Marc Maron Claims Louis CK Lied About Sexual Misconduct Allegations Before Report

Comedian Marc Maron claimed on his podcast this week that Louis C.K., who was recently accused of sexual misconduct by several women, previously dismissed rumors of his alleged misconduct as “not true” and “not real.” The disgraced comedian has since issued an apology and has claimed that the accusations are indeed true.

“Sadly, I knew what most people knew. There was a story out there, I guess going back several years. There were unnamed people in the story. It took place in a hotel room in Aspen,” Maron said during the Monday episode of his podcast, “WTF, Maron,” according to Page Six. “It was always out there, but then it would pick up momentum at different times. And I would ask him about it. I would say, ‘This story about you forcing these women to watch you jerk off, what is that, is that true?’”

Maron said that C.K. told him it was “not true,” “not real,” and a “rumor.” But when Maron asked him if he planned to address the allegations, C.K. reportedly told him: “No I can’t, I can’t do that. I can’t give it life, give it air.”

“So I believed my friend. It’s just the environment that enabled the dismissiveness of it,” Maron said. “How do I put this? The work environment, the social environment makes it difficult for people to come forward and be heard, to be listened to, to be believed, and for action to be taken around that. It is pushed aside, it is dismissed, it is framed as an annoyance or an embarrassment, it is used against people, it is used as a threat — that is the structure that exists in life.”

Maron’s retelling of his conversation with C.K. comes on the heels of the latter’s public apology for alleged sexual misconduct reported by the New York Times. The eposé, which was published last week, accused the comedian of masturbating in front of several female associates.

“These stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was okay because I never showed a woman my dick without asking first, which is also true,” C.K. wrote in a lengthy apology following the Times report. “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.”

He added: “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.”