Harvey Weinstein suffers from bone marrow cancer, according to US media

Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, in prison for rape and sexual assault, has bone marrow cancer, US media reported on Monday. The 72-year-old deposed king, who was indicted in September for another sexual assault, suffers from chronic myelogenous leukemia and is undergoing treatment in a New York prison, according to NBC News and ABC News.

This diagnosis follows a series of health problems for the former all-powerful producer of American cinema, whose fall triggered a global shock wave, freed the voices of many victims and exposed sexual and gender-based violence. done to women. The former boss of Miramax studios has just undergone “heart surgery”, from which he emerged “out of danger for the moment”, one of its representatives, Juda Engelmayer, said on September 10.

The latter considered it “worrying” that the health issues of the former producer “have become a subject of public discussion”. “Out of respect for Mr. Weinstein’s privacy, we will not comment further.”he told AFP.

During a brief appearance in a Manhattan court on September 18 regarding the new indictment for the sexual assault of a woman in 2006, he appeared pale and weak, in a wheelchair. Decided by a grand jury, made up of citizens who participate in the investigation with prosecutors, this indictment is added to a long list of accusations since 2017 for which he has already been tried and convicted twice, in New York and in Los Angeles.

More than 80 women have accused Harvey Weinstein of harassment, sexual assault or rape, including actresses Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd. The former head of Miramax studios must be retried in New York after the resounding cancellation at the end of April by an appeals court of his sentence to 23 years in prison in 2020 for the rape of an actress, Jessica Mann, and the assault sexual assault of a production assistant, Mimi Haleyi. This surprise turnaround was seen as an affront and a step backwards for the #MeToo movement.

Harvey Weinstein remains behind bars since he was also sentenced in 2023 to 16 years in prison in Los Angeles for separate cases of rape and sexual assault. He appealed and never publicly acknowledged anything other than consensual relationships.