“Sex and the City” star Chris Noth spoke on the record for the first time to USA Today about the multiple sexual assault allegations made against him in 2021. The actor denied wrongdoing, but he admitted to cheating on his wife.
“I strayed on my wife, and it’s devastating to her and not a very pretty picture,” he said. “What it isn’t is a crime…You give yourself the same excuses that many men do; it’s just a little side dance, and it’s fun. You’re not hurting anybody. No one’s going to know about this, you know, and sex is just enjoyable. And suddenly, a lot of people want to have sex with you. It’s like, ‘Well, I’m not going to get this chance again.'”
Noth was accused of sexual assault by two women in early December 2021. Three more women came forward with further allegations in the weeks that followed. He was quickly dropped by his management team at A3 Artists Agency and was fired from his series regular role on the CBS procedural “The Equalizer.” A scene he shot as Mr. Big for the “And Just Like That” Season 1 finale was also removed by HBO Max before airing in early 2022. Noth called the accusations “categorically false” in a December 2021 statement, adding, “It’s difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I don’t know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.”
“There’s nothing I can say to change anyone’s mind when you have that kind of a tidal wave,” Noth now told USA Today. “It sounds defensive. I’m not. There’s no criminal court. There’s no criminal trial. There’s nothing for me to get on the stand about and get my story out, get witnesses. And there’s even more absurd add-ons that are completely ridiculous, that have absolutely no basis in fact. And I don’t like talking about it because as soon as I do, you’ll get the Daily Mail or someone grabbing a part of it and doing it, and I don’t want my kids seeing that.”
“I’m not going to lay down and just say it’s over,” he added. “It’s a salacious story, but it’s just not a true one. And I can’t just say, ‘Well, OK, that’s it for me’ because of that. I’m an actor. I have other things that I want to do creatively. And I have children to support. I can’t just rest on my laurels. So yeah, I have enough to let a year drift, but I don’t know how to gauge or judge getting back into the club, the business, because corporations are frightened.”
Noth is attempting to come back into the public space as the new face of Samuelsohn, a bespoke suit company which is including the actor in its campaign to raise awareness about men’s mental health.
