Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose has settled the sexual assault lawsuit filed against him in November 2023. The lawsuit was filed by former Penthouse model Sheila Kennedy, who claimed the incident took place in 1989.
“As I have from the beginning, I deny the allegations,” Rose told Rolling Stone. “There was no assault.”
Rose’s lawyer, E. Danya Perry, said in a separate statement, “Mr. Rose has suffered greatly from this lawsuit, and I am pleased that he will now be able to move on with his life.”
In her initial filing, Kennedy alleged that she met Rose at a nightclub and agreed to go to a party in Rose’s hotel suite, where she and other guests were given cocaine and alcohol. After an initial encounter with Rose that Kennedy ‘did not mind,’ the lawsuit described the alleged assault in detail, saying that Rose “dragged Kennedy to his bedroom like a caveman and acted with uncontrolled fury.” The lawsuit also claimed that Rose forcibly penetrated Kennedy.
Although Kennedy’s lawsuit was filed just before the statute of limitations for sexual misconduct claims in civil suits was reinstated in November 2023, she had also described the alleged assault in her 2016 autobiography, ‘No One’s Pet,’ and in the 2021 documentary ‘Look Away.’ She said in the book that she was ‘okay with this.’ “I had wanted to be with him since the minute I’d first laid eyes on him, and now I was getting him.”
The settlement results in the case being dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be reopened in the future. Additionally, Rolling Stone reports that both parties agreed to cover their own legal costs.
