This week, an actress named Kristina Cohen accused Ed Westwick of raping her in his home three years ago. The LAPD are now investigating Cohen’s accusation, and Westwick made a very simple public statement about Cohen’s story: “I do not know this woman. I have never forced myself in any manner, on a woman. I certainly have never committed rape.” Westwick posted that statement on his social media, and when I was looking around his Instagram, I noticed that he has been posting a lot of photos of his current girlfriend, Jessica Serfaty. Well, given the events of this week, it seems like an odd moment for “sources” to run to Us Weekly to say that despite the current headlines, Ed Westwick is madly in love with Jessica and they’re probably going to get engaged:
Ed Westwick was getting ready to pop the question to his girlfriend, Jessica Serfaty, before his sexual assault scandal broke, a source exclusively tells Us Weekly.
“Ed and his girlfriend, Jessica, were looking at engagement rings two weeks ago,” the insider says.
The Gossip Girl alum, 30, and the former America’s Next Top Model contestant, 26, went public with their romance in May when she shared an Instagram photo of them kissing. “Well.. it’s official. I’m swoon,” she wrote at the time. The model was previously married to property manager Ididia Serfaty from 2008 to 2013, and they share 9-year-old son Roman. She was later briefly linked to former One Direction singer Niall Horan.
The news of Westwick and Serfaty’s looming engagement comes just two days after actress Kristina Cohen accused him of raping her at his apartment three years ago. Serfaty appeared to defend her boyfriend on social media. On Tuesday morning, she tweeted, “I know you, I know the truth. Such sadness in my heart. I love your kind gentle soul. Bless.” The following day, she shared a “Bulls–t” meme on Instagram alongside the caption, “Nah, thanks mate. I ain’t havin any of that.”
This feels like the premise of a Lifetime movie. I’m not trying to be glib, I swear, but think about it from all directions: you meet someone you think is a charming British actor. He seems fun and delightful and everything is going along smoothly and you’re even looking at diamond rings and maybe he’s hinting at a Christmas proposal. And then bam, your boyfriend is accused of raping someone three years beforehand. What would you do? And what would you do if a second woman came forward with a strikingly similar story? I would bail. This isn’t a Lifetime movie. Jessica needs to get out.
Meanwhile, the British papers say that the BBC is under pressure to fire or suspend Westwick from his current hit comedy White Gold, which is currently filming. He also filmed a Christmas movie for the BBC too. Hm.
Jessica looks SO MUCH like Amber Heard to me.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Getty and Instagram.
“And then bam, your boyfriend is accused of raping someone three years beforehand. What would you do? ”
Obviously side with the victim. Its so sad we still have to ask this question and its not the automatic response.
She will side with the rapist straightaway.
My rapist was a serial one, he lied to his next girlfriend and she believed this ‘liar’ (me) had tried to taint his reputation by also ‘forcing’ some other exes of him to lie about being raped.
It was all a conspiracy against him, see…
Unless she gets raped too, she won’t believe any of his victims.
Who do married women hate the most when their husbands cheat on them? The other woman of course. We are trained to always value and forgive men while attacking any woman standing in the way of our “prize”. See any discussion posts on male cheaters on celebrity: 40 short answer posts on the cheating men, 200 hate-filled posts on the woman he cheated with. Rinse and repeat.
An Amazon exec was about to be married very soon when he was accused of sexual harassment. His fiancée called off the wedding. Granted harassment is not the same as rape but I respected the woman for leaving her fiancé when news of his behavior broke.
in the uk we had several footballers who were accused (and sometimes even charged) of rape, and their girlfriends just stayed with them, insisting it was all bs.
i’d like to think they’re doing it for money or because they’re gullible, and not because they are genuinely horrendous people who don’t care what happens to others.
And convicted in the case of Ched Evans (albeit not convicted on retrial, a retrial in which the defence team was allowed to use the victims previous sexual history as evidence smdh). His girlfriend stayed with him and her wealthy family funded his appeal. It was a disgusted chapter in UK law and very depressing to hear many people’s views on the matter.
Just take a look at the girls past and you’ll see why she’s not giving this up. Oh and she was on America’s next top model on season.
Frankly getting engaged or putting our engagement talk NOW says a lot about these two
He’s just a starter husband for her. I’m sure she will be fine.
