Sharing his story. Ansel Elgort is speaking out after a fan claimed she was sexually assaulted by the actor when she was 17 years old in 2014.
“I was distressed to see the social media posts about me that have been circulating in the past 24 hours,” he wrote on Instagram on Saturday, June 20.
“I cannot claim to understand Gabby’s feelings but her description of events is simply not what happened,” Elgort continued. “I have never and would never assault anyone. What is true is that in New York in 2014, when I was 20, Gabby and I had a brief, legal and entirely consensual relationship. Unfortunately, I did not handle the breakup well. I stopped responding to her, which is an immature and cruel thing to do to someone. I know this belated apology does not absolve me of my unacceptable behavior when I disappeared.”
He concluded, “As I look back at my attitude, I am disgusted and deeply ashamed of the way I acted. I am truly sorry. I know I must continue to reflect, learn, and work to grow in empathy.”
On Friday, June 19, the 26-year-old Fault In Our Stars actor made headlines after a woman came forward and alleged she was assaulted by Elgort days after she turned 17 in 2014. In a lengthy note on Twitter, the woman claimed that when she met up with the actor, “instead of asking me if I wanted to stop having sex knowing it was my first time,” he forced himself on her and “made me think this is how sex was supposed to be.” At the time, she didn’t tell anyone about the interaction “because he said it could ‘ruin his career.'”
“Years later I have PTSD, I have panic attacks, I go to therapy,” she wrote. “I just want to heal and I want other girls who have been through the same s–t as me, you’re not alone. It’s a lot for me to even come on here and tell my story but I know it’s needed.”
Allegations about the West Side Story actor’s history of assault emerged three years after he condemned Baby Driver costar Kevin Spacey, who was accused of sexual harassment by Anthony Rapp in 2017. At the time, Spacey, 60, said via Twitter that he didn’t remember the encounter and extended “the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.”
“The whole thing is really shocking,” Elgort said of the scandal during an interview with NewsCorp in November 2017. “I think what’s happening right now in the industry is people are standing up and saying that certain ways of the industry are no longer acceptable or in life in general. The world should be a safer place where sexual harassment is not acceptable.”
Despite speaking out against the House of Cards star’s alleged abuse, Elgort has come under fire for a number of controversial comments of his own through the years. In December 2014, he told GQ magazine: “Girls love it when you have some weird nerdy thing in your room. It makes you look less threatening, even though I’m, like, very threatening. I’m the most threatening guy ever.”
Elgort has been dating high school sweetheart Violetta Komyshan since 2012. The pair briefly split in August 2014 but rekindled their romance five months later.
