Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart denied sexual assault allegations made against them and their Riverdale co-stars Vanessa Morgan and KJ Apa by several anonymous Twitter users on Sunday.
Cole spoke out about the allegations in a series of Tweets hours soon after the accusations were made, with him and Lili looking into legal action.
The actor, 27, wrote: ‘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 latest: Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart denied sexual assault allegations made against them and their Riverdale co-stars Vanessa Morgan and KJ Apa by several anonymous Twitter users on Sunday
Cole continued: ‘False accusations do tremendous damage to victims of actual assault. Futhermore, I would never silence anybody. I encourage that people look into the accusations themselves, as the events detailed were factually untrue.’
His third and final tweet said: ‘This seems to be the latest claim in a series of incidents seeking to baselessly cancel cast mates and me.’
Lili, who was accused on another anonymous account, quotes his tweet minutes later and added her statement: ‘I have always taken sexual assault allegations seriously. But it was proven that this account was specifically to create false stories about me and my cast.
Allegations: Vanessa KJ were accused on other anonymous Twitter accounts
Cast: mCole spoke out about the allegations in a series of Tweets hours soon after the accusations were made, with him and Lili looking into legal action; pictured (L to R): Cole Sprouse, Lili Reinhart, Luke Perry, Camilla Mendes, KJ Apa, Madelaine Petsch and Ashleigh Murray in 2016
His statement: Cole took to Twitter Sunday to deny accusations
Lili said: ‘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.’
She wrote: ‘We are looking into taking legal action. This kind of sick behavior only harms true survivors. This was incredibly triggering for me and scary because I’ve always supported survivors and believed them.’
Lili, 23, concluded: ‘I hope and pray that this does not discourage real survivors from speaking out about their experiences.’
The accusations against Cole came from an anonymous account with the handle @Victori6680029; the user alleged sexual misconduct by Cole at a party in 2013 at New York University.
Speaking out: Cole continued: ‘False accusations do tremendous damage to victims of actual assault. Futhermore, I would never silence anybody. I encourage that people look into the accusations themselves, as the events detailed were factually untrue’
Her statement: Lili quotes his tweet minutes later and added her statement
Accusations against Lili, Vanessa and KJ arose from other anonymous Twitter accounts, with one of those accounts later tweeting: ‘Do you see how easy it is to lie and you guys believe it? Vanessa Morgan and Kj Apa didn’t do jacks**t. You will believe anything,’ via Us Weekly.
Riverdale co-star Madelaine Petsch came to their defense and tweeted: ‘As someone who has been sexually assaulted, I am 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.’
She later took to her Instagram stories and spoke out about the allegations in an emotional video.
Candid: She later took to her Instagram stories and spoke out about the allegations in an emotional video
Madelaine said: ‘Hi everyone, I’ve been really focusing on my social media platforms on posting about the BLM movement and how to support that and voting and making sure we get that f***head out of office. But today, it has brought to my attention that four of my castmates were falsely accused of sexual assault.’
She continued: ‘And I’m really unsure as to why anyone would think that’s OK to do its so f****n nuts and hard to go through. And as someone who has been sexually assaulted, I have no words. This is the reason why I was scared to come forward and talk about my experiences because I was afraid that someone would tell me that I was lying or that it didn’t actually happen.’
Madelaine added: ‘And for someone to go online and falsely accuse somebody of that, only to come forward a couple of hours later and say that they were lying about four different people, is such a serious thing to do.’
She said: But today, it has come to my attention that four of my castmates were falsely accused of sexual assault’
‘Like honestly how dare you? Because this is the reason why victims are afraid to come forward in the first place. This is the reason why people don’t believe sexual assault victims and yet you’re out here doing this online. I am so taken aback right now, my heart is really hurting for my friends and castmates who went through this today.’
She said: ‘And I hope that everyone knows how serious it is to accuse somebody of that and I hope they understand the severity of what that does to people who have actually been through that. It takes away the power from the victims who have gone through this, takes away the voices of people who want to come forward and talk about their experiences.’
Madelaine concluded: ‘Because it just validates the whole narrative that people lie about this stuff.’
Vanessa retweeted Madelaine’s tweet as well as Cole’s; KJ has not tweeted about it yet.
The allegations come after Justin Bieber denied sexual assault allegations made about him over the weekend; the pop star offered evidence and said about the allegations: ‘There is no truth to this story.’
Ansel Elgort also denied claims he sexually assaulted a 17-year-old girl and said they had a ‘brief, legal and entirely consensual relationship; when he was 20.
The show: KJ, Cole and Lili pictured with co-star Camila Mendes
Speaking out: Riverdale co-star Madelaine Petsch came to their defense
Accusations: The accusations came from an anonymous account with the handle @Victori6680029; the user alleged sexual misconduct by Cole at a party in 2013 at New York University