She already has a marriage under her belt.
Jessica, you in danger girl.
Don’t forget she also has a left behind child under her belt as well.
She already had a starter husband and a kid. That she left to chase fame
As @Al noted on the other Westwick thread, people don’t always readily believe accusations against their loved ones.
Yes, I don’t think it would be that easy to just believe accusations against someone you love, if she truly is in love. Hopefully she’d work through her denial and get out of the relationship but if you love someone and know them as a good person the first instinct would probably be denial. Don’t know if this is real love though or if she’s just in it for the fame and money etc, in which case she’ll probably leave pretty soon. In either case I so hope EW is brought to justice for his crimes. And that his career is over for good, provided the allegations are true of course.
I remember her season…she was an unbelievably catty, fake mean girl who “hid” behind her pretty white girl persona. I remember that season her, Rayna with the eyebrows, and another pretty girl did the “innocent white child” act and vilified one of the black contestants, while pretty much being instigators in all the drama. It was one of my least favorite seasons and one of th ugliest reminders that this crap used to happen to me in school as one of the few black girls in a white school.
Hated her then, not surprised now.
Yea the racial divide in that season was gross. So many microaggressions that year
I mean she’s been going around victim blaming for a while now. She has deleted old tweets, of her saying victims make it up. She’s also a woman who left her child behind to go pursue famous men. So yea she’s an all round awful person.
But she had to post on social media? She doesn’t strike me as a nice person. Only heard of her cos she’s around famous men.
Doubt she cares. Doubt Chapman cares. Not all women support other women. Not all women are good. Not all women care…
Looking through her IG it’s insane how many photos she has of him. They only officially got together in May and literally more then half of her photos are of him and her in various sexual positions. She only has a couple photos of her son, which just makes it clear what her priorities are.
As a mother shouldn’t her first concern be with her son, she’s only been dating this guy for a couple months. She’s introduced her son to him. Shouldn’t she be sick with worry that she might have introduced him to a predator who could have potentially harmed him? But nope her concern is with shaming victims and getting more attention for herself by putting out a story like this.
I hope to god her son’s father ensures a tighter custody arrangement after this and he doesn’t allow her to expose their son anymore then she already has to this predator.
I don’t know this woman, but she must have been a child herself when she became pregnant. Few girls 16-17 yrs old choose to raise children by themselves, and I don’t expect it. The important thing for a child is stability and love, not bio parents at all costs.
She was 17, but she left him when she 25 to date a One-Direction boy. She was an adult when she made the decision to leave her child behind.
She wasn’t alone, the father has sole custody of the child right now. Yes, they were divorced but it’s not like he’s some deadbeat father, obviously, he’s stepped up. She’s more concerned with getting more attention off of this than protecting her son from Ed.
She was 17 when she got pregnant by a 23 year old-who has the kid now in AR. The whole story sounds heartbreaking for the child. And, honestly, a bit for her. She was a child when she got pregnant.
I have a friend who has a son and has a very similar arrangement-a few weeks in the summer and a few holidays with his mom. The mom seems difficult from the minimal exposure I’ve had, and is really unwilling to a) engage and b) to share anything about where she lives, etc. In fact, when the kid visits her, they never stay at “her” house but at a hotel or with his cousins. The whole thing is weird, and it’s incredibly sad for the child, who cries almost every time he talks to his mom. Fortunately, he has an amazing dad, step-mom, and solid friends and adult role models in our friend group…
I’m glad the child has a support system. I understand she had the child young but I have no sympathy for any parent who abandons their child. It’s just not right.
this is so odd though, why has she tweeting about victims making it up before this story broke out?
Mmmhmmm.
Also, the syntax of his denial is beyond weird. Total distancing.
Guilty.
To just clarify she made those tweets about another rape case that came out.
@DiligentDiva: isn’t it weird though? i mean it could be a coincidence but still… you tweet about victims making it up, and shortly after your bf is accused of rape? she might know something we don’t i.e. EW might have been accused before, just not publicly.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he had another victim from the past out there that this girlfriend has heard about. That might explain this pattern of behavior from her.
Lol, nice attempt at a distraction there. Newsflash, no one would have cared even if he hadn’t just been accused of rape.
