Aziz Ansari accused of “sexual assault” by a Brooklyn photographer

Golden Globe winning actor and comedian Aziz Ansari has been accused of "sexual assault" by a 23-year-old photographer from Brooklyn kept anonymous for her safety. Speaking to Babe, the woman recounts a date she had with the comedian that, she says, became the "worst experience with a man I've ever had." Babe corroborated her story by also talking to the woman's friends about the incident, as well as obtaining photos and texts between Ansari and the woman.

According to the photographer, she first met Ansari at the 2017 Emmy Awards after-party, where they bonded over using the same film camera. They exchanged numbers, and then set up a time to meet again. The photographer recounts that during their date, Ansari seemed eager to get back to his apartment: "When the waiter came over he quickly asked for the check and he said like, ‘Let’s get off this boat...' Like, he got the check and then it was bada-boom, bada-bing, we’re out of there."

The two later ended up at his apartment, where, the woman recounts, things escalated very quickly and she soon became uncomfortable with the situation.

"In a second, his hand was on my breast," she recounts. "The move he kept doing was taking his two fingers in a V-shape and putting them in my mouth, in my throat to wet his fingers, because the moment he’d stick his fingers in my throat he’d go straight for my vagina and try to finger me. He probably moved my hand to his dick five to seven times...He really kept doing it after I moved it away. It was 30 minutes of me getting up and moving and him following and sticking his fingers down my throat again. It was really repetitive. It felt like a fucking game."

She says that most of her discomfort was expressed "in me pulling away and mumbling. I know that my hand stopped moving at some points. I stopped moving my lips and turned cold. I know I was physically giving off cues that I wasn’t interested. I don’t think that was noticed at all, or if it was, it was ignored."

Eventually, Ansari then tried to bring up sex, though the woman turned him down and expressed that she didn't want to do anything sexual tonight. She says that he initially listened to her, but then resumed his previous actions. After Ansari allegedly proposed they put their clothes back on and watch TV, he "kissed her again, stuck his fingers down her throat again, and moved to undo her pants," which prompted the woman to leave the apartment. During her car ride home, the woman says that she "cried the whole ride home. At that point I felt violated. That last hour was so out of my hand."

A cellphone screenshot obtained by Babe allegedly shows Ansari texting the woman after the incident saying "Hey - it was fun meeting you last night." "Last night might've been fun for you. It wasn't fun for me," she responded, "You ignored clear non-verbal cues" and "kept going with advances." "I’m so sad to hear this,” Ansari responded. “Clearly, I misread things in the moment and I’m truly sorry."

The woman says that "It took a really long time for me to validate this as sexual assault." Babe reached out to Ansari's team for comment. The FADER has also reached out for comment, and will update this post if a statement from his team is released.

Read the full report on Babe here.

On January 14, 2018 at 8:29 p.m. this post was updated to include a statement from Aziz Ansari sent to The FADER commenting on the incident. His entire statement is pasted below: