Getty Brett Ratner attends his star on the Walk of Fame ceremony in Hollywood on January 19.
A group of six women have come forward with sexual harassment and misconduct allegations against Hollywood filmmaker Brett Ratner.
The women told their stories to The Los Angeles Times and spoke about how Ratner sexually harassed them in their homes, on movie sets or at events. None of the women reported the allegations to authorities at the time.
The group of women includes Natasha Henstridge, Olivia Munn, Jaime Ray Newman, Katharine Towne, Eri Sasaki and Jorina King.
Ratner’s attorney Martin Singer disputed the womens’ account in a 10-page letter to The Times.
I have represented Mr. Ratner for two decades, and no woman has ever made a claim against him for sexual misconduct or sexual harassment. Furthermore, no woman has ever requested or received any financial settlement from my client.
For years, there had been numerous women coming forward with stories of sexual encounters with Ratner.
In December 2016, Tina Fey, speaking at the Hollywood Reporter’s annual Women in Entertainment breakfast, joked: “Brett Ratner is here. In his defense, he thought this was a thing where you could eat breakfast off of 100 women.”
Ratner isn’t married, but has been romantically linked to various women in the entertainment industry over the years. Those include Munn, Romanian model Alina Puşcău, tennis star Serena Williams, Lindsay Lohan, Maggie Q and more.
Here’s what you need to know about the women Ratner has been rumored to be with over the years:
1. Mariah Carey
Singer Mariah Carey attends the Los Angeles premiere of The Lego Batman Movie at the Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, California, on February 4.
For years, there had been rumors that Ratner was dating Mariah Carey. When speculation spread that the two were dating after they were seen shopping together at a joint birthday party, Ratner shut down the rumors.
“We’re great friends,” he told E! News at a Hollywood premiere in 2015. “I’m directing her video. I’ve been friends with her for 20 years.”
The two were seen shopping together just a few months after Carey and Nick Cannon split after six years of marriage. When asked about the rumors floating around that he was dating Carey, he said he couldn’t help but smile.
“It makes me laugh actually,” he told E! News. “It cracks me up. We’re great friends. She’s awesome and she’s amazing.”
2. Serena Williams
GettySerena Williams of the United States poses with the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup after winning the 2017 Women’s Singles Australian Open Championship at Melbourne Park on January 28 in Melbourne, Australia. (Getty)
It’s been widely reported that Ratner and tennis star Serena Williams had a romantic relationship for about one year (2004-2005).
In May, Ratner wrote a guest op-ed for Deadline. In it, he told the story about how he was “banned for life from the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc” after he wrote about being given “the worst room in the entire hotel.”
Ratner wrote that he’s “back in good standing” with the hotel. He wrote that in 2004, he convinced his “then-girlfriend” Williams to leave Paris, where she was prepping for the French Open, and join him at the hotel.
“I used all of my charm and powers of persuasion and hyperbole, telling her she’d get the best room in the hotel, and she could train on the du Cap’s clay courts during our luxurious stay,” he wrote.
Williams ended up joining Ratner at the hotel, but she wasn’t pleased with the hotel room.
“Brett, you did it again,” he wrote that she said. “These people hate you. I had to walk down a back stairwell to find a room with a window that faces a brick wall. I have to crouch just to get under the shower head.”
Their relationship didn’t last too long, though, as Williams and Ratner reportedly split after he “spent a week partying in New York” with Sean “P-Diddy” Combs, Jay-Z and Jermaine Dupri.
“Williams became increasingly frustrated with Ratner always being away from her,” according to Female First.
The outlet reported that Williams and Ratner had a conversation about how he’s never home, and the tennis star ended things between them.
“I don’t wanna be (your girlfriend),” the outlet wrote. “I wanna see other people…we don’t have a relationship. It’s too bad things didn’t work out between us.”
3. Olivia Munn
Actress Olivia Munn attends the LA Premiere of Paramount Pictures “Office Christmas Party” at Regency Village Theatre on December 7, 2016, in Westwood, California.
Munn, who claims Ratner masturbated in front of her while in his trailer on the set of the 2004 film After the Sunset, wrote about her relationship with him in a book. Her 2011 book of essays, titled “Suck it, Wonder Woman!: The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek,” Munn described the story of an unnamed Hollywood director pleasuring himself in front of her.
“A grown man in an oversized shirt holding his undersized manhood in hands glistening with shrimp fat,” an excerpt of the incident in the book said.
Ratner, speaking to G4’s Attack of the Show in 2011, said he used to date Munn and described his take on the ordeal.
“She wasn’t Asian back then,” he said of Munn’s appearance. “She was hanging out on my set of After the Sunset,” he said. “I banged her a few times, but I forgot her. Because she changed her name I didn’t know it was the same person and so when she auditioned for me for a TV show I forgot her. She got pisseed off, and so she made up all these stories about me eating shrimp and masturbating in my trailer. And she talked about my shortcomings.”
A few months later, though, Ratner retracted his statement and said he lied about having sex with her. He called her “a friend.”
“She’s actually talented, the problem is I made her look like she’s a whore,” he told Howard Stern.
Ratner and Munn never dated.
4. Lindsay Lohan
GettyLindsay Lohan, pictured during a 2014 photocall for “Speed The Plow” in London.
Over the years, Ratner was also linked to Lindsay Lohan. He appeared on Howard Stern’s radio show in 2011 and spoke crudely about the relationship he had with her in 2006, shortly after his breakup with Williams. He told Stern that he made Lohan get tested for sexually-transmitted diseases before he ultimately slept with her.
Ratner said that the process wasn’t personal, instead it was something he did with every woman that he slept with.
“Before I have sex with a girl, I do do one weird thing,” Ratner told Stern. “I do take ’em to the doctor and check ’em out. I’m like a cootie freak. I’m a germaphobe. I’m a hypochondriac. Before I go all the way, I send the girl to the doctor and check them for everything. My doctor has a test to tell if you’re going to catch something in the future even.”
5. Rebecca Gayheart
Actress Rebecca Gayheart and director Brett Ratner pose inside at the V-Life Oscar Party at Hillhaven Lodge on January 12, 2005 in Beverly Hills, California.
Ratner started dating actress Rebecca Gayheart when he was 17 and she was 15. The two were engaged to be married and had a relationship for 13 years.
Gayheart’s first role was in a student short film by Ratner, and she later gained notice in the entertainment industry. She also appeared in a music video directed by Ratner — “Nuttin’ But Love” by Heavy D and the Boyz.
On June 13, 2001, Gayheart was driving a vehicle which struck and killed 9-year-old Jorge Cruz, Jr. as he walked across a street in Los Angeles. Gayheart said that she called Ratner to her house several hours after the traumatic accident.
“She was hysterical saying, ‘Is there anything I can do?” Ratner told PEOPLE Magazine.
He told the publication that after she hit the boy, Gayheart “immediately got out and knelt down next to the boy until paramedics came.”
On November 27, 2001, she pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter and was sentenced to three years probation, a one-year license suspension, a $2,800 fine and 750 hours of community service. She was accompanied in the courtroom by Ratner.
The two ended up splitting from each other for undisclosed reasons.