Ciulla began managing Manson around 1996, the same year he released his breakthrough album, Antichrist Superstar. The two met while Ciulla was working at Trent Reznor’s Nothing Records in the early 1990s, when Manson’s band was signed by the label.
Though Manson and Ciulla’s professional relationship has weathered a number of serious controversies over the past 25 years, the tide appears to have turned following Wood’s accusation that Manson “horrifically abused” her for years after the two met when Wood was 18 and Manson was 36. The pair announced their relationship in Jan. 2007 and were briefly engaged in 2010.
“The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson,” Wood wrote on Instagram Monday. “He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years. I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander or blackmail.”
She continued, “I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives. I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.”
Following Wood’s post on Monday, at least four other women also came forward with various allegations of sexual and physical abuse by Manson.
Though she did not name Manson as her abuser until this week, Wood had previously hinted at the shock rocker’s alleged abuse in both a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone (and a later Twitter post) as well as before a U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee in Feb. 2018 in support of the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights Act. In 2019, Wood again spoke out while testifying before California lawmakers in support of the Phoenix Act, a bill she created to expand the statute of limitations for domestic violence-related crimes from three to five years. That bill was signed into law by California Gov. Gavin Newsom in Oct. 2019 and went into effect in Jan. 2020.
Manson quickly responded to the women’s accusations on Monday with his own Instagram statement, which characterized their claims as “horrible distortions of reality.”
Since then, Manson’s ex-girlfriend Rose McGowan and ex-wife Dita Von Teese have released statements in support of the women, with McGowan specifically calling out the music industry for “protecting predators” in a video posted to Twitter.