A third woman has come forward to accuse Ed Westwick of sexually assaulting her.
Rachel Eck told BuzzFeed in a story posted online on Tuesday, November 14, that the Gossip Girl actor assaulted her the night before the Academy Awards in 2014, after they were introduced by her ex-boyfriend, Australian film producer Kaine Harling.
A 23-year-old executive assistant at the time, Eck arrived at a villa at the Sunset Marquis hotel in West Hollywood at about 2:30 a.m. to meet up with Harling and Westwick.
The British actor asked her to invite a friend to hang out with them but when she didn’t, because it was late and her friends were all asleep, “he turned his sights on me,” Eck told the website.
She claims that when Harling left the room, which happened several times over the course of seven hours, Westwick would “try to kiss me or kind of push me up against a wall.”
She pushed him off and told Westwick that she was dating Harling, but as the hours went on “it got worse and more handsy.” Eck claims that when she told her boyfriend about it, he brushed it off.
She finally decided to leave but claims Westwick wanted to apologize to her first, and she went into his bedroom to hear what he had to say.
“Ed then pulled me onto the bed and aggressively groped” her breasts, she said. “I shoved him off as quickly as I could and left.”
The incident happened the same year that two other women claim they were assaulted by Westwick.
As previously reported, Kristina Cohen and Aurélie Wynn allege that they were raped by the actor.
Westwick’s rep has not responded to a request for comment, but last week the star denied the first two women’s stories, writing on Twitter, “I have never forced myself in any manner, on any woman. I certainly have never committed rape.”
The Los Angeles Police Department has launched an investigation into Cohen’s claim after she filed a police report on November 7, and the BBC announced on Friday, November 10, that it will not air Westwick’s new miniseries, Ordeal By Innocence, and has halted production on season 2 of his TV series White Gold “until these matters are resolved.”
