NEW YORK: Morgan Freeman says he likes to compliment people to make them feel at ease around him but that he has never sexually assaulted women.

The Academy Award-winning actor is fighting back against charges of bad behaviour made by multiple women in a CNN report this week. He said in a statement late Friday that the report has devastated him and that “it is not right to equate horrific incidents of sexual assault with misplaced compliments or humour.”

Following the report, Visa announced it was suspending all of its marketing that features the actor’s voice.

The accusations against Freeman came out the same day word spread that New York City authorities were filing rape charges against disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2018