Marilyn Manson drops lawsuit against former fiancée

Rocker Marilyn Manson has agreed to drop a lawsuit against his former fiancée, actress Evan Rachel Wood, and to pay her lawyers' fees The move on Tuesday comes 18 months after a Los Angeles County judge threw out much of the 2022 suit in which Manson, whose legal name is Brian Warner, claimed Wood had fabricated public allegations that he sexually and physically abused her during their relationship and encouraged other women to fabricate their own allegations. "After four years of fighting a battle where he was able to tell the truth, Brian is pleased to dismiss his still-pending claims and appeal in order to close the door on this chapter of his life," Manson lawyer Howard King said in a statement. Manson had been appealing the judge's decision but his lawyers reached out to Wood's seeking a settlement in the spring. Wood's lawyers said Tuesday that she rejected requests that the terms be kept confidential. Manson "filed a lawsuit against Ms Wood as a publicity stunt to try to undermine the credibility of his many accusers and revive his faltering career," Wood's lawyer Michael J. Kump said in a statement. "But his attempt to silence and intimidate Ms. Wood failed." Manson agreed to pay nearly $US327,000 ($A506,000) in lawyer fees for Wood. The settlement comes nearly four years into a criminal investigation of the 55-year-old Manson involving multiple women that remains unresolved. Outgoing LA County District Attorney George Gascón said in October his office's sex crimes division had just discovered new evidence and that a decision on whether to file charges would be made when the picture was more complete. The women involved in the criminal case have not been identified, but Game of Thrones actress Esme Bianco has said she was among them, and criticised the district attorney for taking so long to investigate. Bianco settled her own lawsuit against Manson in 2023. The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly as Wood and Bianco have. Manson has denied engaging in any non-consensual sexual acts. In 2017, with the #MeToo movement gaining momentum, Wood said publicly that she had been raped and abused, and gave testimony on the subject to a Congressional committee in 2018, but did not name anyone in either instance. Then in a 2020 Instagram post, Wood said it was Manson who had "horrifically abused me for years". The two revealed they were a couple in 2007, and were briefly engaged in 2010 before breaking up.