Singer Lisa Gentile is fourth woman to accuse Chris Noth of sexual assault | US television | The Guardian

A fourth woman has come forward to accuse Chris Noth of sexual assault, days after the actor best known for his character Mr Big on Sex and the City was fired from the CBS TV drama The Equalizer.

Singer-songwriter Lisa Gentile gave an account on Thursday that Noth had forcibly kissed and groped her in her New York apartment after she met him at Da Marino, a restaurant in midtown Manhattan where another of Noth’s accusers has said she was assaulted by the actor.

Gentile said she met Noth in 1998, when they were both regulars at the restaurant. One night in 2002, he gave her a ride home and asked to see her apartment. Gentile said he pushed her against a countertop, forcibly kissed her and groped her breasts.

“He was slobbering all over me, and I quickly became uncomfortable. He became more aggressive, put both hands on my breasts and began squeezing them very hard over my shirt,” she said on Thursday at a press conference.

Gentile, who alleges Noth then put his hands under her shirt, said she tried to push him off.

“I kept pushing his hands down while he was pushing mine up. I was trying to get him to stop. Then he pushed my hands down toward his penis.”

After she managed to push him away, she recalled “he became extremely angry and started screaming and calling me a tease and a bitch. He stormed out of my apartment.”

The next morning, Gentile added, Noth called, warning her that “if I ever told about what happened the night before that he would ruin my career that I would never see him again and that he would blacklist me from the business.”

“I was afraid to come forward because of Noth’s power and his threats to ruin my career,” Gentile said, adding that she was going public now to support the women who spoke out before her, anonymously, and to call for laws to extend legal limitations on adult claims of sexual assault.

The new account follows claims by three other women who say the actor sexually assaulted them between 2004 and 2015.

Noth has previously described the allegations as “categorically false”.

“These stories could’ve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago – no always means no – that is a line I did not cross,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.

“The encounters were consensual,” he added. “It’s difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I don’t know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.”

Noth’s co-stars in Sex and The City and its sequel And Just Like That – Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristen Davis – jointly voiced their support for his accusers.

Noth could not be immediately reached for comment on Gentile’s allegations. Representatives for the actor had no comment on Thursday.

Reuters contributed reporting.

• US television

• And Just Like That
• Rape and sexual assault
• news