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Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart spoke out after they and other castmates from the CW show “Riverdale” were accused of sexual assault or harassment from anonymous Twitter accounts on Sunday; allegations they deny.
On Sunday, Sprouse, 27, addressed the allegations, stating on Twitter: “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.”
The “Suite Life of Zack & Cody” actor continued: “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.”
“This seems to be the latest claim in a series of incidents seeking to baselessly cancel my cast mates and me,” Sprouse ended his message.
Reinhart, 23, retweeted Sprouse’s tweets and added: “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.”
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She continued: “I can’t think of something more twisted than lying about sexual assault. 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.”
Reinhart also said they are “looking into taking legal action” and called the claims “triggering” and harmful for survivors of sexual assault. “I hope and pray that this does not discourage real survivors from speaking out about their experiences,” she concluded.
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Earlier on Sunday, a Twitter account, which has since been deleted, accused Sprouse of assaulting her at an NYU party in 2013. According to Us Weekly, “Riverdale” stars Vanessa Morgan and KJ Apa were also accused of sexual misconduct allegations on other anonymous Twitter pages.
Morgan retweeted Sprouse’s thread but has not yet publicly commented. Apa has not made any comments about the accusations either.
“Riverdale” castmate Madelaine Petsch also spoke out about the claims against her co-stars, stating on her Instagram Story (via E! News): “Today it was brought to my attention that four of my castmates were falsely accused of sexual assault and I’m really unsure as to why anyone would ever think that that’s an ok thing to do.”
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She also tweeted: “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.”
Lili Reinhart and Cole Sprouse arrive at the premiere of CBS Films’ ‘Five Feet Apart’ at the Fox Bruin Theatre on March 07, 2019, in Los Angeles, Calif.
(Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
On Sunday, a Twitter account posted a thread of screenshots of the accusations, and in one of the screenshotted tweets, an accuser alluded to making false claims. They wrote, “See how easy it is to lie and you guys will believe it?”
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The sexual assault allegations against the “Riverdale” stars occurred in the same week Justin Bieber and Ansel Elgort were accused of similar accounts on Twitter. Elgort denied the accusations and said, “I had a brief, legal and entirely consensual relationship.” For Bieber’s part, he also denied the accusations and said, “there is no truth to this story.”
If you or someone you know is suffering from abuse, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
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