active,” and at the time, she thought, “‘We’re going to drink whiskey and talk about his acting career.’ It sounds so stupid.”

When they got to his apartment, Lily told THR:

“We were listening to music, and he has all these books about art and fashion. He tried to make out with me. I cautiously entertained it. … He kept trying and trying and trying, and I should have said no more firmly and left. And then the next thing I knew, he pulled down his pants and he was standing in front of me. … He was having sex with me from the back in a chair. We were in front of a mirror. I was kind of crying as it happened.”

After the encounter, Lily says she felt “awful” and “totally violated.” Her friend Alex told THR that Lily called her from the Uber she was taking home, and was “pretty hysterical,” telling Alex that Noth had “pretty forcibly” had sex with her. The following day, both Lily and Alex say that Noth left Lily a voicemail about the evening, with slightly different memories of what he said.

According to Alex, Noth’s voicemail said: “Hey, hope you didn’t take anything wrong last night. We had fun. Just want to make sure you didn’t take it the wrong way.” Alex said the message seemed “very much, ‘I know I did something bad, but I’m trying to make it seem like it wasn’t a big deal.’” According to Lily, Noth’s voicemail said: “I had a nice time and would really appreciate it if you wouldn’t talk to your girlfriends. If we could keep this between you and me, that would be great.”

Lily says they continued to communicate over text politely, with Noth trying to see her again. But Lily eventually stopped returning his messages, which she shared with THR.

Noth has denied the allegations against him in a statement to THR:

“The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false. These stories could’ve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago — no always means no — that is a line I did not cross. The encounters were consensual. It’s difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I don’t know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.”

Noth appeared in the first episode of AJLT, though his character, Mr. Big, died of a heart attack after working out on his Peloton bike by the end of the episode. The major character death sent shockwaves across the internet, and led Noth to partner with Peloton for a viral ad.

Neither Peloton nor Noth’s Sex and the City cast mates have spoken out in response to the allegations against Noth yet. Jezebel will update this post if and when they do.