Louis C.K. Confesses to Engaging in Lewd Conduct

Louis C.K. attends FX and Vanity Fair Emmy Celebration at Craft in Century City, California, on Sept. 16, 2017. (Rich Fury/Getty Images)

Louis C.K. just addressed claims that he engaged in lewd sexual conduct in front of several women, as was detailed in a bombshell New York Times story this week.

The comedian confirmed the reports are true and confessed.

“I want to address the stories told to the New York Times by five women named Abby, Rebecca, Dana, Julia who felt able to name themselves and one who did not,” he said, via TMZ.

“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 said in the statement.

“I have been remorseful of my actions. And I’ve tried to learn from them. And run from them. Now I’m aware of the extent of the impact of my actions. I learned yesterday the extent to which I left these women who admired me feeling badly about themselves and cautious around other men who would never have put them in that position,” he added.

“I also took advantage of the fact that I was widely admired in my and their community, which disabled them from sharing their story and brought hardship to them when they tried because people who look up to me didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t think that I was doing any of that because my position allowed me not to think about it.”

He went further in his apology.

“The hardest regret to live with is what you’ve done to hurt someone else. And I can hardly wrap my head around the scope of hurt I brought on them. I’d be remiss to exclude the hurt that I’ve brought on people who I work with and have worked with whose professional and personal lives have been impacted by all of this, including projects currently in production: the cast and crew of Better Things, Baskets, The Cops, One Mississippi, and I Love You Daddy,” he said.

“I deeply regret that this has brought negative attention to my manager Dave Becky who only tried to mediate a situation that I caused. I’ve brought anguish and hardship to the people at FX who have given me so much, The Orchard who took a chance on my movie and every other entity that has bet on me through the years.”

“I’ve brought pain to my family, my friends, my children, and their mother.”

The New York premiere of his upcoming film, “I Love You, Daddy,” slated for Thursday, has been canceled. Reps first cited “unexpected circumstances,” THR reported.

But on Friday, the film’s distributor said, it “will not be moving forward with the release” of the movie.

HBO said on Thursday that the comedian won’t be appearing in the upcoming “Night of Too Many Stars: America Unites for Autism Programs.”

And FX said in a statement that it is “very troubled” by the allegations against Louis C.K., who is the executive producer on several shows for the network, including “Better Things,” “Baskets” and “Louie,” CNN reported on Friday. Netflix on Friday said that it won’t move forward with another stand up comedy special featuring C.K.