Asia Argento accuser Jimmy Bennett says he stayed silent because he was 'ashamed and afraid'

Actor Jimmy Bennett has accused actress Asia Argento of sexually assaulting him in 2013 when he was 17 and she was 37, and in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, said he was too "ashamed and afraid" to speak out sooner.

The New York Times reported on Monday that after Bennett accused Argento of sexual assault, she agreed to pay him $380,000 over two years. Bennett told The Hollywood Reporter he "chose to handle it in private with the person who wronged me. My trauma resurfaced as she came out as a victim herself." In October 2017, Argento said she had been raped by disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein, and she became a vocal leader in the #MeToo movement.

Bennett and Argento first met in 2004, when he starred as her son in the film The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things. In his statement, Bennett said he "didn't think that people would understand the event that took place from the eyes of a teenage boy," and he believed there was "still a stigma to being in the situation as a male in our society." Argento has denied any wrongdoing, and said Bennett was "undergoing severe economic problems" when he "unexpectedly made an exorbitant request of money from me." She said it was her late boyfriend Anthony Bourdain's idea to pay Bennett off.

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