Chris Noth denies sexual assault allegations, but admits he 'strayed' from wife

Actor Chris Noth, in his first interview since multiple sexual assault allegations were levied against him in 2021, says that despite no criminal charges ever being filed in the interim, he remains an industry pariah.

"There's nothing I can say to change anyone's mind when you have that kind of a tidal wave," the former “Law & Order,” “Sex and the City” and “The Good Wife” star, 68, told USA Today in an article published Monday. "It sounds defensive. I'm not. There's no criminal court. There's no criminal trial. There's nothing for me to get on the stand about and get my story out, get witnesses.”

He went on to call subsequent, anonymously sourced tabloid stories “absurd add-ons that are completely ridiculous, that have absolutely no basis in fact. And I don't like talking about it because as soon as I do, you'll get the [U.K. tabloid] Daily Mail or someone grabbing a part of it and doing it, and I don't want my kids seeing that."

The Hollywood Reporter in December 2021 said two women were anonymously alleging sexual assault against Noth. One said he had raped her in his Los Angeles apartment in 2004. The other described a more complicated yet nonetheless nonconsensual encounter at his Greenwich Village apartment in 2015. A third anonymous woman came forward days later, followed by singer-songwriter Lisa Gentile days after that.

Responding to the initial allegations, Noth said in a statement, "The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false. These stories could've been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago — no always means no — that is a line I did not cross. The encounters were consensual."

He newly told USA Today, "I strayed on my wife” — Tara Wilson Noth, whom he married in 2012 and with whom he has sons Orion, 15, and Keats, 3 — “and it's devastating to her and not a very pretty picture. … What it isn't is a crime."

He added, "I'm not going to lay down and just say it's over. … It's a salacious story, but it's just not a true one. And I can't just say 'Well, OK, that's it for me' because of that. I'm an actor. I have other things that I want to do creatively. And I have children to support. I can't just rest on my laurels.”

Of his subsequent firing from the TV series “The Equalizer” and the loss of commercial partnerships and his talent-agency representation, Noth said, “I have enough to let a year drift, but I don't know how to gauge or judge getting back into the club, the business, because corporations are frightened.”

Noth did the interview in conjunction with a charitable effort by the menswear company Samuelsohn for men’s mental health.