Comedian and TV star Louis C.K. confirmed the sexual misconduct allegations made against him in a New York Times exposé. C.K. admitted and apologized for his actions in a lengthy statement, addressing the five women who spoke out. The exposé consisted of detailed claims from the late 1990s and the mid-2000s of C.K. exposing himself and doing inappropriate sexual acts in front of women.
Here is C.K.’s full response to these allegations:
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.
Thank you for reading.
In the wake of Thursday’s New York Times report, FX stated that the network would review the situation. Shortly after C.K.’s statement was released on Friday, the network cut ties with the comedian, cancelling the overall deal between FX Productions and his production company, Pig Newton.
“He will no longer serve as executive producer or receive compensation on any of the four shows we were producing with him – Better Things, Baskets, One Mississippi, and The Cops,” FX said in a statement Friday.
The Orchard scrapped C.K.’s film I Love You, Daddy, which was set to release on Nov. 17. Netflix also cut its ties with C.K., deciding not to move ahead with a second stand-up comedy special but will continue streaming his existing specials. HBO also announced that it would remove all C.K. related programs from its on-demand and streaming platforms.
This recent scandal is among the several other stories of sexual harassment and misconduct made by men and women against people in the Hollywood industry.