Actor and comedian Aziz Ansari has been accused of sexual misconduct. In a new piece published on Babe, the woman—identified only by the pseudonym “Grace”—said she went on a date with Ansari last year when she was 22. After getting together and heading into his nearby apartment in TriBeCa, she claimed he almost immediately began kissing, fondling, and undressing her.
When he paused to grab a condom, Grace said she explicitly voiced her hesitation. “I said something like, ‘Woah, let’s relax for a sec, let’s chill,'” she said. Ansari disregarded this request, she said, proceededing to perform oral sex on her and then asking her to do the same for him.
From Babe:
Ansari also physically pulled her hand towards his penis multiple times throughout the night, from the time he first kissed her on the countertop onward. “He probably moved my hand to his dick five to seven times,” she said. “He really kept doing it after I moved it away.”
But the main thing was that he wouldn’t let her move away from him. She compared the path they cut across his apartment to a football play. “It was 30 minutes of me getting up and moving and him following and sticking his fingers down my throat again. It was really repetitive. It felt like a fucking game.”
Grace said she used “verbal and non-verbal cues to indicate how uncomfortable and distressed she was.”
“Most of my discomfort was expressed in me pulling away and mumbling. I know that my hand stopped moving at some points,” she told Babe. “I stopped moving my lips and turned cold.” She said she eventually managed to get an Uber home and left his apartment in tears.
The next day, Grace said she texted Ansari to be express her discomfort with the situation. “Last night might have been fun for you, [but] it wasn’t for me,” she wrote, according to screenshots provided to Babe. “You ignored clear non-verbal cues; you kept going with advances…I want to make sure you’re aware so maybe the next girl doesn’t have to cry on the ride home.” Ansari reportedly replied, “I’m so sad to hear this. Clearly, I misread things in the moment and I’m truly sorry.”
Grace said she decided to come forward after seeing Ansari wear a “Time’s Up” pin at the Golden Globes last week, where he won the award for Best Actor.
So far, Ansari and his representatives have yet to release a statement regarding the incident. Read Grace’s full account here.
Update (9:00 PM ET): Aziz Ansari has released a statement responding to these allegations. In the statement, he describes the encounter in his own words, which he says “by all indications was completely consensual.” Read the actor’s full statement below:
“In September of last year, I met a woman at a party. We exchanged numbers. We texted back and forth and eventually went on a date. We went out to dinner, and afterwards we ended up engaging in sexual activity, which by all indications was completely consensual.
The next day, I got a text from her saying that although ‘it may have seemed okay,’ upon further reflection, she felt uncomfortable. It was true that everything did seem okay to me, so when I heard that it was not the case for her, I was surprised and concerned. I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said.
I continue to support the movement that is happening in our culture. It is necessary and long overdue.” – Aziz Ansari
