L'humoriste américain Louis C.K. a confirmé la véracité des nombreuses allégations d'inconduites sexuelles dévoilées par le New York Times jeudi.
Il a publié vendredi une lettre où il dit finalement comprendre la gravité de ses gestes. Cinq femmes accusaient l'humoriste dans les différents événements relatés par le New York Times.
«Ces histoires sont vraies, écrit-il. À cette époque, je me disais que c'était correct parce que je ne montrais jamais mon pénis sans l'avoir demandé avant, ce qui est vrai aussi. Mais ce que j'ai compris plus tard, trop tard, c'est que lorsque vous avez du pouvoir sur une autre personne, leur demander de regarder votre pénis n'est pas une question. C'est déplaisant.»
L'humoriste avoue aussi avoir utilisé sa célébrité à son avantage. Et ajoute qu'il ne se pardonne pas les gestes qu'il a posés. «Je dois réconcilier ça avec la personne que je suis. Mais ce n'est rien en comparaison avec le poids que j'ai laissé aux autres.»
«Le plus difficile est de vivre avec le regret d'avoir blessé quelqu'un d'autre, affirme-t-il. Je peux difficilement encore réaliser toute la douleur que je leur ai apportée.»
J'ai eu des remords pour mes actions. J'ai tenté d'apprendre d'elles. Et de les fuir.Louis C.K.
Il a également une pensée pour son entrouage et les collègues avec qui il a travaillé au fil des annnées, et avec lesquels il travaillait sur ses projets actuels.
Il conclut en soulignant qu'il prendra désormais une pause pour réfléchir à ses actes.
Voici la lettre diffusée par Louis C.K., dans son intégralité, en anglais:
I want to address the stories told to the New York Times by five women named Abby, Rebecca, Dana, Julia who felt able to name themselves and one who did not.
These stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was OK because I never showed a woman my dick without asking first, which is also true. But what I learned later in life, too late, is that when you have power over another person, asking them to look at your dick isn't a question. It's a predicament for them. The power I had over these women is that they admired me. And I wielded that power irresponsibly.
I have been remorseful of my actions. And I've tried to learn from them. And run from them. Now I'm aware of the extent of the impact of my actions. I learned yesterday the extent to which I left these women who admired me feeling badly about themselves and cautious around other men who would never have put them in that position.
I also took advantage of the fact that I was widely admired in my and their community, which disabled them from sharing their story and brought hardship to them when they tried because people who look up to me didn't want to hear it. I didn't think that I was doing any of that because my position allowed me not to think about it.
There is nothing about this that I forgive myself for. And I have to reconcile it with who I am. Which is nothing compared to the task I left them with.
I wish I had reacted to their admiration of me by being a good example to them as a man and given them some guidance as a comedian, including because I admired their work.
The hardest regret to live with is what you've done to hurt someone else. And I can hardly wrap my head around the scope of hurt I brought on them. I'd be remiss to exclude the hurt that I've brought on people who I work with and have worked with who's (sic) professional and personal lives have been impacted by all of this, including projects currently in production: the cast and crew of Better Things, Baskets, The Cops, One Mississippi, and I Love You Daddy (sic). I deeply regret that this has brought negative attention to my manager Dave Becky who only tried to mediate a situation that I caused. I've brought anguish and hardship to the people at FX who have given me so much, The Orchard who took a chance on my movie and every other entity that has bet on me through the years.
I've brought pain to my family, my friends, my children and their mother.
I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen.
Thank you for reading.