Harvey Weinstein said he ‘encouraged’ his wife, Georgina Chapman, ‘to do what was in her heart’ before she announced she was leaving the movie mogul after a string of women claimed that he had sexually assaulted them.
Weinstein said that he ‘supports’ her decision and hopes that after he undergoes therapy for sex addiction and behavioral issues, he and his wife can ‘rebuild’ their relationship.
At the same time as Chapman made the announcement that she was leaving her husband, Weinstein flew to Europe by private jet, where he will submit himself to a live-in facility in hopes of cleaning his act.
In a statement released by his spokesperson, Weinstein said: ‘I support her decision, I am in counseling and perhaps, when I am better, we can rebuild.’
Georgina Chapman, 41, announced she is leaving husband Harvey Weinstein, 65, (both pictured in February) on Monday, five days after he said she was ‘100 per cent’ behind him
Chapman (seen left on Friday) made the remark as it emerged that Weinstein (right) was flying to Europe for sex rehab. Chapman reportedly relied on him to promote her fashion company
He added: ‘Over the last week, there has been a lot of pain for my family that I take responsibility for. I sat down with my wife Georgina, who I love more than anything, and we discussed what was best for our family.
‘We discussed the possibility of a separation and I encouraged her to do what was in her heart. I understand, I love her and I love our children and hopefully, when I am better, I will be in their lives again.’
Chapman cited the alleged ‘unforgivable actions’ of her husband as a reason for leaving Weinstein.
‘My heart breaks for all the women who have suffered tremendous pain because of these unforgivable actions. I have chosen to leave my husband,’ she told People.
‘Caring for my young children is my first priority and I ask the media for privacy at this time.’
According to a TMZ source, the Weinstein is surprisingly calm about the chaos that has beset him this week.
‘He has his moments where there are bursts, but for the most part he’s pretty calm,’ the insider said.
Chapman, 41, met Weinstein, 65, in 2003 and they married four years later, going on to have two children, India Pearl, seven, and Dashiell Max Robert, four.
Among the women who have accused Weinstein of assault or harassment are actresses Rose McGowan (left) and Ashley Judd (right)
Chapman is reportedly concerned that his past will affect her fashion company, Marchesa – but also worried that without him she won’t have the A-list connections to ensure the brand remains high-profile. The couple are seen here in 2012
She is also the co-founder of high-end women’s fashion line Marchesa – and before the announcement of her split from Weinstein, sources said that she was struggling to save the brand from being tarnished by her husband’s allegations.
But leaving him might present other problems for the beleaguered British designer.
A source told People that she is terrified that the line, which is loved by many of the women who have starred in her husband’s films, will founder without his help.
That’s because he – as one of the heaviest hitters in Hollywood – has access to the A-list stars that can keep the brand in the public eye.
A TV fashion source said: ‘Harvey is the one with all the friends. It’s going to be a tough time for her and Marchesa’.
A New York fashion publicist who did not want to be named told the Hollywood reporter: ‘No star is ever going to want to wear the brand again.’
Weinstein is good friends with Vogue editor Anna Wintour and the two have co-hosted fashion and Democratic political fundraising events.
Chapman and Weinstein are regular guests at Wintour’s annual Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute galas.
Chapman’s departure will likely come as a shock to Weinstein, who had boasted last week that his wife was ‘standing by me 100 per cent’.
He has also said she will be one of the people to ‘kick my a**’ and help him become a better man.
The couple were yesterday said to be holed up in a Los Angeles hotel together.
Weinstein also hopes that he will still be able to serve the Weinstein Company, from which he was fired on Sunday, in some capacity, TMZ reported.
On Tuesday Gwyneth Paltrow (left, with Weinstein in 1999) said he sexually harassed her when she was 22. Angelina Jolie (right) said he did the same, so she never worked with him again
Asia Argento (above in 2004) said that Harvey Weinstein raped her in a hotel room at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc back in 1997. Three other women also accused him of rape
His legal team are in talks with the company’s board, and according to an insider, he ‘wants to come back with fresh, new ideas’.
But a reunion seems unlikely, as the board on Tuesday once again condemned the mogul – and announced that it would be co-operating with the police.
‘The Weinstein Company’s Board of Representatives – Bob Weinstein, Lance Maerov, Richard Koenigsberg and Tarak Ben Ammar – are shocked and dismayed by the recently emerged allegations of extreme sexual misconduct and sexual assault by Harvey Weinstein,’ the board’s statement read.
‘These alleged actions are antithetical to human decency. These allegations come as an utter surprise to the Board. Any suggestion that the Board had knowledge of this conduct is false.
