Music mogul and entrepreneur Russell Simmons is "vehemently" denying he raped at least three women dating back to the late 1980s.
The three women have stepped forward, accusing Simmons, 60, of a "pattern of violent sexual behavior," including rape, between the late 1980s and 2014, according to the New York Times.
The women all spoke on the record and allowed their names to be revealed.
The Times said it confirmed the allegations through friends and associates of the women at the time the incidents occurred.
The women said they decided to come forward and tell their stories after dozens of victims publicly detailed alleged sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of disgraced filmmaker Harvey Weinstein.
“I didn’t sing for almost a year.” —Tina Baker, a performer who said Russell Simmons raped her in his apartment in the early ’90s, when he was her manager https://t.co/1cFH1oC8xG pic.twitter.com/mLEQ8h2qlV
— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 13, 2017
Simmons said the accusations are false.
"I vehemently deny all these allegations. These horrific accusations have shocked me to my core and all my relations have been consensual," the Def Jam Records co-founder told the newspaper.
He also said he has “enormous respect for the women’s movement worldwide and their struggle for respect, dignity, equality and power.”
Simmons stepped down from his business empire last month after sexual misconduct allegations against him first surfaced.
Drew Dixon left Stanford in 1992 to join the hip-hop revolution. She says Russell Simmons sexually harassed her repeatedly when she was an executive at Def Jam. She is accusing him of raping her in 1995. https://t.co/1cFH1oC8xG pic.twitter.com/34A6NpBWKc
— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 13, 2017
At that time he also denied the allegations, but apologized.
“While I have never been violent, I have been thoughtless and insensitive in some of my relationships over many decades and I sincerely and humbly apologize,” he said.
Cox Media Group