12 February 2021
Newsdesk
Marilyn Manson allegedly chased his actress ex Esme Bianco around his apartment with an axe after accusing her of placing cockroaches in the walls "to mess with him".
In a new Good Morning America interview, the former Game of Thrones actress claimed Manson started hacking away at the plasterwork to prove his point, and then he turned on her.
The rocker's former assistant, Ashley Walters, has backed her story, telling GMA researchers she saw the singer threatening Bianco with an axe and witnessed bruises Manson is said to have left on her body.
In her candid interview with GMA on Thursday, Bianco revealed it took her seven years to realise Manson's treatment of her during their relationship was abusive, but she stayed with her former music idol because she thought he loved her.
She also showed photos of lash marks on her back, left by a whip Manson used on her - allegedly without consent - while filming a video.
"He locked me in his bedroom, he tied me to a wooden pray kneeler, I was half-naked, and he beat me with a whip - and he filmed it," she said.
Bianco didn't ask Manson to stop what he was doing, adding: "I would never have dared," but admits she feared for her life throughout the shoot.
The actress also told GMA that her ex would "hide abuse" by "doing it during sex", stating: "he always went too far," claiming he would bite her during intercourse: "That was 100 per cent not consensual and he would bite me until I was black and blue."
Bianco insisted she didn't leave Manson immediately because she didn't realise that what was happening was "very, very wrong," adding the rocker was "extremely manipulative".
She eventually fled Manson's apartment in June 2011.
Manson's lawyer has yet to respond to Biancos claims, but the singer released a brief statement last week, after his former fiancee, Evan Rachel Wood, identified him as her abuser in a damning Instagram post.
"Obviously, my art and my life have long been magnets for controversy, but these recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality," Manson's statement read, proclaiming: "My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners."
"It's disgusting that that is his response," Bianco told GMA.
"That somehow we're the ones who misconstrued the whole situation. It's very indicative of the kind of man he is... the monster that he is," she fumed.
The actress is still scared of Manson and terrified of "retaliation", but feels a "massive relief" to have named her abuser, and hopes her allegations will help other victims and survivors of abuse.
"I want people who are in this situation right now to know they're not alone and that it's not their fault," she urged.
