Marilyn Manson's ex-wife Dita Von Teese says he didn't abuse her

Dita Von Teese has broken her silence on the abuse allegations made against her ex-husband Marilyn Manson.

Taking to Instagram on Wednesday, the Burlesque star, 48, insisted that the singer, 52, had not acted abusive towards her during their seven year relationship.

In a statement, she wrote: ‘I have been processing the news that broke Monday regarding Marilyn Manson. 

‘To those who have expressed your concerns of my well-being, I appreciate your kindness. 

‘Please know that the details made public do not match my personal experience during our seven years together as a couple.

‘Had they, I would not have married him in December 2005. I left 12 months later due to infidelity and drug abuse. Abuse of any kind has no place in any relationship.’

While Von Teese said she had not been abused by Manson during their time together, she wished ‘strength’ on the women who had come forward. 

She went on: ‘I urge those of you who have incurred abuse to take steps to heal and the strength to fully realize yourself.’ 

Von Teese and Manson first became a couple in 2001 after previously meeting when he asked her to be in one of his music videos.

He proposed to her in March 2004 and they wed in November 2005, holding the ceremony at Castle Gurteen de la Poer in Ireland.

Von Teese filed for divorce from Manson in December 2006 citing ‘irreconcilable differences’, and he was served divorce papers in January 2007.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph in 2007, she said of their split: ‘I wasn’t supportive of his partying or his relationship with another girl. As much as I loved him, I wasn’t going to be part of that.’

Hollywood actor Evan Rachel Wood was among the first to publicly accuse Manson in an Instagram post Monday where she claimed he starting ‘grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years’. 

Since then, at least 10 more women have spoken out over the alleged abuse they suffered at the hands of the rocker. 

Manson has denied all allegations claiming in a statement Monday night they were ‘distortions of reality’ and insisting all of his relationships were consensual, but was dropped from his record label and talent agency when the accusations surfaced. 

On Monday, five women made coordinated statements on Instagram about how Manson allegedly treated them.

They are Westworld actress Wood, 33; an artist known only as Gabriella; photographer Ashley Walters; model Sarah McNeilly; and model Ashley Lindsay Morgan.

They claimed they had been victims of sexual misconduct, manipulation, and physical and emotional abuse at Manson’s hands.

The women’s allegations vary but all say Manson left them with PTSD after forcing them into blood pacts, plying them with drugs, becoming violent with them and gaslighting them. 

Westworld star Wood was engaged to Manson for eight months in 2010. She has in the past spoken about being abused but did not name her abuser. 

In her statement on Monday, she wrote: ‘The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson.  He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years.  

‘I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail. I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives.

‘I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.’   

On Monday night, another three women made allegations on social media that Wood re-posted on her account. They did not go into detail about their relationships with Manson but all three said he was an abuser.

Those women are Scarlett Kapella, Brittany Leigh, and Torii Lynn. On Tuesday, four more women made allegations against the rocker. 

Visual filmmaker Love Bailey claimed Manson once held a gun to her forehead in 2011.

Musician Chloe Black spoke out on Instagram to allege Manson deprived her of sleep, made racist and anti-Semitic comments and that she once ‘thought he was actually going to kill me.’   

Artist and writer Louise Keay Bell claimed Manson ’emotionally and financially abused me and tried to control me’ from the age of 19.  

Actor Charlyne Yi also alleged Manson harassed her and other women on the set of the TV series House and said when she spoke out about the abuse three years ago she had received death threats.   

Bailey spoke out about the alleged incident with the gun on Instagram Tuesday.

She had initially made the claims in social media posts in 2017, yet resurfaced the allegations this week as more women came forward.

Bailey, who is trans, posted a video to her Instagram account on Tuesday evening in which she claimed that Manson told her he didn’t ‘like f*****s’ as he held the weapon to her head while she was working at a shoot in his home in 2011. 

At the time, she was allegedly attempting to help an unnamed Hollywood actress who was blackout in his room prepare for a photoshoot.   

On Monday, Bailey had posted a picture of Manson to Instagram in which she called him a ‘vile human’.

‘I’m not a fan of cancel culture but when someone like @marilynmanson pulls a gun to your head, it’s time to speak up,’ Bailey wrote.

‘It’s 2021 and we have to take away the power of these awful people, so they don’t do harm anyone else.’

Bailey followed up on Tuesday evening with a five-minute video in which she spoke at more length of her claims, as she told the Daily Beast that she is getting in touch with the authorities about her story.

She also claimed that she is keeping the name of the actress involved in the incident under wraps as they pursue legal counsel.  

After Wood spoke out, Rose McGowan – another of Manson’s exes and a #MeToo crusader – released a statement to say she ‘stands with’ her. 

She has not made any allegations of her own against Manson but said: ‘When he was with me, he was not like that but that has no bearing on whether he was like that with others before or after.

‘It takes time to come forward. I am proud of these women.’ 

She added: ‘I am profoundly sorry to those who have suffered the abuse & mental torture of Marilyn Manson.

‘When I say Hollywood is a cult, I mean the Entertainment industry including the music industry is a cult. Cult’s protect the rot at the top.  Theirs is a sickness that must be stopped.’ 

Three accusers say they had romantic relationships with him that started with him ‘love bombing them’ but then turned abusive.   

Ashley Walters said she met Manson after he contacted her on social media asking to collaborate. 

