Comedian and writer Rebecca Corry, one of Louis C.K.’s sexual misconduct accusers, has come forward to talk about the backlash she has faced since speaking up.
“Since speaking out, I’ve experienced vicious and swift backlash from women and men, in and out of the comedy community,” Corry wrote for Vulture. “I’ve received death threats, been berated, judged, ridiculed, dismissed, shamed, and attacked .”
Corry also explained that many people have said to her that C.K. apologized for his actions, which Corry said is far from the truth.
“But he didn’t,” she wrote. “Admitting what you did, and justifying it with ‘I always asked first,’ is not the same as apologizing.”
While facing the backlash, Corry also said that it’s been “heartbreaking” to see people she “liked and respect lie and defend” C.K.
“Two close friends I’d trusted and confided in for years, who were at the taping when it happened, refused to corroborate what happened to me in the New York Times using their names,” she wrote. “Other friends simply stopped communicating with me. These are the same people I had seen on social media, proudly wearing pussy hats and Time’s Up pins at the Women’s March. Speaking out feels like standing in front of the world naked under fluorescent lights on a really bad day. I knew making myself so vulnerable would bring scrutiny from the outside, but my personal life has also been damaged by my decision to tell the truth.”
Last November, the actress and stand-up comedian said the “I Love You, Daddy” writer/director asked in 2005 if he could masturbate in front of her.
“I was walking to set to shoot my scene and he approached me and he got really close to my face,” Corry recalled her run-in with C.K. “And he said, ‘Can I ask you something?’ and I said, ‘Yes.’ And said, ‘Can I masturbate in front of you in my dressing room?’”
In the Vulture story, Corry said she actively tried to not be part of the “C.K. masturbation narrative” for 12 years, but it kept finding her. She heard people defend him, which made her look at herself and what the consequences would be to speak out.
“The awkwardness it would cause with certain people, and how vulnerable it would make me,” she said. “The fact that my name would be connected to his for speaking out made me sick. But then I thought about the fact that I tour the country saving victimized dogs, and advocate that ‘to ignore abuse is to condone it.’ Every single day, I implore people to stand up for victims, but I wasn’t even standing up for myself. For these reasons, and for others too personal to mention, I made the difficult decision to change the narrative by telling the truth .”
C.K. was accused of sexual misconduct by five women. Among the accusers in the New York Times piece are comedy duo Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov, who according to the Times piece were invited by the comedian to his hotel room after their show at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado, in 2002. According to the report, when they arrived at his room, C.K. asked Goodman and Wolov if he could take out his penis.
The comedian released a statement shortly after the piece was published saying, “these stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was okay because I never showed a woman my d– without asking first, which is also true.”
“I’d love to sum this up with a rainbow-and-butterfly sentiment about how this journey has enriched my life and brought me peace,” wrote Corry. “But the truth is, it’s hell making the decision to speak out, and it’s hell after the decision has been made. That said, I will never regret telling the truth.”
C.K.’s attorney didn’t immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on the story.
Read her entire post here.