‘We are committed to assisting with our full energies in all criminal or other investigations of these alleged acts, while pursuing justice for the victims and a full and independent investigation of our own.’
On Monday, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that The Weinstein Company had consulted with an ad agency and was considering renaming itself to put distance between it and the litany of alleged abuses.
The controversy showed no signs of winding down on Tuesday, as several actresses came forward with new accusations about the producer.
Anglina Jolie said that in 1998, when she was just 23 and promoting her film Playing By Heart, Weinstein made unwanted advances on her in a hotel room.
‘I had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth, and as a result, chose never to work with him again and warn others when they did,’ Jolie told The New York Times.
‘This behavior towards women in any field, any country is unacceptable.’
Rosanna Arquette (left) and Mira Sorvino (right) both said Weinstein forced himself on them, but that they managed to fight him off
Ben Affleck finally broke his silence to condemn Harvey Weinstein on Tuesday, saying the sexual harassment claims made him sick. Weinstein produced Good Will Hunting, for which Affleck and Matt Damon (all three pictured) won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar
Affleck only made the remarks after five days of widespread condemnation of Weinstein – and after being asked repeatedly for comment by DailyMail.com
Her voice was joined by that of Gwyneth Paltrow, who said that Weinstein sexually harassed her at his Beverly Hills hotel when she was just 22, and that it almost lost her a big role.
Italian star Asia Argento told the New Yorker that Weinstein raped her in 1997 at a party hosted by Miramax at the Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc.
She claims the mogul led her to an empty room and asked her to give him a massage.
She reluctantly agreed,and halfway through he began to perform oral sex on her after forcibly lifting up her skirt despite her repeated requests for him to stop, she said.
Aspiring actress Lucia Evans and another unnamed woman accused him of rape as well, according to the article.
Rosanna Arquette and Mira Sorvino also said that Weinstein forced himself upon them, but that they were able to fight off his sexual advances.
Soon after, the two women say, their careers began to suffer.
Also on Tuesday, actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon finally spoke out about Weinstein, who was instrumental in bagging them an Oscar for Good Will Hunting.
Affleck, who had been silent on the matter for five days, finally said on Facebook that he was ‘saddened and angry’ over the claims.
Although Affleck implied that he had only just learned of the Weinstein claims, McGowan said she’d told him after her alleged 1997 assault and that he was aware of previous allegations
It’s not clear which press conference McGowan was referring to, but both she (left) and Affleck (center) appeared in the 1998 horror movie Phantoms (pictured), produced by Weinstein
‘I am saddened and angry that a man who I worked with used his position of power to intimidate, sexually harass and manipulate many women over decades,’ he wrote.
‘The additional allegations of assault that I read this morning made me sick,’ he added, calling them ‘unacceptable’ and demanding people ‘do better at protecting’ women.
Those remarks didn’t impress Rose McGowan, one of Weinstein’s alleged victims, who accused him of knowing about his abuses for at least 20 years.
She tweeted: ‘@benaffleck ‘GODD*MNIT! I TOLD HIM TO STOP DOING THAT’ you said that to my face. The press conf I was made to go to after assault. You lie.’
She then tweeted a screengrab of her message onto her main timeline with the message: ‘You want to play let’s play #ROSEARMY.’
It’s not clear which press conference she was referring to, but both McGowan and Affleck appeared in the 1998 movie Phantoms, which was executive-produced by Weinstein.
The horror flick premiered at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, which is where McGowan’s alleged assault took place.
Good Will Hunting premiered in December of that year; two of Affleckes preceding three films – Kevin Smith comedies Mallrats and Chasing Amy – were also backed by Weinstein.
Immediately after his remarks, McGowan also tweeted ‘Ben Affleck f**k off’
McGowan also tweeted ‘Ben Affleck f*** off’.
She had been prodding the Batman star for days to speak out, but clearly she hoped for a different response.
On Monday, she tweeted: ‘Ben Affleck Casey Affleck, how’s your morning boys?’
Casey Affleck has also been accused of sexual harassment.
Damon (pictured with Weinstein in 1998, the year Good Will Hunting was released) spoke out just after Affleck did, claiming that he had no idea of the producer’s actions
Shortly after Affleck’s statement came out, The New York Times published a story revealing that both Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie were subjected to unwanted advances by the Hollywood heavyweight.
Affleck and Paltrow dated briefly in the late ’90s. Paltrow was dating Brad Pitt around the time Weinstein made advances towards her.
Also addressing the controversy on Tuesday was Matt Damon, whom McGowan had previously called a ‘spineless profiteer who stays silent’.