She is a photographer in Los Angeles and says she admired his work. It’s not clear from her post when the pair met or if their relationship was ever sexual.

She says she started working for him as a personal assistant after six months, that the pair became close – ‘like family – but then their relationship changed.

She said he ‘frequently’ became violent, once threw glass plates at her and ‘offered’ her up for ‘sexual relationships with collaborators’.

‘I continue to suffer from PTSD, and struggle with depression. 

‘I stayed in touch with quite a few people who went through their own traumas, under his control. 

‘As we all struggled, as survivors do, to get on with our lives, I’d keep hearing stories disturbingly similar to our own experiences. 

‘It became clear the abuse he’s caused; he continues to inflict on so many and I cannot stand by and let this happen to others. 

‘Brian Warner needs to be held accountable,’ she said.  

Los Angeles-based model Sarah McNeilly also used the phrase ‘love bombing’. She says Warner ‘lured’ her in by acting loving but then turned violent.

Among her claims is that he threw her against a wall, threatened to bash her face in with a baseball bat, locked her in a room when she was ‘bad’ and verbally berated her for ‘hours’.

She did not give dates for when they knew each other. 

‘I have been afraid to bring any spotlight upon myself as to avoid winding up in his cross hairs again. 

‘As a result of the way he treated me, I suffer from mental health issues and PTSD that have affected my personal and professional relationships, self-worth and personal goals. 

‘I believe he gets off on ruining people’s lives. I stand in support of all that have and all will come forward. I want to see Brian held accountable for his evil.’

Ashley Lindsay Morgan said she met Manson when she was working as a model in Thailand in 2009. She claims they had a mutual friend and that after talking and texting for months, he flew her to Los Angeles. 

She did not detail how long they spent together but alleged abuse and said he also asked her to bring him Nazi memorabilia from Asia, even though she is Jewish.

She says she also ‘wasn’t allowed to eat or sleep or leave’ his home.  

‘I have night terrors, PTSD, anxiety, and mostly crippling OCD. I try to wash constantly to get him out or off of me. I am coming forward so he will finally stop,’ she said in part. 

The fourth woman is an artist called Gabriella. She said she met him in 2015 when she was 22 and he was 46 backstage at one of his shows.

She says he ‘love bombed’ her immediately.

‘Things went from 0 to 100 at full speed… he worked a kind of magic on me,’ she said.

Among her claims is that he forced her to take drugs with him and that they made a blood pact. 

‘I had fallen deeply for an illusion of safety and love. Every aspect of my life was affected I suffered financially, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

‘It has taken me five years to speak out. I have been diagnosed with PTSD and still suffer from nightmares. I blocked out a lot of the memories, but the feelings remain and manifest in various ways. The reason I’m finally sharing this traumatic 

‘Experience is for my healing and because I’m done being silent. I don’t believe it’s fair for someone to not be held accountable for their horrific actions. 

‘I’m not a victim. I’m a survivor,’ she wrote. 

Former porn star Jenna Jameson has also claimed Manson fantasised about burning her alive and ‘liked to bite’ during sex.

In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, the adult movie actress divulged the disturbing details about her brief affair in 1997 with the self-styled ‘antichrist’.  

The 46-year-old mother, who now uses her partner Leon Bitton’s last name, said that unlike some of Manson’s other exes’ alleged experiences, she left him before he could inflict too much damage. 

She said: ‘Our relationship was odd. We didn’t go out long because I cut it off after he would nonchalantly say he fantasized about burning me alive. Sexually he liked to bite, and it was disconcerting. He is a lot. To say the least.’ 

She added that although Manson didn’t do anything to her without her consent, she quickly cut him loose once he expressed his twisted desires. 

‘Once he started speaking to me violently, I was like… goodbye Brian. Also the bruises from him biting me weren’t fun,’ she said. 

California State Senator Susan Rubio has called for a police investigation, saying: ‘As a survivor myself, I was horrified to hear of these domestic violence allegations. We need to stand with the victims. We know they are almost always isolated from loved ones, making it that much more difficult to escape or seek justice. 

‘Victims are usually not believed or are threatened to keep quiet, so when they do come forward, we need to support them. 

‘These allegations of physical, emotional and financial abuse against Marilyn Manson, also known as Brian Hugh Warner, must be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated.

‘If law enforcement does not do that, we will not only fail these victims but future possible victims of the alleged perpetrator. We must not let that happen,’ she said.

Wood also posted screenshots of tweets written by Dan Cleary – Manson’s former assistant in December 2020.

He said in them that he knew Wood when she was with Manson and that by the end of their relationship, he had ‘broken’ her. 

Wood reconciled with her English actor beau Jamie Bell after her romance with Manson ended in 2010. 

She and Bell had one son together before splitting in 2013. She then revealed she was bisexual and dating a non-binary partner in 2019, but she did not reveal who they were. 

In the past, Manson has denied violence through an attorney. But in a 2009 interview with Spin, he made disturbing remarks about wanting to ‘smash’ Wood’s skull in. 

He was being asked about his new album and was asked: ‘It sounds like the period after you and Evan Rachel Wood broke up was really tough. What was your lowest point?’ 

He replied: ‘My lowest point was Christmas Day 2008, because I didn’t speak to my family. My walls were covered in scrawlings of the lyrics and cocaine bags nailed to the wall. 

Manson is now married to artist Lindsay Usich. They got married in lockdown in February 2020 and she has ‘liked’ his statement denying the abuse claims.