Note: This article contains references to alleged sexual assault that some readers may find disturbing.
Axl Rose has reportedly settled 2023 sexual assault lawsuit, with the Guns N’ Roses frontman maintaining his innocence.
The lawsuit, filed by former model Sheila Kennedy in New York’s Supreme Court, alleged that Rose assaulted her in a Manhattan hotel room in 1989. Rose, 62, denied the claims and in March 2024 filed a motion to dismiss, calling the case an “unscrupulous attempt at a financial windfall.”
According to Rolling Stone, the case has been resolved through a private settlement. Rose stated, “As I have from the beginning, I deny the allegations. There was no assault.” The terms of the settlement remain undisclosed.
Court documents show both parties agreed to discontinue the case with prejudice, barring future litigation on the matter. Each side will cover its own legal costs. Rose’s lawyer commented that the singer “suffered greatly from this lawsuit” and is now ready to move on.
In a 2023 lawsuit, Kennedy alleged that she was 26 years old when she first met Rose, then 27, at a nightclub in New York. According to the filing, Rose invited Kennedy to his hotel room shortly after their initial meeting.
The lawsuit describes an initial consensual kiss, during which Rose allegedly “pushed Kennedy against the wall.” Kennedy reportedly indicated she was “open to sleeping with him if things progressed,” but asserted that she did not consent to what she alleges were violent actions that followed later that evening.
The legal filing alleges that Rose escalated the situation, alleging he “knocked her to the floor” and “grabbed her by the hair,” dragging her across the suite and back to his bedroom. Kennedy claims the incident left her with bleeding knees caused by scraping on the rug.
The suit described Rose to be in a state of “a sexual, volatile rage,” after he allegedly threw Kennedy onto the bed, tied her hands behind her back using pantyhose and forcibly penetrated her.
The suit alleges that Rose “treated her like property used solely for his sexual pleasure. Kennedy did not consent and felt overpowered.”
Rose’s lawyers argued the accusations were inconsistent with Kennedy’s past statements, including references to the encounter as consensual in her 2016 memoir No One’s Pet and the 2021 documentary Look Away. They suggested the lawsuit was motivated by New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily extended the statute of limitations for such claims.
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