In HBO's two-part documentary "Phoenix Rising," Evan Rachel Wood recounts the alleged abuse she endured during her relationship with shock rocker Marilyn Manson, beginning with how they met when she was a teenager in 2006 up through her painful decision to publicly name him as her alleged abuser in 2021.
The film makes the case that Wood was "groomed" by the singer when she was just 18 and he was 37, setting her up for a four-year relationship in which she claims he repeatedly drugged her and threatened her life while isolating her from friends and family.
Wood claims in the film that Manson's sadistic, violent behavior included raping her on camera while shooting his 2007 video for "Heart-Shaped Glasses": "I was coerced into a commercial sex act under false pretenses," she alleges. "That's when the first crime was committed against me." Manson (aka Brian Warner) declined to comment on specific allegations made in the film but in a previous statement denied "any and all claims of sexual assault or abuse of anyone." Earlier this month Manson sued Wood for defamation over her sexual abuse allegations against him, which he claims are a "malicious falsehood."
