*UPDATE* Louis C.K. has issued a statement confirming the allegations made by multiple women against him are true. You can read them below, followed by the original story. *
I want to address the stories told to the New York Times by five women named Abby, Rebecca, Dana, Julia who felt able to name themselves and one who did not.
These stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was okay because I never showed a woman my dick without asking first, which is also true. But what I learned later in life, too late, is that when you have power over another person, asking them to look at your dick isn’t a question. It’s a predicament for them. The power I had over these women is that they admired me. And I wielded that power irresponsibly.
I have been remorseful of my actions. And I’ve tried to learn from them. And run from them. Now I’m aware of the extent of the impact of my actions. I learned yesterday the extent to which I left these women who admired me feeling badly about themselves and cautious around other men who would never have put them in that position.
I also took advantage of the fact that I was widely admired in my and their community, which disabled them from sharing their story and brought hardship to them when they tried because people who look up to me didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t think that I was doing any of that because my position allowed me not to think about it.
There is nothing about this that I forgive myself for. And I have to reconcile it with who I am. Which is nothing compared to the task I left them with.
I wish I had reacted to their admiration of me by being a good example to them as a man and given them some guidance as a comedian, including because I admired their work.
The hardest regret to live with is what you’ve done to hurt someone else. And I can hardly wrap my head around the scope of hurt I brought on them. I’d be remiss to exclude the hurt that I’ve brought on people who I work with and have worked with who’s professional and personal lives have been impacted by all of this, including projects currently in production: the cast and crew of Better Things, Baskets, The Cops, One Mississippi, and I Love You Daddy. I deeply regret that this has brought negative attention to my manager Dave Becky who only tried to mediate a situation that I caused. I’ve brought anguish and hardship to the people at FX who have given me so much The Orchard who took a chance on my movie. and every other entity that has bet on me through the years. I’ve brought pain to my family, my friends, my children and their mother.
I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen.
Everyone, back away from the comedian! It didn’t take long for the tables to turn against Louis C.K., and while it was the recent New York Times expose that ultimately did it, I would say this has been coming ever since the world premiere of the controversial I Love You, Daddy. It was recently pulled from its New York debut, and now distributor The Orchard has pulled it from the release calendar completely.f
This seemed like the path they would take after five women alleged sexual misconduct by C.K. His movie, which has the unfortunate premise of a father trying to stop his young daughter from dating a 70-year-old movie director, was to open next week but is now off the schedule. Even worse, some of the stars are starting to distance themselves from it, like co-star Charlie Day, who told the LA Times he “will not be promoting the movie further.”
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. HBO has pulled C.K.’s appearance from the “Night of Too Many Stars: America Unites for Autism Programs” special that was to air on November 18th, and have removed all of his content from their network. FX, the home of his hit series Louis and other programs he produces like Better Things, released a statement saying they will “thoroughly investigate any allegations of misconduct within our workplace.”
The walls have come crumbling down for C.K. and who knows if this is the end or not.
