Marilyn Manson drops lawsuit against Evan Rachel Wood

Marilyn Manson has dropped his long-running defamation lawsuit against the actor Evan Rachel Wood.

The shock rocker has agreed to pay her more than $325,000 (£258,000) in legal fees, Deadline reported.

Wood identified Manson as her abuser in February 2021, accusing her former fiancé of sexual assault, psychological abuse, violence, coercion and intimidation.

The Westworld actor accused her former partner on social media in 2021 of "horrific" abuse, along with allegations of grooming, starting when she was a teenager.

Other women came forward with similar allegations following Wood's public denouncement.

Manson denied the accusations, calling them "horrible distortions of reality", and responded by filing a lawsuit against Wood in March 2022, citing defamation and emotional distress.

"Marilyn Manson - whose real name is Brian Warner - filed a lawsuit against Ms Wood as a publicity stunt to try to undermine the credibility of his many accusers and revive his faltering career. But his attempt to silence and intimidate Ms Wood failed," a representative for Wood said in a statement obtained by Rolling Stone.

The duo went public with their romance in January 2007, when Wood was 19 and Manson was 36. Manson proposed to her in Paris in January 2010. The couple broke off their engagement less than a year later.