The chilling sex claims against Marilyn Manson as ex says she was plied with absinthe & raped while filming music video

HE is the self-proclaimed ‘Antichrist Superstar’ who fantasised about underage sex on stage and was blamed for inspiring the Columbine High School shootings.

But Marilyn Manson revelled in his shock rock infamy for years – until a string of women accused him of sexual assault in 2021.

His ex-girlfriend, Hollywood actress Evan Rachel Wood, was the first to claim he had abused her since she was a teenager, alleging he had even raped her while filming a music video.

Then the floodgates opened with others claiming they too were his victims.

Within 24 hours he was dropped by his manager, agent and record company – and has since been the subject of several lawsuits brought by women who claimed to have been his victims.

Now a new Channel 4 documentary, Marilyn Manson Unmasked, explores the allegations against him and the controversy surrounding his fall from grace. 

Manson has consistently denied sexually assaulting or abusing anyone, claiming that his “intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners”.

So is Manson an artist pushing the boundaries of self-expression or a monster hiding in plain sight?

Chilling boasts

Manson – real name Brian Warner – set out to shock. He chose the name Marilyn Manson because Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson were the two most memorable people from the Sixties.

“I thought that dichotomy of putting those two names together, the positive and the negative, represented what I was about,” he once said.

His provocative stagecraft and offensive backstage behaviour caused uproar from the Christian right, who would protest at his gigs.

He claimed Jesus Christ was the first rock star, saying: “He had his shirt off, drinking wine, using prostitutes, so I identify with him most now.”

But his teenage fans lapped it up – not realising until much later how inappropriate his actions and words were.

On stage he would pull down his trousers and take pictures of his genitalia, and boast about sexual fantasises involving girl fans in eighth grade – who would’ve been aged 13 or 14 years old.

Another journalist asked if he practised ‘backstage debauchery’, to which Manson replied: “The only impressive ones would get me arrested if I mentioned them so I can’t really comment.”

And in another interview he said: “I’m not into rape whatsoever. It’s called a struggle snuggle. I prefer to mentally break a woman down to the point where she has no other choice but to submit to me.”

But because he was deemed to be creating a character, a persona, it seems neither the media or the authorities took his claims seriously.

‘Really creepy’

Nathan Brackett was working at Rolling Stone magazine in 1997 when Manson, now 56, landed the cover.

He says: “You can see the appeal if you are a magazine editor. Manson uses a number of different metaphors to describe himself – ‘a snake, an angel, an alien, the child snatcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ which is really creepy, in hindsight.

“Manson was very aware that this was a really important piece for him. From a transactional perspective he appealed to the media.

“This was someone who was trying to be offensive and Manson actually benefited from the music journalists not taking him seriously. And so Rolling Stone helped communicate his narrative.

“I think it is understandable how he was covered at the time. But I think everybody who was part of that apparatus needs to look at the choices they made.”

‘Underage sex’

The 1999 Columbine High School shooting was said to have been inspired by Manson’s music, with the shooters being fans of the band.

Manson later said: “The way the media treated me… it was a hard point in my life because it seemed the whole world was trying to destroy me.

“And the support of the fans was the only support I had when I was being kicked down and so that is something I will never forget.”

Columbine hurt Manson’s career but it also brought him a lot more attention. 

But behind the stage persona and the shocking magazine quotes, many women now claim they were being abused by Manson.

Fan Bianca Allaine claimed she was just 16 years old when Manson took her virginity on his tour bus in 1995.

She told the film-makers: “My 16th birthday present to myself was to get tickets to see him perform live. It was exciting because it was a small, small, venue.

“It was the first time I had been to a concert without my parents and I remember I positioned myself very carefully because I didn’t want to be too close to the stage because the men get violent.

“It was exciting, there was energy in the crowd. The way he moved on stage and it felt cool because my parents wouldn’t understand it, they don’t like it.

“They had parked their bus literally outside of the venue. And I saw other people that were at the concert lined up, they looked young, everybody looked young.

