Chris Noth is denying accusations of sexual assault brought forth by two women.
After the allegations were published by The Hollywood Reporter on Dec. 16, the 67-year-old And Just Like That… actor issued a statement, telling E! News, "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."
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the two women, who both used pseudonyms to protect their privacy, approached the outlet separately and do not know each other. Zoe, 40, reached out in October, telling the publication the alleged assault took place in Los Angeles in 2004, when she was a 22-year-old recent college graduate working for a firm where Noth and other stars did business.
She alleged Noth would walk by her desk and flirt with her, and after getting her work phone number from the directory, left voicemails her then-boss described to The Hollywood Reporter as "kind of flirty." The former boss told the outlet she found his alleged behavior odd but wasn't concerned at the time.
"This was peak Sex and the City," she said. "He was like a god to us."
That August, Zoe told The Hollywood Reporter, she and a friend accepted Noth's invitation to visit him at the pool of his West Hollywood apartment complex. Sitting in a jacuzzi, she shared, he gave her a book to look through he was considering for a project and then went inside. When Zoe entered his apartment to return the book, she alleges he kissed her. Though she says she tentatively kissed him back, she announced she was going to return to her friend when he allegedly took her to bed and raped her.
"It was very painful and I yelled out, ‘Stop!'" Zoe said. "And he didn't. I said, 'Can you at least get a condom?' and he laughed at me."
Afterwards, said Zoe, noting there was blood on her shirt, she went to a friend's apartment and told her and another pal about the alleged rape. Though a friend said Zoe was later taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the hospital told The Hollywood Reporter it does not keep records dating back to 2004. (Zoe's then-boss also told the outlet Zoe called her to tell her about the alleged rape though Zoe doesn't remember making that call.) She later sought counseling at the UCLA Rape Crisis Center, with the clinical director confirming to The Hollywood Reporter she received treatment there.
The Los Angeles Police Department told E! News it has not been presented with anything regarding the allegations against Noth. An NYPD spokesperson also told E! News there is "no report on file" regarding the allegation in New York. A public information spokesperson said, "The NYPD takes sexual assault and rape cases extremely seriously, and urges anyone who has been a victim to file a police report so we can perform a comprehensive investigation, and offer support and services to survivors."
Furthermore, Noth's attorney, Andrew Brettler, tells E! News in a statement, "No one from any law enforcement agency has contacted Chris or any of his representatives. Obviously if anyone does reach out, we will cooperate fully."
E! News has not independently spoken to the women.
The second woman, Lily, 31, reached out to The Hollywood Reporter in August about an alleged 2015 assault in New York.
When Lily, then 25, met Noth at the since-closed now closed No.8 nightclub, she was "star-struck" and "flattered" that he was hitting on her, she told THR. After he asked her out and they had dinner at Il Cantinori, she said, he invited her to his apartment to sample whiskey.
"We were listening to music, and he has all these books about art and fashion," Lily said. "He tried to make out with me. I cautiously entertained it. He's older and looked older. 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."
Lily told The Hollywood Reporter Noth thrust his penis into her mouth. When she brought up his wife, she noted, he allegedly replied, "'Marriage is a sham. Monogamy is not real.'"
Then, she said, "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."
Lily said she felt "totally violated" after the alleged assault and called an Uber. A friend told The Hollywood Reporter she advised Lily in the car to call the police but that Lily decided against it, a conversation Lily doesn't remember.
The friend also alleged Noth left a voicemail on Lily's phone. "It was, ‘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,'" she said.
According to Lily, Noth asked her to keep their alleged encounter "between you and me."
The Hollywood Reporter reviewed text messages reportedly exchanged between Noth and Lily in March and April 2015 in which Noth purportedly said their alleged encounter "was a lot of fun but I wasn't quite sure how you felt." Lily reportedly replied: "Hmm…I certainly enjoyed your company. Great conversation. Not to go into specifics over text message, but I did feel slightly used… Perhaps this is better as a phone conversation but I can't talk at the moment." Though they allegedly exchanged further texts, they never met up again.
Zoe, who works in the entertainment industry, told The Hollywood Reporter she had been fearful of repercussions if her identity was revealed. But after seeing Noth was reprising his role on the Sex and the City revival And Just Like That… it "set off something in me."
"For so many years, I buried it," she said, saying it was time "to try to go public with who he is."