What’s up?
It’s Sussan Mourad here with Clevver News and Cole Sprouse has spoken out and denied
the recent sexual assault allegations against him and some of his “Riverdale” co-stars.
Before we get into all the details of this story, I just wanted to issue a trigger warning
as we will be talking about heavy topics like alleged sexual assault, so please only continue
watching if you feel comfortable doing so.
We also included the link to RAINN down in the description in case you or anyone you
know needs their resources.
Alright, so over the weekend, Cole Sprouse was among four Riverdale cast members accused
of sexual assault or harassment via Twitter.
A Twitter user name Victoria tweeted about her alleged experience with Cole writing quote,
“I want to tell about my sexual abuse by cole sprouse.
It was at a party in 2013 when cole was at nyu.”
The person continued to detail their alleged experience in a series of tweets and claimed
Cole “became aggressive” when they got back to his room after a party at his NYU
dorm.
Then, similar allegations of sexual misconduct were made against Cole’s Riverdale co-stars
Vanessa Morgan, KJ Apa, and Lili Reinhart on other anonymous Twitter pages.
And when these tweets started to go viral and trend on Twitter, some fans wondered if
the accusations were legit tweeting things like “@Victori66680029 Considering the fact
that these are your only tweets, the handle is long and mostly numbers, also this account
was made this month.
I’m calling bot.
I’m here for every survivor to tell their story but it just seems bot like to me.”
But others tweeted things like “If this is true, I'm so sorry.
No one should be going through this.”
And Cole has since spoken out about the allegations and the Twitter account.
He started off by saying quote, “Earlier today myself and three other cast mates were
falsely accused of sexual offense by anonymous accounts on twitter.
I take these accusations very seriously, and will be working with the right teams to get
to the root of it.”
Cole continued on saying quote, “False accusations do tremendous damage to victims of actual
assault.
Furthermore, I would never seek to silence anybody.
I encourage that people look into the accusations themselves, as the events detailed were factually
untrue.”
And he concluded with “This seems to be the latest claim in a series of incidents
seeking to baselessly cancel my cast mates and me.”
And some of Cole’s cast mates like Vanessa Morgan, retweeted his tweets, while others
shared their own thoughts.
Lili Reinhart shared Cole’s tweets and wrote quote, “I have always taken sexual assault
allegations seriously.
But it was proven that this account was created specifically to create false stories about
me and my cast.
I can’t think of something more twisted than lying about sexual assault.”
She continued on saying quote, “It invalidates the men and women who are- Brave enough to
come forward with the truth.
This kind of lie can ruin lives and careers- and I can call it a lie because the person
who made the allegations already admitted that the stories were fabricated.”
Lili also spoke about how they are looking into taking legal action against the supposedly
fake accounts and how she hopes this does not discourage real survivors from sharing
their experiences.
And other Riverdale cast members who weren’t involved in the allegations also spoke up
and defended their cast mates.
Madelaine Petsch wrote quote, “As someone who has been sexually assaulted, I am deeply
deeply disturbed that anyone thinks that it is okay to falsely accuse someone of sexual
assault.
This is why real assault allegations can sometimes not be taken seriously, you should be ashamed.
This is disgusting.”
And the person who made up the allegations about Vanessa Morgan and KJ Apa has admitted
they were false.
They wrote quote, “Do you see how easy it is to lie and you guys will believe it?
Vanessa Morgan and KJ Apa didn’t do jack sh*t.
You will believe anything.”
And many fans took to Twitter to share their thoughts on all of this.
One fan replied to Cole’s tweet saying quote, “it’s awful that people think it’s okay
to make false claims to get people “cancelled” (which may i add cancel culture is so toxic).
i’m so sorry to you and the rest of the cast.
none of you deserve it.
ily lots”
Another replied to Lili’s statement saying quote, “i'm so sorry people lied about you
and vanessa the way they did.
you've both spoken out about your own experiences so openly, it was so disgusting to see that
happen to you. and when the accounts admitted the truth, to know that it would only harm
others speaking their truths.”
And this person chimed in writing quote, “Sickening how they would try to spread lies like that.
Especially since it could cause those who have experienced sexual assault to not be
taken seriously.
The people running those accounts should be ashamed.”
And these accusations all came around the same time that both Ansel Elgort and Justin
Bieber were also accused of sexual assault on Twitter.
So it looks like these seemingly fake accounts tried to accuse these Riverdale cast members
as these other alleged sexual assault stories were also trending.
And we just want to be clear, it’s never ok to joke about or falsely accuse someone
of something as serious as sexual assault.
Like many of the Riverdale cast members said, it can be extremely damaging for people who
have actually gone through something like that and can discourage others from coming
forward with their stories.
Again, we have resources down in the description below if you or anyone you know may need it.
And if you want more Riverdale news, click right over here for another Clevver video.
And let us know what you think about the Riverdale casts' responses down in the comments below.
I’m your host Sussan Mourad, bye guys!