On Sunday, Riverdale’s Cole Sprouse denied an allegation of sexual assault leveled at him by an anonymous Twitter account earlier in the day, saying the accusations were “the latest claim in a series of incidents seeking to baselessly cancel my cast mates and me.†Tweeted the actor, “False accusations do tremendous damage to victims of actual assault. Furthermore, I would never seek to silence anybody. I encourage that people look into the accusations themselves, as the events detailed were factually untrue.â€
According to the Twitter account, the user was allegedly assaulted by Sprouse in 2013 following a party at NYU. According to Buzzfeed, other allegations of sexual abuse and harassment subsequently cropped up against Sprouse’s Riverale co-stars Vanessa Morgan, KJ Apa, and Lili Reinhart from a different anonymous account. The user eventually declared, “Do you see how easy it is to lie and you guys will believe it?†potentially as an attempt to cast doubt on the validity of the claim against Sprouse.
Reinhart also addressed the accusations Sunday, retweeting Sprouse’s thread about the allegation. “I have always taken sexual assault allegations seriously,†she tweeted. “But it was proven that this account was created specifically to create false stories about me and my cast. I can’t think of something more twisted than lying about sexual assault.â€
“We are looking into taking legal action,†wrote Reinhart. “This kind of sick behavior only harms true survivors. This was incredibly triggering for me and scary because I’ve always supported survivors and believed them. I hope and pray this does not discourage real survivors from speaking out about their experiences.â€