Actress Evan Rachel Wood Gets Major Backlash For Calling Kobe Bryant A ‘Rapist’ After His Death

Tries to clarify her comments and things only get worse for her on social media

Evan Rachel Wood

By PopZette Staff | January 28, 2020

Evan Rachel Wood, who is best known for starring in the HBO television series “Westworld,” has found herself in hot water this week after she called late NBA star Kobe Bryant a “rapist” hours after his death on Sunday.

Bryant tragically passed away on Sunday at the age of 41 in a helicopter crash that also killed his 13 year-old daughter Gianna as well as seven other people. Just hours later, Wood took it upon herself to say that Bryant was both a “sports hero” and a “rapist” in a tweet to her over 444,000 followers.

“What has happened is tragic. I am heartbroken for Kobe’s family. He was a sports hero. He was also a rapist. And all of these truths can exist simultaneously,” Wood tweeted.

Wood’s tweet refers to allegations stemming from 2003, when a 19 year-old woman accused Bryant of choking and sexually assaulting her in a hotel room in Colorado, according to The Daily Beast. After being arrested, Bryant admitted to cheating on his wife with the woman, but claimed that their encounter in the hotel room was consensual. All charges against Bryant were later dropped when the woman refused to testify against him in court, instead choosing to hear an apology from him that was read by his lawyer.

Despite the fact that the charges against Bryant were dropped, Wood still decided to portray him as a “rapist” less than a full day after his passing. Unfortunately for her, however, this came back to bite her in a big way when social media users fired back at her for condemning the NBA hero.

The backlash eventually got so great that Wood finally responded in a second tweet.

Twitter users were still having none of it, however.

For Wood to defame a man hours after his death and that of his child based on allegations from seventeen years ago that were eventually dropped in a court of law is truly beyond the pale. Her tweet is also especially hypocritical coming from someone who works in the industry of Hollywood, which turned a blind eye to the sexual deviances of someone like disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein for decades.

Wood owes the entire Bryant family an apology, and she deserves all of the social media backlash that she is receiving.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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