The comedian is offering a mea culpa to one of Louis C.K.'s victims.
Sarah Silverman is offering an apology of her own to one of Louis C.K.’s accusers.
The 47-year-old comedian was a guest on Howard Stern's SiriusXM radio show on Monday, and claimed she gave C.K. consent to masturbate in front of her when they were younger and just "letting our freak flags fly." Silverman said that at the time of these alleged incidents, she and C.K. were “equals,” unlike the women who have accused him of masturbating in front of them without their consent, whom she said were often reliant on him to maintain or advance their careers.
Soon after the interview was released, Rebecca Corry, who accused C.K. of sexual misconduct while they were working on a television pilot in 2002, reacted to Silverman’s remarks.
“To be real clear, C.K. had ‘nothing to offer me’ as I too was his equal on the set the day he decided to sexually harass me,” she tweeted. “He took away a day I worked years for and still has no remorse. He’s a predator who victimized women for decades and lied about it.”
Upon seeing Corry's message, Silverman issued an apology. “Rebecca I’m sorry,” she tweeted back. “Ugh, this is why I don’t like weighing in. I can’t seem to do press for my show w/out being asked about it. But you’re right -- you were equals and he f**ked with you and it’s not OK. I’m sorry, friend. You are so talented and so kind.”
Silverman's interview, which was in promotion of her show, I Love You, America, comes just a few months after FX completed their internal investigation into C.K., after the network cut ties with the 51-year-old comedian following his confirmation last November that sexual misconduct allegations made against him were true.
"I don't know if I'm going to regret saying this. I've known Louis forever, I'm not making excuses for him, so please don't take this that way," Silverman told Stern. "We are peers. We are equals. When we were kids, and he asked if he could masturbate in front of me, sometimes I'd go, 'F**k yeah, I want to see that!'"
"It's not analogous to the other women that are talking about what he did to them," she continued. "He could offer me nothing. We were only just friends. So sometimes, yeah, I wanted to see it, it was amazing. Sometimes I would say, 'F**king no, gross,' and we got pizza."
Later, Silverman told Stern she hasn't spoken to C.K. in nearly three months. Back in November, she also addressed the scandal, shortly after news of the allegations against C.K. broke.
"I love Louis, but Louis did these things," Silverman said during her Hulu series, I Love You, America. "I just keep asking myself, 'Can you love someone who did bad things? Can you still love them?' I can mull that over later, certainly, because the only people that matter right now are the victims. They are victims, and they're victims because of something he did."
C.K. released his own statement at the time, confirming the stories from the five women accusing him of sexual misconduct that were published in The New York Times were true.
"These stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was OK because I never showed a woman my dick without asking first, which is also true," the statement read. "But what I learned later in life, too late, is that when you have power over another person, asking them to look at your dick isn't a question. It's a predicament for them."
"The power I had over these women is that they admired me," C.K.'s statement continued. "And I wielded that power irresponsibly. I have been remorseful of my actions. And I've tried to learn from them. And run from them. Now I'm aware of the extent of the impact of my actions. I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen."
Read the full statement here, and hear more on C.K. in the video below.
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