He studied at The Kevin Spacey School of Deflection.
Same thing I thought. Sloppy PR.
That’s absolutely vile but it’s not particularly surprising.
He seems super eager to change the narrative and she’s a willing participant.
I’m sure she’s mad that “those woman” ruined her engagement announcement that no one would have cared about anyway. Disgusting.
Yeah I just read up on her and this seems the likeliest scenario. She’s desperate for a Hollywood lifestyle to the point she abandoned her son but she does not appear to have any particular training or talent. So she’s on the wrong side of 25 for the type of “career” she does have and needs to lock down a celebrity husband ASAP if she’s going to stay in the game. Tale as old as time. 🤢 She better be careful though. Multiple rape allegations for a former CW actor? Not likely he will be in the game much longer either.
Just a random question, but if she’s 26, did she get pregnant at 16 and married at 17?!
Came to ask the same question. The article says she is 26 with a 9 year old!
Yes!
I am shocked she is his girlfriend…I remember her from her cycle of ANTM.
It was the cycle when they went to New Zealand.
I think she was only 18 at the time & she had a very young child & was already married.
She was very churchy & said she got pregnant the very 1st time she had sex.
She seemed like a very sweet Southern girl.
This is bizarre.
Yea she did. Got pregnant the first time she had sex basically. One of those judgey girls that had no room to talk
I have mixed feelings about companies immediately suspending/firing people in this climate. It is such a swing from sweeping everything under the rug to getting rid of any whiff of scandal. I do believe all these allegations, but I am not a judge or employer so I don’t have any responsibility or need to be 100% sure. Perhaps a suspension pending investigation? Not sure what the proper approach is.
” Not sure what the proper approach is. ” Believing women, firing men. Super simple.
I believe in women, but I also believe in due process. My first instinct is always to believe women, but we can’t become judge, jury and executioner.
So you just “believe women” and thats it? No consequences?
I think he should go to jail (for a long time preferably), but it’s not up to me or you to hand out the consequences, as I said- due process. It’s honestly concerning how many people in the comments don’t believe in due process, if someone were to accuse you of a crime today, then without due process you would just get thrown into jail, no trial.
Its honestly concerning how many people in the comments dont believe women and protect men.
No innocent person just gets accused out of the blue.
I, and many with have already said that we believe women, but I am not a judge or jury. If due process is completely removed, then what’s left? Vigilante justice? Innocent people do get accused of various crimes, when it comes to rape it’s extremely rare but it does happen (no, I don’t think it’s the case here). When I talk about the importance of due process I’m not talking about rape specifically, but any crime.
Of course it is very rare, and the best approach is to assume the likelihood of guilt but make no final actions until at least some investigation. I can think of two false celebrity allegations in the last couple of years – Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes and that whole Bachelor in Paradise (Corinne?) thing.
That’s insane. And it adds fuel to the “women are hysterics” fire. Due process is the only legitimate way to deal with all of these allegations, every one of them. I tend to think there’s a strong 90% chance that rape victims are being truthful, however it’s fallacy to say that they always are. I’ve known three girls personally who have made false allegations, (just to their peers obviously.) One was caught in the act of cheating, one slept with her friend’s boyfriend, and one was really overwhelmed by next day regret. Two of them were best friends of mine. There was no harm, no foul, nothing got out of control but it could have because they weren’t really thinking about the possible ramifications of saying it. Again, not victim blaming or shaming just bringing another perspective to the “women never lie” narrative as someone who has seen both sides.
Why do believing the women and due process have to be mutually exclusive. Can’t we have both?
@freewhitebaby7.0 I agree, of course we should have both. It just seemed as if some people in the comments ( in this and the other Westwick article) were arguing that we should throw due process out the window completely.
That is troubling cos if you cancel a project many people are left without jobs. But trials can take forever. It is especially troubling in entertainment industry.
Maybe just replace them? Cos i guess we will hear more and more stories and many shows and movies will be under fire.
Companies need to make sure they have clauses in their contracts that allows them to terminate the deal if something like this happens. It’s not fair to all of the other actors, writers, tech people etc that NEED to work to have a project canceled. That’s something that bothered me about House of Cards – I think they’re still going forward with spinoffs though, so hopefully their crew will still be employed.
