Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart are responding to allegations that they and two other members of the Riverdale cast are guilty of sexual assault or harassment.
Sprouse tweeted late Sunday: “Earlier today myself and three other cast mates were falsely accused of sexual offense by anonymous accounts on twitter. I take these accusations very seriously, and will be working with the right teams to get to the root of it.”
“False accusations do tremendous damage to victims of actual assault. Furthermore, I would never seek to silence anybody,” the Suite Life of Zack & Cody alum continued. “I encourage that people look into the accusations themselves, as the events detailed were factually untrue. This seems to be the latest claim in a series of incidents seeking to baselessly cancel my cast mates and me.”
Reinhart then quoted his tweet and added: “I have always taken sexual assault allegations seriously. 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. 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- and I can call it a lie because the person who made the allegations already admitted that the stories were fabricated.”
She continued: “We are looking into taking legal action. 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 that this does not discourage real survivors from speaking out about their experiences.”
The accusations were issued by an account with the handle @Victori66680029. Sprouse was accused of assault at a 2013 party, and similar allegations of misconduct were then issued against his costars Vanessa Morgan and KJ Apa on other anonymous Twitter accounts.
Reinhart’s accuser, @Tasha93948576 later tweeted: “Do you see how easy it is lie and you guys will believe it? Vanessa Morgan and Kj Apa didn’t do jack s—t. You will believe anything.” The account has since been deleted.
This comes after allegations of sexual assault against Ansel Elgort and Justin Bieber emerged on Twitter; both celebs denied the accusations.