Actress Ashley Morgan Smithline is speaking out about the abuses she suffered at the hands of shock rocker Marilyn Manson.
In a new interview with People Magazine, Smithline details what went on during their two-year relationship, including “countless” instances of sexual abuse where he “bit her, whipped her, cut her with a swastika-emblazoned knife and shoved his fist in her mouth during sex.” She also recalls being put in a sound-proof glass room, known as the “bad girls room” if she pissed him off.
Smithline also details being raped by Manson (real name Brian Warner) on numerous occasions. She recalls one time waking up in bed with her hands tied and Warner already penetrating her. As she screamed, she says he kept telling her that “You can’t rape someone that you’re in love with.”
Warner and Smithline began talking in 2010 when he reached out about casting her in a film. The two hit it off, as Smithline was intrigued by his intelligence. According to People Magazine, things started to get weird when Warner began texting at all hours and started asking Smithline, who is Jewish, to bring back Nazi “memorabilia” and weaponry from her trips to Asia that he would later use to inflict pain on her.
Smithline relates that during filming, he would whip her and black out the windows so that she wouldn’t know what time of day it was.
These incidents left her malnourished and losing weight (at one point she was down to 80 pounds). Smithline told People Magazine at Warner would cut her protruding ribs and had even carved his initials in her leg, which she still has scars from.
Along with actresses Evan Rachel Wood and Esme Bianco, Smithline was one of at least 15 women that came out in February naming Manson as their abuser. At the time, she posted to Instagram a series of photos briefly telling her story of how he wooed her, abused her, and the PTSD and OCD she suffers because of it.
Smithline’s story comes just days after Bianco filed a lawsuit against Warner and his former manager for sexual abuse and trafficking. Bianco claims in the suit that Warner drugged her and forced sexual acts upon her without consent, including instances of rape. She also accuses him of interfering in the visa process when bringing her to the US to shoot music videos and films and using it as leverage. Many of the details Bianco gives are eerily similar to the ones Smithline confides to People Magazine.
Said attorney Jay Ellwanger, who is representing both Smithline and Bianco, in a statement to People Magazine, “I am proud to represent Ms. Smithline as she comes forward to share her truth about Brian Warner. We are exploring all options to hold him accountable for his actions and to make sure that this behavior ends once and for all.”
Ultimately, Smithline sees herself as a survivor and not a victim. She tells People Magazine, “I want people to know who he is, and it’s worth it if not one more woman gets hurt again.”
A representative for Warner responded to Smithline’s story, saying in a statement, “There are so many falsehoods within her claims that we wouldn’t know where to begin to answer them. This relationship, to the limited extent it was a relationship, didn’t last one week.”
(Smithline had provided People Magazine with messages and emails that span more than two years.)
Following all the allegations made in February, Manson was dropped by his label, Loma Vista, and parted ways with his manager of 25 years. His upcoming appearances in the television series ‘American Gods’ and ‘Creepshow’ were also scrapped. Some of Warner’s previous collaborators have also come out against him in light of the allegations made by these women, attesting to his abusive tendencies. These include Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, Limp Bizkit’s Wes Borland and Otep’s Otep Shamaya. Singer Phoebe Bridgers also related a story about visiting Manson’s house as a teenager and him making reference to a room in his house as the “rape room.”
Warner is currently being investigated by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department regarding a domestic violence issue that “occurred between 2009 and 2011 when Mr. Warner lived in the city of West Hollywood.”
