Actor Chris Noth, who plays Mr. Big in "Sex and the City", has been accused of sexual assault by two women in separate incidents that happened over a decade apart, according to reports. The two women, identified as Zoe, 40, and Lily, 31 (both pseudonyms), do not know each other and shared their stories with THR separately, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The 67-year-old actor has, however, denied the claims saying that the accusations of assault are "categorically false". The report comes just days after the release of the HBO show's much-awaited spin-off and. Noth in the show reprises his role as Mr. Big but dies in the end.
Shocking Accusations
The two women, Zoe and Lily don't know each other and shared their stories with THR separately. Both the women were compelled to speak out due to the media coverage surrounding the new "Sex and the City" sequel series, "And Just Like That", where Noth plays Mr. Big.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Noth preyed upon the two women, one in 2004 and the other in 2015, after luring them into private areas and then forcing himself upon them. The first victim was Zoe, who was 22 years old when Noth allegedly raped her at an apartment in West Hollywood in 2004.
The second accuser, Lily, says she was raped in his Greenwich Village apartment in New York City in 2015 when she was 25 and he was 60. One of the women said that Noth was so rough on her while raping her that was left bleeding and had to go to a hospital for treatment.
The other woman said she was left "totally violated," but didn't report it after he called and left her a message trying to minimize what happened.
The detailed article for THR, by journalist Kim Masters, also contains interviews of people such as Zoe's boss at the time, a rape treatment centre and a friend of Lily's whose accounts all seem to back up both women's claims.
The article also quotes text messages purportedly between Noth and Lily at the time of the alleged assault.
Refuting the Claims
The report comes just days after the release of HBO's show "And Just Like That", a spin-off of "Sex and the City." The television legend reprises his role as Mr. Big on the show but is killed off in the first episode.
"[S]eeing that he was reprising his role in Sex and the City set off something in me," said Zoe, who works in the entertainment industry and said she feared repercussions if shared her identity. "For so many years, I buried it."
Zoe, who claims to have been raped by Noth in 2004, says that the actor left her feeling brutalized. "It was very painful and I yelled out, 'Stop!'" she recalled. "And he didn't. I said, 'Can you at least get a condom?' and he laughed at me."
She also said that Noth had gotten hold of her phone number and struck up a flirtation. Following that, Zoe says she accepted an invitation to visit him at his West Hollywood apartment, where she alleges he raped her.
Afterwards, a friend insisted they go to a hospital, where she needed stitches because of the assault. Police came to speak to her, but she says she refused to reveal who had assaulted her. Zoe did, however, tell her boss at the time. The Hollywood Reporter says it spoke to them, and they back up Zoe's claims.
Zoe also required psychiatric help late but the memories keep coming back to her even now.
The other woman, Lily, Lily, told THR that she met Noth when she was 25 while working as a server in the VIP section of the now-shuttered New York nightclub No.8 in 2015.
He was already married to wife Tara Wilson — whom he wed in 2012 — and Lily said she was starstruck, adding: "He was hitting on me, for sure. I was flattered. I knew he was married, which is shameful of me to admit."
Noth managed to get her number and asked her out. "I was like, 'That's crazy, Mr. Big is asking me out for dinner,'" she recalled.
He asked her to meet him at Il Cantinori, which as a fan of the show, Lily knew had been the setting for the "SATC" episode where Carrie throws her 30th birthday party.
However, the kitchen had closed by the time Lily arrived and the two decided to have wine at the bar. He then allegedly asked her back to his apartment to sample his whiskeys. "I was not super sexually active, not wild and crazy. I thought, 'We're going to drink whiskey and talk about his acting career.' It sounds so stupid," 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." He thrust his penis into her mouth, she alleges.
The actor, who's beloved by millions of women for playing the love interest to Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw character, however, has "categorically" denied the claims saying that "the encounters were consensual" and that the accusations of assault are "categorically false".
In a statement to Hollywood Reporter, denying the claims, Noth said: "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."
However, what is interestingly is the timing of the accusations that has cast a doubt on everything.
