Over the weekend, someone trying to prove a point tweeted and retracted outrageous accusations against Lili Reinhart, Cole Sprouse, and others.
Camila Mendes is speaking out against the false claims of sexual assault, pointing out how much damage a lie like that can do.
Camila Mendes spoke on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show on Tuesday, June 23.
“It’s so insane to me that somebody would do such a thing to prove a point,” she laments, speaking of the retracted sexual assault allegations.
“It seems so trivial,” Camilia states, referring to the person’s petty motives for such an explosive, defamatory claim.
She expresses: “like ‘Oh, really, you went to that extent?'”
“To damage not only the integrity of the #MeToo movement,” Camila complains.
“But also,” she points out, “potentially damage the careers of these people and their lives?”
(Actual, confessed sexual predators often do not face consequences, so false accusations are also unlikely to ruin lives — but they are still bad)
“To do that in order to make a point about how easily people believe things is just so backwards to me,” Camila laments.
“And,” she expresses, “I feel for my castmates who had to deal with that.”
Yes. No one should have to face false accusations.
Camilla’s comments echo her sentiments from her Instagram Story on Monday.
There, she referred to the recanted accusations as “sickening” and “incredibly destructive.”
The account that accused most of the cast of Riverdale of assault went on to mock anyone who bought their story.
“Do you see how easy it is to lie and you guys will believe it?” one of the accounts owned by the unidentified accuser taunted.
“Vanessa Morgan and KJ Apa didn’t do jack s–t,” the vile person confirmed. “You will believe anything.”
There are sick people in this world. Some of them are rapists. Some of them seem to want to cast doubt on real survivors.
Lili Reinhart spoke at length on social media on the subject.
She affirmed: “I have always taken sexual assault allegations seriously.”
“But” she noted, “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,” Lili relatably expresed.
She explained: “It invalidates the men and women who are brave enough to come forward with the truth.”
‘This kind of lie can ruin lives and careers,” Lili suggested.
“And,” Lili noted, “I can call it a lie because the person who made the allegations already admitted that the stories were fabricated.”
“We are looking into taking legal action,” she announced.
Lili correctly noted: “This kind of sick behavior only harms true survivors.”
“This was incredibly triggering for me and scary,” Lili acknowledged, “because I’ve always supported survivors and believed them.”
She added: “I hope and pray that this does not discourage real survivors from speaking out about their experiences.”
“People genuinely infuriate me,” Lili admitted, “and it’s very hard to keep myself from exploding most of the time.”
“We live in a world of remarkably selfish human beings,” Lili acknowledged.
She invited her fans and followers to “Strive to be the kind of person who doesn’t live in their own delusional universe.”
“If you are not reflecting on your actions, you are not growing,” Lili stated, “you are not living.”
Madelaine Petsch also spoke out.
“As someone who has been sexually assaulted,” she tweeted, “I am deeply deeply disturbed that anyone thinks that it is okay to falsely accuse someone of sexual assault.”
“This is why real assault allegations can sometimes not be taken seriously,” Madelaine lamented. “You should be ashamed. This is disgusting.”
False accusations are extremely rare.
While they are unlikely ruin lives — since, sadly, even confessed sexual predators often continue to enjoy lucrative careers — they are damaging.
They create examples to which rape apologists can point to cast doubt upon future allegations — which appears to have been the point.
