Not many people have pity for Harvey Weinstein, who has been incarcerated since 2021 on charges of rape, forced oral copulation, and third-degree sexual misconduct. Well, except for Candace Owens, who believes Weinstein was a scapegoat for the #MeToo movement, but that’s a whole other story I don’t want to get into here. Oh, and Judi Dench thinks people need to cut him a break. Otherwise, Weinstein barely has any allies.
So, when THR’s editor-in-chief Maer Roshan decided to visit Weinstein in January for this wild interview, only published just today—the longest one he has given since his incarceration—it shouldn’t shock many that Weinstein still pleads his innocence.
Weinstein maintains that he “did not assault” anyone, and that’s despite nearly 100 women who have accused him of sexual misconduct in myriad forms, including rape.
“Did I make a pass at some of these women unsuccessfully? Did I overplay my hand? Yes,” Weinstein said. “Was I pushy or overly seductive? Yes to all of that. Look, I should never have gone out with the people I went out with. I was married to a fantastic woman who had no idea what I was doing. I lied all the time. I improperly used my staff to hide these things. But did I ever sexually assault a woman? No. I never did that.”
Later, Weinstein tells Roshan, “The thing I was doing wrong was not sexual assault. It was cheating on my wife. I was desperate to keep that secret from her. I did not want Disney to find out. I did everything to protect myself from that kind of scandal.”
When asked if he ever apologized to any of his accusers, Weinstein said, “I apologized to them generally. You can’t call them when you’re in a trial with them. But I’ll say it here today: I apologize to those women. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been with them in the first place. I misled them.”
Weinstein further claims that, after Alyssa Milano kick-started the movement, the phrase quickly became associated with him, as women he knew or had been involved with began using it in reference to him. He went on to call the movement “a march to the money pile.”
When Alyssa Milano said ‘Me too,’ she didn’t mean #MeToo about Harvey. She said “Me too,” and then everybody said #MeToo about me. Every woman I was with, every friend that I had. It was a march to the money pile.
Weinstein’s outing as a sexual predator, although it had been well known in some circles of the industry, kickstarted the #MeToo movement. This exposure reshaped media, politics, and social discourse on a global scale.
Weinstein is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence for multiple convictions of sexual assault. He was originally sentenced in 2020 in New York to 23 years for rape and criminal sexual assault, though that conviction was later overturned on appeal. In 2022, he was convicted in California on additional sexual assault charges and sentenced in 2023 to 16 years, to be served consecutively. As of 2026, he remains incarcerated in California while facing ongoing legal proceedings in New York.