“I had my school backpack with me and a piece of notebook paper. I had the whole band sign my notebook paper. I went back on the bus… they asked a lot of questions, especially Brian.

He was presenting himself as this lonely guy who maybe had lost sight of who he was a bit, who’d been in a slump, he was a bit uninspired

Evan Rachel Wood

“He obviously knew I was in school because he asked what grade I was in. He told me he would send merchandise, T-shirts and things like that if I gave him my mailing address and my phone number, and I did.

“It just seems like he was interested in talking to me and I got flattered that he was paying attention to me and I couldn’t believe it, you know? And, um, he kissed me.

“And it was a little scary and exciting, kind of. It’s embarrassing to say and… he wanted me to perform oral sex on him. To be honest, I didn’t know what I was doing.

“And he went even further and before I even knew it he was… I mean I went on the bus as a virgin and I’m so ashamed, I have so much shame about that and I feel so stupid.

“That’s the worst part, I feel so damn stupid.”

Manson’s lawyer Howard King says Bianca’s claims are false and that he never met her.

It wasn’t until A-lister Evan Rachel Wood went public with claims of abuse against the rocker in 2021 that Bianca and others followed.

Evan says she was just 18 when she met Manson at a Hollywood event while he was still married to burlesque artist Dita Von Teese.

She recalled: “At that point I did not think that anything romantic could happen with us.

“I saw him as this well-established, much older man who was married to Dita Von Teese, a beautifully established burlesque model.

“Later on as we grew more close he was alluding to maybe some things weren’t that great in his marriage.

“He was presenting himself as this lonely guy who maybe had lost sight of who he was a bit, who’d been in a slump, he was a bit uninspired.

“But after meeting me he was inspired again, he wants to write, make art. So that felt good.”

The couple went public in 2007 after his divorce from Dita Von Teese.

Evan explains: “I really thought this was something special, that he really loved me, and I was really safe, and I was really lucky.

“I think the more and more we talked, the onion started to peel as to what he believed Marilyn Manson was.

“He did take on this saintly quality in my mind, he is trying to deliver a message that is actually going to move things forward and wake people up.

“I was like wow this is so much bigger than me, this artist is so important and their art is so important for the world and I will just do anything it takes to facilitate that and make sure that they can be the best version of themselves no matter what that meant for me and my life.”

She believed that she was the youngest person he’d ever dated, and says the couple joked about their relationship in terms of Lolita, the novel about a middle-aged professor who is sexually attracted to adolescent girls.

Music video horror

Manson wrote a song inspired by Evan – called Heart-Shaped Glasses  – in reference to the sunglasses won by actress Sue Lyon on the movie poster for the film version of the book.

“Because of our relationship and the way it was inspiring him, we were watching stuff like Bonnie and Clyde, this love story that was shrouded in violence,” says Evan.

“And that started to devolve into treatment for the music video for Heart-Shaped Glasses.”

Evan adds: “The way it was pitched to me is that there is going to be a sex scene but it is going to be shot so the camera is rolling and moving so whatever you see would sort of be a blur, a quick flash, or it is going to be so dark.”

“Brian always had a glass of absinthe in his hand, the red absinthe. And we always drank it together and this was another day, it was no exception and I was just drinking a lot.

“I just remember everything escalated so fast. And I felt like I was in a dream state. First of all he literally started devouring my face.

“It was just so aggressive and he just started pulling my clothes off.”

Randy Sosin, former video commissioner for Interscope  Records, says: “I think we all thought what is happening? Are they actually having sex? But I certainly wasn’t going to ask.

“I’m assuming it’s consensual, I’m assuming that these two people are dating and they are doing something that they want to be controversial about.

“They were under covers but it certainly looked to everyone on set like they were having sex.”

Evan recalls: “I remember putting my hands out to cover myself and him grabbing my hands and peeling them away from my body.

“And saying like, ‘It’s okay, nobody can see, it’s dark, nobody is going to be able to see you’. I just did not know what to do and from there it just didn’t stop.

“They yelled cut. The next thing I knew the entire crew had just walked off set.

