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Marilyn Manson's 2022 defamation lawsuit against ex Evan Rachel Wood finally has a conclusion.
The 55-year-old rocker — real name Brian Warner — has agreed to drop the lawsuit against his former fiancée, 37, as well as pay for her attorneys' fees, lawyers for both parties confirmed on Tuesday, November 26, per Page Six. Manson's attorney also released an official statement on the matter.
"After four years of fighting a battle where he was able to tell the truth, Brian is pleased to dismiss his still-pending claims and appeal in order to close the door on this chapter of his life," read the statement from his attorney Howard King.
The latest move in the case comes over a year after a Los Angeles judge threw out much of Manson's lawsuit against Wood, who accused Manson of sexual assault and of grooming her as a teenager. The judge dismissed a section of his lawsuit that claims the Westwood star forged an FBI letter, as well as a section that alleged Wood and another defendant, Illma Gore, used a checklist on an iPad to instruct other women how to make abuse claims against Manson.
Initially, Manson had tried to appeal the decision. Then his lawyers reached out to Wood's, trying to seek a settlement in the spring. The actress' attorneys revealed on Tuesday that she rejected the stipulation that the terms be kept confidential.
Manson "filed a lawsuit against Ms. Wood as a publicity stunt to try to undermine the credibility of his many accusers and revive his faltering career. But his attempt to silence and intimidate Ms. Wood failed," Wood's lawyer Michael J. Kump said in a statement.
Manson has agreed to pay almost $327,000 in attorney fees for Wood.
Though the case has been settled, the nearly four-year criminal investigation into Manson is ongoing. In October, outgoing LA County District Attorney George Gascón said that his office's sex crimes division had just discovered new evidence, and that a decision on whether to file charges would be made when the picture was more complete.
At least 16 women have come forward to make allegations against Manson, including Game of Thrones actress Esme Bianco and Wood, who accused Manson of grooming her as a teenager and subjecting her to abuse when they were together in her 2022 HBO documentary, Phoenix Rising. She first publicly named him as her alleged abuser in an Instagram post shared on February 1, 2021. In the post, she claimed Manson "horrifically abused [her] for years" and said she had been "brainwashed and manipulated" by him.
Manson has vehemently denied all allegations against him. In response to Wood's Instagram post, he wrote, "Obviously, my art and my life have long been magnets for controversy, but these recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality. My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how—and why—others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth."
Wood was 18 when she met Manson, who was 37 at the time. Their relationship became public in 2007, and they became engaged in 2010, though they broke up shortly after.
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