Noel Clarke, a British actor, has been photographed for the first time since confessing in a recent interview that he pondered suicide after more than 20 women accused him of sexual misconduct.
He was observed outside a London restaurant yesterday, dressed casually and sporting a pair of eye-catching red sneakers.
Mr Clarke was spotted leaving the fine-dining restaurant Launceston Place in Kensington, where he had lunch with pals, according to reports.
It was the first time he’d been spotted since revealing his identity. He had pondered suicide the day before, stating, “I needed to do something unsurvivable.”
More than 20 women, all of whom knew the actor, 46, on a professional level and reported instances while working with him on TV and film productions, made complaints in 2021.
Unwanted touching or groping, sexually inappropriate behavior and statements on set, the clandestine filming of a naked audition, and the sharing of intimate photographs without consent are among the complaints, which span a 15-year period.
However, the Metropolitan Police said in March of this year that they would not be initiating an inquiry into Mr Clarke because the facts provided did not meet the standard for a criminal probe.
Clarke’vehemently refuted’ any sexual impropriety or criminal activity in a statement at the time.
He went on to say that he was “truly sorry” if some of his acts had had an impact on individuals “in ways I did not intend or realize,” and that he would seek professional counseling “to educate myself and change for the better.”
He is now suing The Guardian and Bafta for defamation, as well as the newspaper that broke the story on the claims.
Separately, he is suing Conde Nast, which published an article on the dispute in its glossy men’s magazine GQ.
Mr Clarke said Sunday that the claims had a negative impact on his mental health, and that he had considered slashing his own neck as his mental health deteriorated.
He said that it was his 11-year-old child who’snapped him out of it’ by questioning why he was carrying a knife in his pocket.
Clarke and his wife Iris, who have been married for two decades, have welcomed a new kid in the last year that they haven’t dared to tell anybody about.
Mr Clarke now has four children; his youngest son was born in 2015, before the new baby.
The family has been left ‘running on fumes’ financially. Most importantly, Clarke was suicidal at his lowest point.
He intended to slit his own neck with a folding hunting knife he got as a memento when filming Auf Wiedersehen, Pet in Arizona 20 years ago.
‘I needed to do something impossible to survive,’ he explained. ‘I was reaching for a book when the knife in my pocket dropped out.’ ‘Daddy, why have you acquired that?’ my 11-year-old said.
‘It’s only to take the dirt out of my nails,’ I explained. And then he responded, ‘Oh, OK,’ and the normalcy of it all pulled me out of it.
‘Up until that point, I had been waiting for the proper opportunity to commit suicide.’ I was on my way out. Done.
I was unconcerned about anything. My psyche had been shattered.’
‘Twenty years of labor vanished in a matter of hours.’
‘I’ve lost everything,’ he told the newspaper, adding that the claims had ended his career.
‘The firm I developed from the bottom up, my TV series, films, book deals, and the respect I had in the industry.’
‘It has wounded me in ways I can’t explain in my heart and mind.’
He spends his days caring for his new infant at home, on the sidelines of his elder children’s football games, attending church on Sundays, and going to therapy.
He’s been so traumatized that he hasn’t been able to watch television in a year because all he sees are people who have turned their backs on him, he claims.
Following the claims against Clarke, ITV canceled the last episode of the drama Viewpoint in which he featured, and Sky, which had shown Clarke’s series Bulletproof, said that it would not again work with him.
His membership in Bafta was also revoked, as was his prize for outstanding British contribution to cinema, which he had received in 2021.
Mr Clarke admitted that not all of his previous actions were without fault, especially when incidents from over two decades ago are viewed by today’s standards.
‘I’m not a predator,’ he said on Sunday. Since I was 15, I’ve crossed the street to avoid walking behind ladies.’
‘I’ve been a typical man, for sure, I flirt,’ he said. Have I ever made a snide remark? Definitely 100 percent. But not to the point that it justified the end of my life.
‘I can’t claim I’ve never discussed sex at work.’ We’re grownups in a job where individuals make inappropriate jokes and have inappropriate interactions with one another.
‘Sometimes you’re gone from home for six, seven months with each other.’
I believe that these are sometimes just ordinary, if perhaps incorrect, talks that individuals have.
‘I never got involved in a dialogue that I didn’t think was reciprocated,’ he says. Perhaps I should’ve known better. But, you know, I wasn’t always like way.’
Mr Clarke disappeared from social media sites like Twitter for 13 months after being charged with sex offenses, reappearing on May 28 to submit an article on Sunday.
The actor is most recognized for his roles in Doctor Who and The Hood Trilogy, which he co-created.
Brotherhood, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Mute are among his other prominent roles.
In 2009, he received the BAFTA Orange Rising Star Award, and in 2003, he received the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Most Promising Newcomer for his performance in Where Do We Live at the Royal Court Theatre.
He chastised social media’s role in ‘cancelling’ him and wrecking his career: “When did our country’s broadcasters become the judges, juries, and executioners of people?”
‘When did Bafta decide that it wasn’t about films anymore, but about assessing people’s lives?’ It’s not about me; it’s about following the rules.
‘Yes, people have said these things about me – but does it make you a donkey if I tell you you’re a donkey?’