Evan Rachel Wood recently spoke about what took place behind her sexual abuse lawsuit against Marilyn Manson. She also explained the money she took from him to settle the defamation case. She made the remarks in an interview with Mariana van Zeller.
Her statement focused on why prosecutors did not move forward with charges. It also addressed how the press reported the outcome and how a defamation suit against her was ultimately settled.
“Well the sad part is what they told me was that there’s too too many reasonable doubts here,” Wood said. “One of them was the girl that recanted, you know, and a few other things that people did to hurt our credibility and to hurt my credibility.”
She continued, “We don’t feel confident that we’re going to be able to win in court because of this, you know, but they said, ‘We believe you. We know he abused you.'”
Wood went on to describe her impression of the prosecutors’ position, saying, “Like they really I got the impression they were really just had their hands tied in a lot of ways cuz it’s not that they didn’t have evidence. They have a lot of evidence but if there’s you know reasonable doubt it’s really reasonable doubt whatever that means you know.”
She also addressed the statute of limitations. “And also the statute of limitations like this is a domestic violence case. Those statute of limitations as we know were up a long time ago. That’s why we made the Phoenix Act,” she said. “So the only thing they could focus on was the sexual assaults and it’s incredibly hard to prove sexual assault between two partners when they’re the only two people in the room, you know.”
Wood then turned to how the case was reported. “I mean nothing has happened to him and unfortunately the press really messed up in how they reported that and they said he was cleared of all charges. He was never charged with anything,” she said. “You can’t be cleared of charges you were never charged with. You know they were unable to press charges for X Y and Z, you know, reasons. So I think a lot of people thought, oh yeah, he’s innocent. He’s going on tour and we can we can start publicly supporting him again.”
Regarding the defamation suit, she said, “He sued me for defamation and for fraud and accused me of forging documents and um I was like, ‘Let’s go. Let’s go to court. I can’t wait because I can’t wait to show all the evidence that I have that I didn’t do any of these things and all the evidence of the things that you did.’ We were, you know, entangled in that for years and a lot of his claims got thrown out of court.”
Wood described how the case was settled. “And then he came to me and said, you know, ‘I’ll give you this much money to settle the case.’ And I was like, ‘I’m never taking any money from you,'” she said. “And then I was like, ‘The only way this is going to end is if you pay my legal fees because I didn’t do anything and I’ve had to pay $300,000 to fight this.’ So I owed that money, you know, and drop off the case. And he did. This was his lawyers talking to lawyers. He still hasn’t said a word. He only gets his lawyers to say things because then he doesn’t incriminate himself.”
Her account lines up with the public record of the legal fight. The timeline of the case, the law she mentioned and Manson’s current standing all help explain why she describes the outcome as she does.
Manson filed the defamation suit against Wood in 2022. A Los Angeles County judge threw out much of the case. Manson later agreed to drop the rest.
In November 2024, he abandoned the lawsuit and agreed to cover Wood’s attorneys’ fees. The settlement was reached on Nov. 19 and put the payment at more than $326,000. That figure is close to the roughly $300,000 Wood says she spent defending herself.
The Phoenix Act, which Wood mentioned, took effect in California on Jan. 1, 2020. It extended the time limit for prosecuting certain domestic violence offenses. The law states that prosecution for the offense “may be commenced within 5 years of the crime.” It applies only to crimes committed on or after Jan. 1, 2020, and to those not already time-barred when it took effect. Alleged abuse from earlier years therefore fell outside its reach, which is the limit Wood described.
The timing issue also shaped the decision not to file charges. In January 2025, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute Manson. The domestic violence allegations it reviewed had already passed the statute of limitations. Manson has never been convicted of a crime. That fits Wood’s point that he was never charged, so he could not have been “cleared.”
Manson’s career has continued despite the allegations. He is set to tour with Slipknot, and a related case has been reopened in civil court in the United States. Wood’s comments suggest the legal questions around him remain unsettled in public view, even though the defamation fight is over.
