Four Women Have Now Accused Neil deGrasse Tyson of Sexual Misconduct

BY Josiah HughesPublished Dec 6, 2018

Last week, astrophysicist and television personality Neil deGrasse Tyson was the subject of scrutiny after he was accused of sexual misconduct by three different women. Now, a fourth has come forward.

Allegations against Tyson go back to the 1980s. Musician Tchiya Amet claims Tyson drugged and raped her when they were studying at the University of Texas together in 1984. 

According to Patheos, Amet alleged that Tyson offered her water in his apartment, at which point she claims she passed out. "I woke up in his bed; I was naked," she said. "When he saw that I had woken up, he got on top of me and mounted me, and I passed out again."

More recently, journalist David G. McAfee offered another Patheos report where two other women claim Tyson was inappropriate with them. Dr. Katelyn N. Allers, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Bucknell University, claims Tyson groped her at a party in 2009.

Her former assistant, Ashley Watson, also claims that Tyson pressured her to join him in his apartment for wine at which point he allegedly made several unwanted advances and sexual innuendos.

BuzzFeed has just published a deep dig into the allegations, which has involved interviews with more than 30 people. In the piece, the publication has uncovered a fourth accuser. The woman wishes to remain anonymous, though here's how BuzzFeed describes her encounter with Tyson:

In January 2010, she recalled, she joined her then-boyfriend at a holiday party for employees of the American Museum of Natural History. Tyson, its most famous employee, drunkenly approached her, she said, making sexual jokes and propositioning her to join him alone in his office. In a 2014 email shared with BuzzFeed News, she described the incident to her own employer in order to shoot down a proposed collaboration with Tyson.

Over the weekend, Tyson released a lengthy statement responding to the accusations. "I'm the accused, so why believe anything I say?" he wrote. "Why believe me at all?"

Tyson has not been formally charged surrounding any of the allegations. At this point, National Geographic and Fox have launched an internal investigation. His series Cosmos is expected to return in 2019.
 

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