Axl Rose Sued for Sexual Assault

Content warning: This article contains references to sexual violence.

Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose has been sued for an alleged sexual assault that occurred in 1989.

In the lawsuit filed in New York City on Wednesday (November 22nd), former Penthouse model Sheila Kennedy claims that Rose “violently” raped her after the two met at a night club. She says that Rose invited her and another model, Riki Rachtman, to his New York hotel room, where he gave them alcohol and cocaine. Kennedy then had a brief consensual sexual encounter with Rose, but it eventually became “uncomfortable” and “disturbing” when the musician began aggressively having sex with Rachtman in front of Kennedy, encouraging her to engage in group sex.

The complaint states that Kennedy and Rachtman then left the hotel room, which made Rose “furious” and prompted him to “loom threateningly.” After finding Kennedy in Rachtman’s hotel room, Rose allegedly pushed Kennedy to the ground and dragged her by her hair “like a caveman” back to his room, causing her knees to bleed from scraping against the carpet.

The suit claims that Rose then threw Kennedy onto his hotel room bed and tied her hands behind her back, proceeding to “forcibly penetrate” her anus with his penis in a fit of “sexual, volatile rage.” Since the alleged assault, Kennedy says that she experiences regular PTSD-like symptoms and that the trauma compromised her career.

“He treated her like property used solely for his sexual pleasure,” the statement adds. “He did not use a condom. Kennedy did not consent and felt overpowered. She felt she had no escape or exit and was compelled to acquiesce. She believed Rose would physically attack her, or worse, if she said no or attempted to push him away. She understood that the safest thing to do was to lie in bed and wait for Rose to finish assaulting her.”

Axl Rose has not yet responded to the lawsuit.

This is just the latest in a recent string of high-profile sexual assault lawsuits that have been filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily waives the statute of limitations on sexual misconduct claims for civil suits. The window opened on November 24th, 2022 and will close again at midnight this Thursday, November 24th, 2023. Steven Tyler, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Marilyn Manson, and ex-Grammys CEO Neil Portnow are just a few of the defendants named in nearly 3,000 complaints filed under the act.