Zion Williamson has finally responded to the assault allegations hanging over him, and his version of the relationship is sharply different from the one laid out in the lawsuit.
According to a report obtained by TMZ, Williamson denied any physical abuse and described the arrangement as a consensual “friends with benefits” setup. He also pushed back on the idea that he and the woman had a romantic relationship at all.
The legal filings say something much more serious. In the woman’s lawsuit, she accused the Pelicans star of strangling her “with such force that she reasonably feared for her life and eventually lost consciousness…multiple times between 2020 and 2023 in California and Louisiana.” The complaint also says the abuse continued until the relationship ended in 2023.
The reported timeline in the case goes back further than that. Previous reports said the unidentified woman and Williamson began dating in 2018, when he was still in college at Duke.
The alleged sexual assault and abuse, according to those reports, began around 2020 in Southern California. Jane Doe said Williamson smelled strongly of alcohol during the first disturbance, and the allegations did not stop there.
Williamson’s response, as described in the legal documents, is a blanket denial of physical or sexual harm. He is also arguing that the charges should be dismissed because of the statute of limitations, pointing to the fact that the relationship ended by May 2023. On top of that, he says the pair’s interactions were too infrequent to qualify as a domestic relationship.
Williamson had mostly stayed quiet after the allegations surfaced, but this is now his first public pushback. And it comes with more baggage around his off-court life. Just last year, an OnlyFans girl said Williamson was the father of her child.
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