He and Russell Crowe had been accused by The Wrap’s Susan Waxman of intervening in a story she was writing on Weinstein.
It claimed Fabrizio Lombardo, the former head of Miramax Italy was put on the payroll to procure women for Weinstein. Lombardo denied the claims at the time.
While she was working on the story, Waxman says the actors called her to vouch for Lombardo and the allegations about Weinstein were stripped out of the piece by her editors.
Damon, who said he knew Lombardo from the Italian launch of The Talented Mr Ripley, said he had no idea about what Waxman was investigating.
‘Harvey said, ‘Sharon Waxman is writing a story about Fabrizio and it’s really negative. Can you just call and tell her what your experience with Fabrizio was?’ So I did, and that’s what I said to her,’ Damon said.
Graham said that in a meeting with Weinstein in the early 2000s, the movie mogul bragged that he and his wife had an ‘agreement’ that he could sleep with whoever he wanted to while he was out of town. He was speaking of his first wife Eve Chilton, who he is pictured with in 1997. The two divorced in 2004
‘For the record, I would never, ever, ever try to kill a story like that. I just wouldn’t do that. It’s not something I would do, for anybody,’ Damon said.
Waxman has since spoken out to say that she ‘endorses’ Damon’s side of the story, tweeting Tuesday that he ‘wasn’t informed’ on the sexual harassment allegations.
Also drawn into the ongoing story on Tuesday was Weinstein’s first wife, Eve Chilton, after Heather Graham said she had been aware Weinstein slept with other women.
Graham told Variety that in the early 2000’s she met Weinstein at his office and was told that he wanted to cast her in one of his movies – offering her a pile of scripts on his desk to pick from.
‘Later in the conversation, he mentioned he had an agreement with his wife,’ Graham said, referring to Chilton, whom Weinstein married in 1987 and divorced in 2004.
‘[He said] He could sleep with whomever he wanted when he was out of town,’ she said. ‘I walked out of the meeting feeling uneasy.
‘There was no explicit mention that to star in one of those films I had to sleep with him, but the subtext was there.’
She said he later attempted to lure her into a hotel, but she refused – and promptly lost the film he was supposedly willing to finance.
On Tuesday Barack Obama said he was ‘disgusted’ with the stories about Weinstein (both seen in 2012), who had raised more than $600,000 for Obama after switching from the Hillary camp when she lost in 2008. He’s not said whether he would return the money
As the story continued to roll, Barack Obama – who received $680,000 in money raised by Weinstein for his 2012 election campaign – joined in the chorus of disapproval, saying he was ‘disgusted’ with the revelations.
‘Michelle and I have been disgusted by the recent reports about Harvey Weinstein,’ Obama said in a statement.
‘Any man who demeans and degrades women in such fashion needs to be condemned and held accountable, regardless of wealth or status.’
‘We should celebrate the courage of women who have come forward to tell these painful stories,’ the former president continued.
‘And we all need to build a culture – including by empowering our girls and teaching our boys decency and respect – so we can make such behavior less prevalent in the future.’
He did not say whether he would return the money raised for his campaign.
Hillary Clinton also spoke out on Tuesday, saying she was ‘shocked and appalled’ about the stories that had emerged about Weinstein.
On Tuesday, it also emerged that Weinstein had approached Jeffrey Katzenberg, former chairman of Walt Disney Studios and CEO of DreamWorks Animation, for help in persuading the board of the Weinstein Company not to fire him.
Katzenberg released the content of his reply – and it likely made for painful reading for the disgraced producer.
Katzenberg and Weinstein, pictured far right and left respectively, have been friends for more than 30 years. He wrote in his letter ‘you have done terrible things to a number of women. I am sickened by it’
Weinstein emailed a handful of Hollywood executives, including Katzenberg, on Wednesday in a desperate and last-minute plea for support.
‘My board is thinking of firing me. All I’m asking is, let me take a leave of absence and get into heavy therapy and counseling,’ wrote Weinstein in the email, which was read by one of the recipients to Janice Min.
‘Whether is be in a facility or somewhere else, allow me to resurrect myself with a second chance.’
He went on to state that ‘a lot of the allegations are false’ before asking that they send an email backing him, which he could in turn present to the company board.
In response, Katzenberg, who has known Weinstein for 30 years, said he had ‘no way of knowing’ whether the allegations were false, given that the email was sent just days after the NYT expose.
‘You have done terrible things to a number of women over a period of years,’ he continued.
‘I cannot in any way say this is OK with me…It’s not at all, and I am sickened by it, angry with you and incredibly disappointed in you.
‘I doubt this is what you want to hear from me and most likely you aren’t interested in my advice but this is the way I see it.’