A couple of days ago the somewhat surprisingly news came out that an unnamed 23-year-old man had claimed that he’d had an illegal underage sexual relationship when he was 16 with Kevin Clash, the man who’s voiced and been the puppeteer of Elmo for nearly 30 years.
Now the man has withdrawn those allegation, vindicating Clash’s claims that while he had indeed been intimate with the man, it had been perfectly legal (it hadn’t publicly been known before that Kevin is gay). When the allegation was made, Clash said that he was ‘deeply saddened that he [the accuser] is trying to make it into something it was not.’
The man’s lawyer has now released a statement to the LA Times, saying their client ‘now wants it to be known that his sexual relationship with Mr. Clash was an adult consensual relationship. He will have no further comment on the matter.’
When the allegations came to light, Clash revealed he was taking a leave of absence from Sesame Street in order to try and clear him name. He’s been able to do that perhaps faster than he was expecting, but it’s not known when he might be going back to work. His only comment on being cleared has been to People, who he told, ‘I am relieved that this painful allegation has been put to rest. I will not discuss it further.’
The producers of the TV sounded supportive of Kevin when the claims were made, so hopefully he’ll be back to playing Elmo soon.
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