“And I was just kind of sitting on the bed naked just crying. I felt so f***ing violated. But I didn’t call it rape for like many many years.”

Manson’s lawyer Howard King denied Evan’s claims, telling the documentary: “It is demonstrably false that Brian raped Rachel Evan Wood while filming a music video.

“This was filmed in a studio, there were more than ten people within three feet of the bed. Brian had clothes on, although I suppose that wouldn’t prevent this.

“None of those people have come forward and said they witnessed this act. It is completely fabricated and there is not a witness who will support it.”

But Randy Sosin says: “I do believe her. I didn’t know it was against her will.

“I didn’t know that she felt raped. None of that came up. It is so complicated. I’m not expunging myself from anything… I thought these were two consenting adults doing what they do as a couple.”

Evan says the music video marked a turning point in their relationship, where she started to see the depravity in Manson.

“But she said the mental abuse from him was worse than the sexual abuse, claiming he once kept her awake for three days straight threatening a suicide pact.

“He just knew how to run you around in circles until you were so exhausted you just gave in,” she explains.

It was a year later, in 2010, that the couple split.

‘Monster hiding in plain sight’

In 2018 Evan was invited to speak before congress for the sexual assault survivors bill of rights about her experiences of sexual, physical and mental abuse

And despite not naming Manson as the alleged perpetrator, her inbox was soon flooded with messages from women who claimed to also have been his victims.

She says: “I hadn’t named him but they knew who I was talking about because similar things had happened to them.

“And suddenly it was like how could I have been this blind? Of course I am not the only one.”

She went public with his name in an Instagram post in 2021, and several other women also made claims against him.

She says: “The reason I came forward is because I don’t want this to happen to anybody else. And I thought how can I get him to stop. How can I get him to stop?”

And I was just kind of sitting on the bed naked just crying. I felt so f***ing violated. But I didn’t call it rape for like many many years

Evan Rachel Wood

Wolf Alice’s Ellie Rowsell said he filmed up her skirt with a GoPro camera at a festival.

Game of Thrones star Esme Bianco claimed Manson cut her with knife and abused her.

She filed a lawsuit claiming he violated human trafficking laws by bringing her to California from England under the pretence of roles in music videos that never materialised.

The case was settled out of court.

His former assistant Ashley Walters also accused him of abuse.

Model Ashley Morgan Smithline also said he had raped her and locked her in a soundproofed room. But she later retracted her allegations.

Another anonymous ex-girlfriend filed a lawsuit claiming he subjected her to degrading its of sexual exploitation, manipulation and psychological abuse.

Manson settled the case out of court.

Dropped by record company

Journalists decided to investigate Manson’s behaviour, interviewing both Manson supporters and women who claimed he had abused them.

Jason Newman of Rolling Stone says: “Certain statements he’d made in the past when it comes to treatment of women and misogyny, a lot of us, myself included understood that as typical rock star behaviour.

“But after the allegations come out we decided that now it’s actually time to start an investigation. We wanted to solve that puzzle. What is blustery rock star persona and what is hiding in plain sight?”

Eventually in November 2021 the magazine published an article: “Marilyn Manson The Monster Hiding in Plain Sight.”

By this time four sexual assault lawsuits had been filed against him by Ashley Walters, Esme Bianco, Ashley Morgan Smithline and an anonymous ex-girlfriend.

Then in January 2023 Bianca Allaine filed her case against the rocker. But Manson’s lawyer said his client had never even met Bianca.

In November last year Manson dropped a defamation suit he brought against Evan Rachel Wood over her accusations against him. He also agreed to pay her legal fees.

In a comment Brian Warner’s lawyer said: “In the court of public opinion, Mr Warner’s reputation has been assailed and excoriated based on the unchallenged claims and actions of Ms Wood.

“Not one of the cases filed in the judicial system has resulted in a finding of any liability by Mr Warner, and most are no longer active. 

“More than two years after Ms Wood publicly named Mr Warner as her abuser, there has not been a single criminal charge against Mr Warner in connection with her or any of the other accusers’ claims.”