In Chris Noth’s first interview since multiple women accused him of sexual assault in December 2021, the Sex and the City alum denied the allegations, calling further claims “completely ridiculous.”
“I strayed on my wife, and it’s devastating to her and not a very pretty picture,” he told USA Today in an interview published Monday. “What it isn’t is a crime.”
Initially, two women accused Noth of sexual assault in incidents allegedly taking place in 2004 and 2015. Noth shared a statement when the accusations surfaced in 2021, calling the allegations “categorically false.”
“These stories could’ve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago—no always means no—that is a line I did not cross,” he said in 2021. “The encounters were consensual. It’s difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I don’t know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.”
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Noth’s standing in Hollywood plummeted immediately following the accusations. His character, Mr. Big, had already been killed off of SATC spin-off And Just Like That…, and costars Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis issued a joint statement of support for the accusers, commending them for coming forward. A third woman came forward to The Daily Beast and said that Noth had sexually assaulted her in 2010, when she was 18. Actor Zoe Lister-Jones called Noth a “sexual predator” in an Instagram post and accused him of being “consistently sexually inappropriate” with a female colleague when she worked at a club that Noth owned, and claimed that when she guest-starred on a Law & Order episode in 2005 he was “drunk on set” and behaved inappropriately, including drinking between takes and sniffing Lister-Jones’s neck and telling her she smelled good. “I didn’t say anything,” she wrote. “My friend at the club never said anything. It’s so rare that we do.”
Noth was dropped by his agency in the wake of the reports, a $12 million deal for his tequila brand was canned, and he was fired from The Equalizer, among other fallout.
Now, Noth insists that while he did have sex outside of his marriage, the encounters were consensual.
“You give yourself the same excuses that many men do; it’s just a little side dance, and it’s fun,” he told USA Today. “You’re not hurting anybody. No one’s going to know about this, you know, and sex is just enjoyable. And suddenly, a lot of people want to have sex with you. It’s like, ‘Well, I’m not going to get this chance again.’”
No criminal charges have been filed against Noth, and he called any potential civil suits “a money train for a lot of people.” He called the public accusations “a tidal wave” and said “there’s nothing I can say to change anyone’s mind.”
“It sounds defensive,” he said. “I’m not. There’s no criminal court. There’s no criminal trial. There’s nothing for me to get on the stand about and get my story out, get witnesses. And there’s even more absurd add-ons that are completely ridiculous, that have absolutely no basis in fact. And I don’t like talking about it because as soon as I do, you’ll get the Daily Mail or someone grabbing a part of it and doing it, and I don’t want my kids seeing that.”
Noth recently took to Instagram to deny a report that he felt “iced out” by his former SATC costars, calling it “absolute nonsense. Just thought you’d like to know.”
The actor has resurfaced in a partnership with men’s suiting company Samuelsohn. He is being paid in clothes, according to USA Today, and the campaign has an emphasis on mental health. In an Instagram post in support of the campaign Monday, Noth wrote, “Witnessing the toll that depression has taken on my family and friends, it has deepened my understanding of this issue, making it a personal mission to stand up for this cause.”
In the interview with USA Today, Noth doubled down on his desire to “[get] back into the club” and said that “corporations are frightened.”
“People are scared, and their fear leads them,” he continued.
“I’m not going to lay down and just say it’s over,” he said of his acting career. “It’s a salacious story, but it’s just not a true one. And I can’t just say, ‘Well, okay, that’s it for me’ because of that. I’m an actor. I have other things that I want to do creatively.”
