Kanye West Assault Accuser Interview Leads to Response From Ye’s Rep

A model and background actor who previously accused the artist formerly known as Kanye West of assault in a 2024 lawsuit, stemming from a La Roux music video shoot in 2010, has further detailed her claims against the 24-time Grammy winner in a new interview. Meanwhile, a rep for Ye has responded by pointing to arguments previously made in court filings.

Speaking with Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty for BBC’s Fame Under Fire podcast, Jennifer An recalled feeling “so excited” after responding to an audition for the shoot and securing the gig. Hours into the shoot, An said, the crew was alerted to Ye’s arrival, which led to her and other models being “lined up in the hallway.” Ye is said to have then picked “three girls to be in the scene with him,” though he ultimately paused the shoot after failing to remember his lines.

“He had the other two models leave the room,” An said. “He pulled a chair up in front of the camera and he pulled a chair beside the camera, and he had me sit in the chair in front of the camera. I didn’t know what was gonna happen. I was given no direction. I was just told to sit in this chair. Then playback started, and then all of a sudden he just reaches a hand out and starts choking me and I’m just not sure what’s happening.”

An claimed that Ye then “pulled his other hand out and starts choking me with both hands,” before then allegedly proceeding to smear her makeup and stick his hands inside her mouth.

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“I mean, it simulated, like, oral sex,” she added.

While detailing her allegations, An became visibly emotional. She also said she felt “suffocated, “unsure,” and “scared” during the alleged incident.

Earlier this year, Ye’s legal team argued that the alleged actions should be protected on free speech grounds due to the artistic nature of the production. Jesse Weinstein, an attorney for An, argued against this in a statement shared with Complex in March. At the time, La Roux herself was in headlines due to court filings that included alleged Instagram DM conversations between her and An.

“Labeling alleged sexual assault as ‘artistic expression’ does not place it beyond the reach of the law,” Weinstein told Complex at the time. “Our filings present substantial corroborating evidence, and we believe the facts will speak clearly as this case proceeds.”

When reached for comment by Complex on Wednesday (June 10), a rep for Ye shared the following statement, which pulls from arguments previously made in court filings from Jan. 28 and March 16 of this year, respectively:

“This case involves serious allegations. Ms. An’s complaint has been amended twice, each time in apparent response to the legal deficiencies identified by prior motion practice, and with each amendment the factual allegations have grown more extreme, diverging ever further from what Plaintiff’s own evidence supports. Jennifer An’s latest concoction does not merely present alternative theories. It reverses and recasts core operational facts in order to avoid statutory dismissal, leaving a set of allegations that cannot be reconciled into a plausible narrative.

Michelle An is the only eyewitness. She admits she did not observe Defendant place his fingers into Plaintiff’s mouth or his hands around Plaintiff’s throat. No law enforcement report was ever filed. No medical attention was sought. No contemporaneous record of any kind exists. The complaint was filed in the final days before the New York City Gender-Motivated Violence Act revival window closed, fourteen and a half years after the alleged events. After three pleading attempts, the second amended complaint still does not plead any sexual offense.

Filmed productions routinely depict or simulate coercive or sexualized conduct, including acts that, if real, would constitute assault. Such depictions may involve physical contact between performers. But the emulation of sexual violence for artistic purposes is not itself sexual violence, and the presence of physical contact in a staged performance does not transform expressive conduct into a crime, let alone into gender-motivated violence. Ms. An herself admits that the video was designed to ‘emulate’ stylized violence for the camera. This admission negates any inference of gender-based hostility.”

In more recent years, Ye, now 49, has faced public outcry over various remarks and actions called out as antisemitic, including expressing “love” for Hitler in a 2022 Alex Jones interview and selling t-shirts emblazoned with a swastika. In January of this year, he said in a full-page Wall Street Journal ad that he aspired to earn “forgiveness” from the public, saying he is “not a Nazi or an antisemite” while also pointing to his struggles with bipolar disorder.