Keri Claussen Khalighi, the model who has accused Russell Simmons of sexual assault when she was just 17 says that Simmons previously apologized for the 1991 assault.
She gave an interview to Megyn Kelly Today in which Khalighi, who is now 43, spoke of how the hip-hop mogul and activist apologized to her in the past for the assault.
Khalighi told Kelly that she has had many conversations with Simmons about the assault.
“Russell and I have actually had a face-to-face confrontation about what happened, we’ve had phone conversations where there was no dispute about what we were talking about. And he actually apologized,” she said.
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“Part of what’s so confusing and re-traumatizing is that what he’s speaking about privately with me is completely different from what’s come out publicly,” she went on to say. “That’s the piece that’s been, quite honestly, repugnant with hypocrisy and the lies and the denial.”
Khalighi is currently pregnant with her third child and gave the interview from her home in Los Angeles. She talked about how she met Simmons at a casting call in New York and then went back to his apartment along with Brett Ratner who has also been accused of sexual assault of late.
She says that when they got to Simmons home he ripped off her clothing and began to sexually assault her while Ratner watched.
“I looked over at Brett at that point for help,” Khalighi said, recalling that she’ll never forget the look he had on his face. “It was in that moment that I realized, ‘I think this was their plan all along.’ There was no help that was going to come.”
Simmons gave a statement to USA Today and Megyn Kelly that said he “completely and unequivocally (denies) the horrendous allegations of non-consensual sex against me with every fiber of my being.”
