Florence Pugh has penned a powerful statement regarding the alleged 2024 gang rape of a student at Cornell University, calling the accusations “horrific.”
“After reading about the young woman who was gang raped at her college by her friend and school peers, I’m feeling uneasy and sick and anxious,” the We Live in Time actress, 30, wrote in a lengthy and passionate statement shared via Instagram on Sunday, September 27. “I’m processing quietly and watching everything and everyone and every man.”
Pugh’s public statement comes in the wake of numerous reports after a former Cornell student filed a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court on Wednesday, September 16, alleging that she was drugged and sexually assaulted by seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity at a frat house in Ithaca, New York. (A spokesperson for one of the alleged attackers denied any wrongdoing on their behalf.)
Per the lawsuit, an alleged victim — using the alias Jane Doe and who was 20 at the time of the alleged rape — remembered feeling intoxicated after drinking at her sorority and a nightclub on October 19, 2014. She went alone to visit a friend at the frat house, where she was allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted by two of the Chi Phi brothers.
Local station WBNG published text messages from a Snapchat group called “Chi Phi Actives,” in which one of the men informed his frat brothers that there was “free p**** upstairs,” using a derogatory term for a woman’s vagina. Jane Doe recalled being sexually assaulted repeatedly by multiple members of the fraternity until the early morning hours of the following day.
Jane Doe ultimately reported the sexual abuse to police three weeks later — though her attorney claimed only two of the seven alleged assailants were expelled from Cornell. Other alleged attackers faced far less severe punishments, including submitting essays and attending workshops, according to the lawsuit.
Her lawyer insisted that no arrests were made. Jane Doe dropped out of Cornell University following the alleged incident.
In light of the public accusations Pugh penned a lengthy statement to express her disgust over the alleged sexual abuse.
“This is really the moment where we need our men to be as horrified and as sickened as us,” she wrote. “You need to be leading conversations about how we change the allowance and complicity of this behaviour as much as we are. How can you expect us to trust that it’s ‘not all men’ when in moments like this, many of you stay quiet?”
Pugh suggested that “every single person who knew or heard about” the alleged gang rape “should be looked at with serious concern.”
“They are as evil as those planning it. To know that a torture as violent as rape is about to happen ‘upstairs’ and not do ANYTHING ABOUT IT, is sick, cowardly and cold,” Pugh argued. “The thing that makes me most heartbroken, it’s a want to kill a soul. This is a killing of a soul. Destroying of a body and killing of a soul. And they’ve been let off? All it takes is write a quick ‘I’m so sorry I raped a girl while she was drugged with my friends, we thought it would be fine?’ essay and you’re good to go! This is unacceptable.”
She added, “There is no equality until you respect our bodies. There is no equality until you stop damaging our souls. There is no equality until you let us live. There is no equality until we can say we feel safe. We are the life force of this earth, start f***ing protecting us. Be angry for us. Please.”
Florence Pugh Frederic J. Brown / AFP / Getty Images
Later on Sunday, Pugh confirmed that her post was “partially taken down” after some Instagram users reported seeing content warnings on the statement. (It was not immediately clear why Instagram chose to remove portions of the statement.)
“Another lovely lesson to teach people that if you speak up about it, we will silence you,” she noted on her Instagram Story, adding in a separate slide, “Don’t protect rapists. It’s pathetic behavior.”
Frozen star Josh Gad shared his own unequivocal support for the alleged victim, condemning the alleged gang rape as a “violent and sick criminal act that doesn’t take a f***ing Cornell degree to understand is evil.”
“When we start setting a precedent that our girls and women can be brutally raped, and the resulting disciplinary action is to hand out (checks notes) ESSAYS (like it’s Bart Simpson being a lil’ rascal), about why it was wrong to brutally violate an innocent girl, we have lost our f***ing minds,” he wrote via Instagram on Sunday.
Earlier this week, Cornell University addressed the “deeply disturbing allegations of sexual assault involving members of the student community.”
“The Cornell Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards investigated and adjudicated the allegations consistent with university policies,” Kyle Kimball, Vice President of University Relations, said. “The Xi chapter of Chi Phi fraternity remains barred from our campus. Federal privacy law prohibits Cornell from disclosing specific information regarding individual students and we therefore are unable to make a public statement on any other disciplinary response. Violations of university policies could lead to sanctions up to and including suspension or expulsion. We will respond in detail through the legal process.”
Kimball stressed that university staff takes “sexual violence extremely seriously.”
A spokesperson for the Chi Phi national organization told CBS News that the fraternity “unequivocally condemns sexual violence.”
“Our founding principles of Truth, Honor, and Personal Integrity, and our mission of Building Better Men, call on every brother to demonstrate character through his actions and respect for the dignity and safety of others,” a Chi Phi rep said. “Sexual violence is fundamentally incompatible with those expectations.”
The fraternity’s statement concluded, “We are aware of the lawsuit concerning an alleged incident in 2024. While we cannot discuss the specific allegations during pending litigation, we take this matter seriously. Our responsibility is to approach this with care for those affected and respect for a fair legal process.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
