Rose McGowan released a statement on Saturday in response to her former manager’s death by suicide on Wednesday.
McGowan spoke up about the passing of Jill Messick on Instagram. Her tribute was accompanied by a picture of the sun shining over a planet seen from far away.
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“For Jill: May your family find some measure of solace during this pain,” she wrote. “That one man could cause so much damage is astounding, but tragically true. The bad man did this to us both. May you find peace on the astral plane. May you find serenity with the stars.”
Messick was McGowan’s manager in January of 1997, when McGowan was allegedly raped by Harvey Weinstein. In the months since the #MeToo movement broke, McGowan has often implicated Messick in the attack.
Shortly after Messick’s passing, her family offered a frank statement on how McGowan’s rhetoric affected the former Hollywood executive. The full statement was published by The Hollywood Reporter.
“Over the past few months, many women have come out with allegations against Harvey Weinstein, including Rose McGowan, who has repeatedly spoken with the press, striking out against not only her alleged attacker, but a great many others,” the family wrote. “One of them was Jill, who chose to remain silent in the face of Rose’s slanderous statements against her for fear of undermining the many individuals who came forward in truth.”
“She opted not to add to the feeding frenzy, allowing her name and her reputation to be sullied despite having done nothing wrong. She never chose to be a public figure; that choice was taken away from her.”
The statement went on to describe Jill’s version of the events surround McGowan’s alleged attack.
“In January 1997, Jill was an entry-level manager at Addis Wechsler. One of her first clients was Rose McGowan, and one of Jill’s first duties was to set up a breakfast meeting with Harvey Weinstein during the Sundance Film Festival. Following the meeting, Rose told Jill what had happened — that she made the decision to remove her clothes and get in the hot tub with him — a mistake which Rose immediately regretted.”
“Rose never once used the word rape in that conversation,” they wrote. “Despite this, Jill recognized that Harvey had done something untoward to Rose, if not illegal. She immediately went to her bosses, the partners of Addis Wechsler, to recount Rose’s story and to insist that they immediately address the situation.”
“They told Jill that they would handle the situation. The ensuing arrangements between Rose and Harvey were then negotiated, completely without Jill’s knowledge. At that time, all Jill knew was that the matter was settled and that Rose continued making films with the Weinsteins. She never knew any details until recently, when Rose elected to make them public.”
The family briefly summarized Messick’s struggle with depression and bipolar disorder, saying that the press coverage exacerbated her symptoms.
“Seeing her name in headlines again and again, as part of one person’s attempt to gain more attention for her personal cause, along with Harvey’s desperate attempt to vindicate himself, was devastating for her. It broke Jill, who was just starting to get her life back on track. What makes Rose‘s inaccurate accusations and insinuations against Jill ironic was that she was the first person who stood up on Rose’s behalf, and alerted her bosses to the horrific experience which Rose suffered.”
