Amy Smart Defends Husband Carter Oosterhouse After Sexual Misconduct Accusations

Just Friends actress has a lot to say about recent allegations made against her spouse

By Corinne Heller, Meg Swertlow Dec 16, 2017 11:29 PMTags
Carter Oosterhouse, Amy SmartDavid Livingston/Getty Images

After HGTV star Carter Oosterhouse was accused of sexual misconduct on Thursday, his wife actress Amy Smart is speaking out in a lengthy Instagram post.

On Saturday, the 41-year-old took to social media to defend her husband since 2011.

The Just Friends actress wrote, "We are in a climate right now where it's so wonderful and needed to have women coming forward to break their silence; it is vital and important for female equality. Period. A lot of the stories are horrific and need to be brought to light." She says that the story about her husband has been taken, "too far and boundaries are being crossed."

Earlier in the week, Kailey Kaminsky, 44, told The Hollywood Reporter that during production of Oosterhouse's HGTV show Carter Can in 2008, he allegedly started coercing her into performing repeated acts of oral sex. She said she lost her job after she took time off from work to treat anxiety and a stomach ulcer and that after she was fired and then hospitalized for depression.

The 41-year-old carpenter and TV personality has admitted to a past intimate relationship with the accuser, his former makeup artist, but said that it was "100 percent mutual and consensual."

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Hollywood's Many Men Accused of Sexual Misconduct

We are in a climate right now where it’s so wonderful and needed to have women coming forward to break their silence; it is vital and important for female equality. Period. A lot of the stories are horrific and need to be brought to light. This story, about my husband, Carter Oosterhouse, on the other hand, is now taking it too far and boundaries are being crossed. When you are in a CONSENSUAL RELATIONSHIP, then you need to take responsibility for engaging in that and not play victim. IF a relationship does not work out the way you want it to, then sorry, but that is the risk you take when getting intimate with another person. There are plenty of relationships I wish I could go back and make different choices about, but it was on me to decide. We need to take responsibility and learn from our mistakes and choices. Women are powerful and we need to be reminded of the strength and power we hold and learn ways to take care of ourselves so we don’t find ourselves saying yes when we really need to say no. The article is very damaging and cruel to one of the most kindest, loving, non-aggressive men I have the privilege of knowing and I am so sorry for these salacious words being thrown around, they are extremely hurtful. This type of reporting needs to stop, it’s so damaging for personal lives and careers and just not fair. Enough is enough, this is a plea to the writers, outlets and media…More due diligence needs to be done before crafting headlines and stories. Have discernment when you tell a story and please consider the source and story before just printing anything to get readers and viewers. #lovethesetwo

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Smart continued, "When you are in a CONSENSUAL RELATIONSHIP, then you need to take responsibility for engaging in that and not play victim. IF a relationship does not work out the way you want it to, then sorry, but that is the risk you take when getting intimate with another person. There are plenty of relationships I wish I could go back and make different choices about, but it was on me to decide."

Smart added in the post, which featured the couple's daughter Flora, that she believed articles that covered the reporting of allegations had the potential to do much harm.

"The article is very damaging and cruel to one of the most kindest, loving, non-aggressive men I have the privilege of knowing and I am so sorry for these salacious words being thrown around, they are extremely hurtful," she wrote. "This type of reporting needs to stop, it's so damaging for personal lives and careers and just not fair. Enough is enough, this is a plea to the writers, outlets and media…More due diligence needs to be done before crafting headlines and stories. Have discernment when you tell a story and please consider the source and story before just printing anything to get readers and viewers."

At the time of the allegations, Oosterhouse told E! News in a statement, "I had an intimate relationship with Kailey nine years ago and it was 100 percent mutual and consensual.

"In no way did I ever feel, nor was it ever indicated to me, that Kailey was uncomfortable during our intimate relationship. I would have never done anything that I was not sure was mutually agreeable."

"The reality is that I knew it was consensual because she initiated it the first time and many of the 15 or so times we had relations thereafter," he said. "We were together outside of work and I considered her a friend."

Kaminsky said Oosterhouse's initial advances towards her were especially surprising because she identifies as a lesbian. He said in his statement he did not know of her sexuality.

Kaminsky said she took a week-long absence from the show due to anxiety and was hospitalized for a stomach ulcer. She said Carter Can director Patrick Jager was unaware of her situation and told her she would not be returning the following season, citing her absence. Jager told The Hollywood Reporter that he does not recall the reason her contract wasn't renewed.

"I didn't have anything to do with her not being invited back to the show—that was a producer decision," Oosterhouse said in his statement.

Kaminsky said that she descended into a depression and underwent in-patient treatment. Kaimsky said that a year after she left the show, she told an official at its production company about Oosterhouse. She said the reality star later called her and apologized, stating, "I'm so sorry. I thought it was mutual."

"I did say I thought it was mutual—because it was," Oosterhouse told The Hollywood Reporter. "I didn't apologize because I never did anything wrong. That's the God's honest truth. I felt bad that she was, in that moment, not-super-positive."

Kaminsky also told The Hollywood Reporter that when she worked with Ooosterhouse, she told two female Carter Can producers about him and "definitely went out of my way to pretend it was something that I was participating in willfully," adding, "It was Stockholm Syndrome-y, justifying-what-you're-doing."

One of the producers told the outlet that the relationship "didn't seem like it was abusive."

Kaminsky's allegations come amid a growing #MeToo movement of people, mostly women, speaking out about alleged sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein and other powerful men in Hollywood, politics and the news business. Earlier this month, Time magazine revealed its Person of the Year—the "silence breakers."

In his statement to E! News, Oosterhouse made sure to say that he is "very passionate about what is a happening right now with the #MeToo movement, especially because I have so many strong woman in my life, like my wife, mother, sister and of course my little baby girl."

"While we have not been in production with Carter Oosterhouse on an HGTV series for many years, we take matters such as this very seriously," HGTV said in a statement to E! News. "We do not tolerate harassment of any kind."