It’s a hard spot to be in in some ways – I could see keeping an actor on if management had actually been with them in say meetings at the time when an alleged incident happened and they KNOW that the story is impossible. But when someone gathers the courage to come forward – we need to believe the victim. They need to at the very least suspend the person being accused while information is gathered – if not outright firing.
Are their vindictive people out there? Yes. But there are so few people who will go forward with this kind of claim when it actually HAS happened to them – that the chance of someone making it up for spite is so minimal. I feel for anyone who’s been falsely accused of anything – but I’d rather see things be made up to them after the fact, and for them to seek a settlement for that than to see a victim come out with an allegation and nobody believe them.
Right, they need due process, but trials take forever and due to the standard of evidence and access to good lawyers that celebrities have, even in a changed climate I doubt they will always be successfully prosecuted.
Reminds me of the situation in universities. They need to protect the victims and not make them attend class and live in the same dorm room as their accusers. They aren’t handing out criminal convictions and fines, so they can operate with a different standard of evidence. But the schools seem to have inconsistent and not always great ways of balancing that with the rights of the accused. It is one thing to say – okay we will move the accused attacker to a different dorm or class, versus, we will expel you and it will be on your record.
To be clear, I am speaking as someone who was raped at college, but I don’t think it is a black and white question. It is clear what the standard of evidence is for what a random person should believe – use common sense. And it is clear what the standard of evidence in a criminal case should be. But for being fired or expelled there seem to be widely inconsistent approaches.
ETA – I think some contracts have ways to deal with this if it is someone at work making a complaint, or someone outside of work making a police report, but I doubt anyone has any official policy to someone outside of work making a Facebook post. I am not saying this to cast doubt on Facebook posts (I #metooed my own rape) but that they are outside any current system.
So-I have a large team at a Fortune 50. The process we would follow with ONE accusation of assault or sexual harassment is: Initial conversations, suspension (with or without pay depending the situation), investigation, review, and appropriate response, up to and including termination and/or referral to local police jurisdiction. My company is really solid in their responses now-ten years ago in rural areas, ehhh.
I sincerely hope they are in the suspension and investigation phase asap. I would imagine every single studio and production company is having or has already had meetings and creating a “response to sexual assault and/or harassment allegations” policy and playbook.
I’m dreading more about Jeffrey Tambor.
Does your company make any distinction between accusations made to HR, versus accusations made to the police, versus accusations made publicly but not officially?
So, yes, with exceptions or considerations. ALL reports to HR or accusations about assault or harassment during working hours, or with/around co-workers, or in a situation where someone can be construed as representing the company are handled as above. I can’t get into the particulars of the most recent situation, but arrests and investigations by the police usually, but will not always, result in suspension during investigation, depending on specific circumstances and mitigating factors. Public accusations have to reach someone at work first, which they often do because employees gossip worse than little old men at the diner, and then they follow the same process: initial conversations with all parties, and from there, if warranted based on the conversation with the reporting employee(s) and accused employee, suspension, investigation, etc.
Everything is done in lockstop with HR and legal. It can be painful, but it protects everyone in those situations.
Outside of sexual harassment and assault, other issues have slightly different approaches, but the same basic process.
How does the company handle the investigation if the accuser is not an employee? Do they have the ability to bring them in for a conversation?
No. Unless the victim purposely brought it to the company, the employee who brought it to the company, the accused individual, and any others would be interviewed and a determination would be made from there. If it’s a situation with rape, the employee would most likely be suspended with pay pending further information from the police investigation (if one is pending) or any HR investigation that can feasibly be done.
The public accusation is the toughest to map because it’s a “court of public opinion” and we’re a company-we have to really be aware of potential lawsuits from both employees and possible victims. If it can be proved we knew about a rapist or harasser on our staff and didn’t take action, it could possibly create liability. Similarly, if it’s false and we terminate an employee, we’re looking at a possible wrongful termination suit.
Disclaimer:
This, and all comments where I reference my experience in the workforce, are all my personal experience and are not meant to represent a statement by my unnamed employer. 😂
I agree with you, Wren; it’s a difficult situation. I want women to come forward. I want men to be punished… but I want it to be done fairly. We’ve moved from innocent until proven guilty to the exact opposite, and that’s no better IMO. Due process was put in place for a reason, no?
