Rose McGowan has broken her silence on the death of her former manager, Jill Messick, who died by suicide on Wednesday.
“For Jill: May your family find some measure of solace during this pain,” she said in an Instagram post Saturday. “That one man could cause so much damage is astounding, but tragically true. The bad man did this to us both. May you find peace on the astral plane. May you find serenity with the stars.”
McGowan’s comments come after a statement issued by Messick’s family earlier this week saying she was “victimized by our new culture of unlimited information sharing and a willingness to accept statement as fact.”
The statement also specifically calls out the fight between McGowan and Harvey Weinstein that also ensnared Messick, who was McGowan’s manager in 1997.
“Over the past few months, many women have come out with allegations against Harvey Weinstein, including Rose McGowan, who has repeatedly spoken with the press, striking out against not only her alleged attacker, but a great many others,” the statement said. “One of them was Jill, who chose to remain silent in the face of Rose’s slanderous statements against her for fear of undermining the many individuals who came forward in truth.”
The statement goes on to explain that when McGowan spoke of her encounter with Weisntein, she never used the word “rape,” but Messick recognized the impropriety and reported it to her bosses, who told her they would take care of it.
“Seeing her name in headlines again and again, as part of one person’s attempt to gain more attention for her personal cause, along with Harvey’s desperate attempt to vindicate himself, was devastating for her,” the statement said. “It broke Jill, who was just starting to get her life back on track.”
You can read the full statement here. See McGowan’s Instagram post below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfBxp5oAFFU/