Axl Rose and Sheila Kennedy, the former model who sued him last year for sexual assault, have reached a private settlement, as learned by Rolling Stone. In a statement, Rose reiterated that he did not assault and rape Kennedy in a Manhattan hotel room in 1989, as she alleged.
«As I have done from the beginning, I deny the accusations. There was no aggression,” said the Guns N' Roses frontman. Terms of the private deal were not disclosed.
“Mr. Rose has suffered greatly as a result of this lawsuit, and I am pleased that he can now move forward with his life,” Rose's attorney, E. Danya Perry, added in a separate statement.
The parties recently filed documents in New York saying they have agreed to stop the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be reopened in the future. They also agreed to each cover their own legal fees, according to documents obtained by Rolling Stone. The magazine's attempts to contact Kennedy and his lawyer were unsuccessful.
The lawsuit was filed last November, just a day before the deadline to file claims under New York's Adult Survivors Act expired. Sheila Kennedy had claimed that Axl Rose assaulted her in February 1989 after they met at a nightclub. Actress and model, nominated “Pet of the Year” by Penthouse in 1983 and appearing on the magazine's cover four times, Kennedy said she ended up at Rose's luxury suite on Central Park West shortly afterward, where an afterparty was being held.
In the hotel room, Rose allegedly “pushed Kennedy against the wall” and “kissed her,” the lawsuit reported, describing the initial interaction as consensual. “Kennedy found Rose attractive and didn't mind her,” the documents read. “She was open to the idea of sleeping with him if the situation progressed.”
However, the situation took an unwanted turn when, according to Kennedy, Rose became “aggressive”. The woman claimed that the singer pushed her to the floor, dragged her by her hair across the suite and then raped her. “Rose made no attempt to ask or verify that Kennedy was consenting,” the complaint reads. “He treated her as property to be used solely for his sexual pleasure. He didn't use any condoms.”
Rose denied the allegations last year through another lawyer. “This episode simply never happened,” attorney Alan Gutman declared to Rolling Stone. “While he does not rule out the possibility of a photo with a fan taken on the fly, Mr. Rose does not recall ever meeting or speaking to the plaintiff and has never heard these fictitious allegations before today. Mr. Rose is confident that this lawsuit will be resolved in his favor.”
Rose, 62, has been accused of domestic and sexual abuse in the past. Kennedy's complaint references allegations made by two of Rose's former partners, Erin Everly and Stephanie Seymour, detailed in an article by People in 1994. That year, Everly sued Rose in a Los Angeles civil court for abuse, later settling the matter out of court.