The most frustrating part is that we have to have this conversation at all, here, now, in 2017.
She’s 26 with a 9yr old and was married in 2008……how old is her ex?! Not shaming her for having a kid young just curious what was going on in that situation.
Her ex was 22 at the time she got pregnant, she was like 16/17 when they got together.
Why didn’t he just come out as a distraction? Oh wait, that didn’t work. Scumbags, all of them!
I went back and looked at a few minutes of the first episode of her antm season because I did not remember her at all. Surprisingly I did remember a number of the other women in that season, some of whom were cut earlier than she was. She was only 18 at the time, so married/had a kid very early in life.
Terrible time to announce an engagement (sort of like it’s a terrible time for announcing you’re gay).
I did the same, I didnt remember her at all.
Yeah this is the extreme version of the “adopt a Huskie puppy to distract” that Affleck’s PR tried to much failure. She’s beyond an idiot if she goes along with it but I’m sensing a few posters here know her backstory and she may actually be that thirsty and desperate. Wow, that’s bad. What’s the story on her abandoning her kid?
*spits out coffee*
Check her instagram page. She posted a pic yesterday clearly stating how she feels about it.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbN6yeZHTAk/?taken-by=jessicamichel
And his facial expressions just confirm what those girls experienced with this pervert.
Yeah, I hate to judge a book by its cover, but he just exudes sleaziness.
Yep. The denial is strong with this one.
I’m guessing that instead of a Lifetime movie, the story is that you’re a former reality star who makes her living doing appearances and bam, your boyfriend of five months tells you that you can get your name in a few blog posts and keep the engagement ring if you give him a bit of cover against rape accusations.
For the past few years the BBC has filmed an Agatha Christie novel as a miniseries and shown it over the Christmas period on consecutive nights. The adaptations have been relatively big budget, lavishly produced and critically acclaimed with lots of “names” on and off screen.
The first one was “And Then There Were None” with Aidan Turner and Charles Dance; then “Witness For The Prosecution” with Andrea Riseborough; this year it was due to be “Ordeal By Innocence” which features Eleanor Tomlinson, Bill Nighy, Matthew Goode and… Ed Westwick.
I don’t know what role he’s playing, but Westwick is prominently featured in the promotional photo which came out a couple of days ago and it’ll be interesting to see how they proceed with this.
The promo pic is here:
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/11/agatha-christie-ordeal-by-innocence-bbc-amazon
Just to add, going by the second image released for this adaptation it seems he’s in a featured role if his positioning in these first look promo shots is anything to go by.
https://twitter.com/BBCOne/status/927838567593889792
Run, girl, run. I don’t see this ending well.
As far as having a partner who was accused of rape, unfortunately I can identify.
I found out at 6 months pregnant my ex husband had an inappropriate relationship with one of his patients before we were together, she had mental health problems and to cut a long story short, from what information I have, she didn’t go to court and pursue the charges. She was obviously much to vulnerable to do so. I was pregnant when I found out by accident from reading a text. I couldn’t have him near me. Our marriage broke down, not only because of the accusation, but the way in which he destroyed her character, mocking her mental health issues and saying really nasty things about women in general.
I had no idea. He had eliminated any trace of her, changed his surname by deed poll. No member of his family that knew told me about it. If only I had known. The only thing I could do was to report him to his employers and hope that they make sure he hadn’t any access to vulnerable people.
I felt scammed, stupid, violated, ashamed, embarrassed angry, loads of different emotions but not one iota of anger towards his victim. I don’t even know her name. I hope she managed to have a good life and successful relationships despite him.
Oh God. That sounds deeply traumatic. I am glad you were able to get out of that relationship and hope you and your kid are doing well now.
What an awful, awful experience. I’m hoping your life has moved on for the better. When I read your story I was reflecting on how many victims there are for these kinds of crimes, because you and your son were victims too.
I’m glad you told your story, URS. It’s brave. Too many women eager to attack these men’s wives and girlfriends. You have no reason to feel ashamed, it’s all on him. I hope you’re doing better now, you deserve it.
You are a good person, and I’m sorry someone treated you so shabbily. That took a lot of strength of character to do, and you and your baby are so much safer without him.
I am so sorry. These things are hard to keep hidden even if it is one case. It is good you left and took the toxin out of your life.
When enagagement becomes the headline you gotta know that the future bride is used for PR. I am sorry but how many people go yapping about popping the question to the press? She needs to get out for sure. I am sure he may be a gentle and sensitive sould to her now, that is until the day she objects him and he turns into not such a sensitive soul. This is the problem with all those assailants. They may seem like a normal and emphatic people and often they are like that, but once things go not the way they want they turn into a complitely different person. The inderlying issue is that there are lots of men who have a very sexist and very possessive attitude towards women. They want a beautiful girl with no oppinion who will feel their narcisism and once that does not work they either leave or turn violent. So yeah, I believe she trusts him and she thinks he is not the rappist but that does not mean he is not one.
That was my thought too — they aren’t actually engaged yet, and it looks like she is being used to prop up his image. Also, just because he is in a long-term relationship doesn’t mean he’s not a rapist. It is a common pattern with these kind of criminals to lead double lives (that is part of the thrill for some of them).
He always looks like he smelled a fart doesn’t he? Who hired this dude and why is he a good actor? Yeah his girlfriend looks like Amber Heard.
It’s the perma-flared nostrils. He’s always reminded me of a small, angry bull.
Jennifer Esposito lookalike.
Run, Girl, Run!!!!!
I remember when he was dating his GG costar, Jessica Szhor, for 3 years but the rumor mill said she cheated on him with one of his BFF’s. Wonder if it was actually him she dumped for now obvious reasons? Ironic, now he’s getting engaged to another Jessica!
This brings back all the memories of personally experiencing similar situations and them being discarded as “I don’t know this woman.” I was sexually assaulted by a guy my friend was casually seeing. When I told my friend what happened she dismissed me and laughed it off. She told me she did ask her boyfriend about it and he said I was lying and I was jealous of their relationship. She continued seeing him. I’ll never forget the pain of being disbelieved. This is WHY victims don’t go to the police, because the pain of being treated like an inconvenience and a liar feels worse than the assault itself.
When I was 18 I was molested by my sister’s boyfriend. I told her, never believing for a second that she’d believe him over me. Guess what, he convinced her I was “crazy” and needed therapy. That was a very sore spot, since I had struggled with bouts of depression since childhood. It made me distrust her for years and years, her accusations hurt worse than his gross pawing. I don’t think I’ve ever completely forgiven her. She never properly apologized, even after he cheated and hit on one of her friends. It’s a terrible thing, how hard it is for women to be believed in these matters, how easily we sell each other out too. If there’s one thing about this whole mess that gives me real hope, it’s how people are now hearing of hundreds of interlocking cases, resulting in a form of public vindication. Perhaps they’ll learn to trust victims a bit more?
I wonder if any of the stars from Gossip Girl will be interviewed about him (i.e Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Jessica Sczhor — who dated him, etc.).
Gossip me hopes so, but it does put them in a really difficult position if they haven’t seen any bad behavior from him. “I don’t know” seems like a cop out. “He was always great to me” sounds like a defense and accusation that the women are lying. I think Winona Ryder handled this okay when asked about Johnny Depp as I recall.
That girl really does look like Amber Heard, not a good omen for her in the personal department. This one is recent and serious enough, and it looks like it might be investigated correctly and go to trial. I think we should all let this one play out criminally and not in the media. I realize the public ire is all we have for most of these, but it could damage the case. I wish Westwick would stop with the comments too, and not play happy fiance as it seems contrived. I don’t have a problem with Westwick’s statement though, quick and to the point. Honestly, not much you can say either way. You notice Spacey finally shut up completely. That’s a joy.
Doesn’t he have a Netflix show? I hope they drop him like they dropped Spacey.
She’s probably happy she hasn’t said Yes yet.
She also has a recent IG photo with the following caption: “Who’s amped to see Johnny Depp in this new flick of his? What movies are you excited to see this month? #murderontheorientexpress”
Girl, bye!
There’s also a selfie where she photoshopped her butt (note the curve of the door). https://www.instagram.com/p/BZrZ09VnAoF/?taken-by=jessicamichel
I do remember her from ANTM, and I do remember that I didn’t like her then.