Sex and the City’s Chris Noth Has Been Accused of Sexually Assaulting Two Women

Chris Noth broke the internet earlier this week with a cheeky Peloton ad that threw shade at the shocking ending to the pilot episode of And Just Like That. Today he’s making headlines again because The Hollywood Reporter broke the shocking story that two women are accusing Chris Noth of sexual assault. To protect the victim’s identities, The Hollywood Reporter (THR) used the pseudonyms Zoe and Lily. Zoe is now 40 years old and works in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. She contacted THR in October to report the assault. Lily is 31 years old and works as a journalist in New York City and she reached out to THR with her story in August. 

Zoe and Lily were both allegedly assaulted by Noth several years ago, but with the resurgence of Noth’s relevance as he reprised his role as Mr. Big in HBO Max’s And Just Like That, both women felt like now was the right time to go public with their stories. Seeing his face in a robust marketing campaign for the show brought back many traumatic memories and the two separately came to the conclusion that they could not remain silent any longer. 

Zoe moved to Los Angeles in 2004 after graduating from college and took an entry level job at a firm that had lots of business with celebrities and that is where she met Chris Noth. Noth, who was 49 at the time, immediately took a liking to Zoe and would often stop by her desk to flirt. He then got her phone number and proceeded to leave her flirtatious voicemails. Zoe’s boss at the time saw this flirty behavior in person and heard some of the voicemails that Noth left Zoe. Zoe’s boss thought it was strange that he took such an interest in Zoe of their 27 year age difference. But she didn’t think much of it because “This was peak Sex and the City,” she says. “He was like a god to us.”

Noth was living in New York at the time but he also had an apartment in West Hollywood and invited Zoe to come over and go swimming in the pool. Zoe had a friend who lived in that same building and told him she had been to that pool several times before. That August when Zoe’s best friend from college came to visit, the two went to Noth’s apartment to swim in the pool. This has been corroborated by the friend. 

While at the pool Noth showed Zoe a book and asked her to read it and let him know what she thought about it because he was considering doing a project that was based on the book. He left the pool to take a call in his apartment, but he left the book for Zoe and asked her to bring it up to his apartment before she left. Zoe was flattered that someone so well-established in the industry was asking for her opinion.

 “He said, ‘I’d love to know what you think.’ I thought, ‘I’m new. He’s asking my opinion — I’ve only been in Hollywood for two months.”

It all went downhill once she went up to his apartment to return the book. She said she was greeted at the door by a kiss from Noth which threw her off guard. She hesitantly kissed him back and then stated that she was going to return to her friend at the pool. Noth then pulled her towards the bed, took off her shorts and bikini bottoms and began raping her. She said it was very painful and she told him to stop but he continued without her consent. When it became clear that he had no intention of stopping she asked if he would get a condom and instead of getting a condom, he laughed at her.

When the assault was over Zoe ran to her friend’s apartment in the same building and found that her friend from college was already there too. Her friend said that Zoe’s whole personality was different when she came back to the apartment. She was acting very aloof and quiet, which was a stark contrast to her normally bubbly and talkative personality. When they left the apartment Zoe’s friend took her to Cedar-Sinai hospital where she reported that she was sexually assaulted but refused to name the attacker out of fear of the possible ramifications of accusing a high profile celebrity of assault. Cedar-Sinai was contacted by the Hollywood Reporter but they stated that they do not keep records dating back to 2004. 

Zoe’s boss says she remembers getting a call from Zoe and finding out that Noth had attacked her. Zoe insisted that she keep it a secret and her boss, who was only 25 at the time and in shock from the news, says that she agreed to keep the secret.

A few years after the attack Zoe was experiencing PTSD and sought help from the UCLA Rape Crisis Center, and the center has verified that she was treated at the center for several months.

Seeing Noth everywhere because of the And Just Like That marketing campaign brought back painful memories and Zoe decided that now was the time to speak out about her assault.
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Lily met Noth in 2015 at a New York City nightclub where she worked as a server in the VIP section. 

“I was truly star-struck,” she says. “He was hitting on me, for sure. I was flattered. I knew he was married, which is shameful of me to admit.”

He got her phone number and asked her out for dinner at Il Cantinori, a restaurant where Carrie Bradshaw threw her birthday on Sex and the City.

Lily’s friend advised her not to go because she got a bad vibe from the whole situation. But Lily insisted it would be fine and said he had seemed so respectful at the club, and it was just dinner. When she arrived at the restaurant at the time he had set for the date the kitchen was already closed so the two sat at the bar and talked about their careers. 

The restaurant was closing and Noth invited Lily to come to his apartment which was conveniently located right around the corner. He said he had a nice collection of whiskey that he wanted her to try. Lily agreed to go since they were having such a nice conversation at the restaurant. Sex was the furthest thing from her mind and she thought that they would continue hanging out and talking like they had been at the restaurant.

When they arrived at his apartment Lily said that Noth kept trying to make out with her and she ‘cautiously entertained it’. But she wasn’t into it and tried to nicely end the kissing. That is when he stood up and took off his pants and put his penis in her mouth. Lily brought up the fact that he was married and a father, hoping that this would end his inappropriate behavior. But he claimed that monogamy isn’t real and that is when he raped her. 

Afterwards Lily got an Uber and left. A friend said she received a call from Lily in the Uber. Lily stated that Noth had ‘pretty forcibly’ had sex with her and she was hysterically crying. Her friend suggested that they call the police but Lily did not want to.

Noth continued to reach out to Lily after the assault. He left a voicemail that was perceived by Lily and her friend to mean “please don’t tell anyone about this”. He also texted saying “By the way I have to ask did you enjoy our night last week. I thought it was a lot of fun but I wasn’t quite sure how you felt.”. Lily replied saying that she “did feel slightly used” but she didn’t want to talk about it via text. Noth continued reaching out and trying to make plans to see her again, but she gave flakey responses and the two eventually fell out of touch.

Noth is denying the allegations and released the following statement.

“The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false,” Noth said in a prepared statement. “These stories could’ve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago — no always means no — that is a line I did not cross. The encounters were consensual. 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.”

The prepared statement does its best to paint Noth in a good light stating that “no always means no” and that “the encounters were consensual”. But then it goes further to raise questions that are meant to stir doubt in the public’s mind stating “It’s difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out”. But reporting sexual assault is an incredibly difficult thing to do and many victims, for a myriad of reasons, are never able to report their assault. According to Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) only 31% of rapes are ever reported. There are many factors that prevent victims from reporting. Of the unreported sexual violence crimes between 2005-2010, 20% of victims feared retaliation and that is what kept them from reporting. 

None of us were there with Zoe and Lily but we know that going up against a high powered celebrity’s public relations team would be traumatizing to anyone, let alone someone who had just been sexually assaulted. These allegations have not been proven in a court of law, but if perpetrators are ‘innocent until proven guilty’ then victims should be too.