Rose McGowan has broken her silence on the suicide of her former manager, Jill Messick.
“For Jill: May your family find some measure of solace during this pain,” she wrote on Instagram. “That one man could cause so much damage is astounding, but tragically true. The bad man did this to us both. May you find peace on the astral plane. May you find serenity with the stars.”
Messick, 50, who managed McGowan in 1997, — the same year the actress says she was raped by Harvey Weinstein — committed suicide on Wednesday. The mom of two struggled with depression and bipolar disorder, and recently found herself involved in McGowan’s highly publicized battle with Weinstein, when the disgraced movie mogul released an email in which Messick claimed McGowan told her an encounter with Weinstein was “consensual” but that the actress later regretted the incident.
“Seeing her name in headlines again and again, as part of one person’s attempt to gain more attention for her personal cause, along with Harvey’s desperate attempt to vindicate himself, was devastating,” her family said in a statement released on Thursday. It broke Jill, who was just starting to get her life back on track.”
Her family said that Weinstein released the email without her consent and that when the alleged incident occurred, Messick stood up for McGowan.
“She was the first person who stood up on Rose’s behalf, and alerted her bosses to the horrific experience which Rose suffered,” the statement read. “Twenty years ago, as a very junior person in a management company hierarchy, Jill exhibited her integrity in doing the right thing – she raised the red flag with the heads of her firm. In the face of inappropriate behavior, Jill handled the situation appropriately.”