Rose McGowan has apologised for the "serious" allegations she made against Asia Argento.
The 45-year-old actress has reached out to her former friend to admitted she was "not correct" when she alleged the 43-year-old star had received sexually explicit texts from her sexual assault accuser Jimmy Bennett when he was just 12 years old.
She said in a statement posted to Twitter: "On 27 August I released a statement about Asia Argento, which I now realized contained a number of facts that were not correct.
"The most serious of these was that I said that the unsolicited nude text messages Asia received from Jimmy Bennett had been sent since Jimmy was 12 years old.
"In fact, I had misunderstood the messages that Asia exchanged with my partner Rain Dove, which made clear that Jimmy had sent Asia inappropriate text messages only after they met up again when he was 17 (still legally a minor in California, but notably different from a 12 year old) (sic)"
The ‘Charmed’ actress has vowed not to speak any more about the allegations against Asia and admitted she "deeply regrets" not retracting her comments sooner.
She continued: "I do not feel that it is my place to comment further on what happened at the Ritz Carlton in Marina del Rey hotel in May 2013, save to say that I now appreciate that it was not as I thought it was previously.
"In my statement, I challenged why Asia had not acted as I think any responsible adult would if they received sexually explicit messages from a 12 year old, which of course do not apply in the same way as when the situation involves a 17 year old.
"I deeply regret not correcting my mistake sooner and apologize to Asia for not doing so."
Asia admitted she is "grateful" for Rose’s apology but still hit out at the actress for the damage she has caused.
She replied: "Although I am grateful to @rosemcgowan for her full apology following her groundless allegations about me, if she had issued it earlier, I may have kept my job on X-Factor and avoided the constant accusations of paedophilia which I have been subjected to in real-life and online.
"Now go on, live your life and stop hurting other people, will you Rose? Best wishes. (sic)"
Rose’s apology came a few weeks Asia threatened to take legal action over the "horrendous lies" she’d told about her.
She wrote on Twitter: "To @rosemcgowan. The 24hr deadline given to retract your recent false statements about me has now passed. I must inform you & @raindovemodel that I’ve instructed Mishcon de Reya to seek substantial damages for deception, fraud, coercion and libel. You will hear from them shortly. (sic)"
In her original threat, Asia gave Rose 24 hours to remove the statement she tweeted last month – in which she urged her ex-pal to be "honest" about the allegations against her – or face "immediate" legal action.
She wrote: "Dear @RoseMcGowan. It is with genuine regret that I am giving you 24 hours to retract and apologise for the horrendous lies made against me in your statement of August 27th. If you fail to address this libel I will have no option other than to take immediate legal action. (sic)"
Rose had claimed that Asia had confessed to sleeping with Jimmy in texts sent to her partner, Rain Dove, and alleged Asia "had stated that she’d been receiving unsolicited nudes of Jimmy since he had been 12."
Rose McGowan apologises to Asia Argento
