“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” star Tenoch Huerta on Monday denied ex-girlfriend María Elena Ríos’ allegation that he was an abusive “sexual predator.”
Huerta, who dated the musician for several months last year, said in an Instagram story statement that claims Ríos made on Sunday were “false and offensive.”
“A false and completely unsubstantiated accusation about me has spread like wildfire — and I cannot let it go unchallenged any longer,” he wrote. He said their relationship was “entirely consensual at all times” and was “loving, warm and mutually supportive.”
He said Ríos went on to “misrepresent our interactions,” so he “engaged a legal team to commence the appropriate actions to protect my reputation and refute these irresponsible and false accusations.”
Ríos, a Mexican saxophonist, on Sunday castigated Huerta on Twitter as an abuser and sexual predator.
“It is very difficult to talk about the emotional abuse and the abuse of power of a sexual predator who is loved around the world for playing a character in a movie such as @TenochHuerta,” she tweeted in Spanish, per Page Six.
Ginnette Riquelme/Associated Press
“They say those who live in a macho country, where justice is unattainable where they almost kill you and still they don’t believe you or justice comes,” she wrote. “And no, I don’t want to be famous. And no, I don’t want money because I know how to work.”
“Why am I late in talking about it?” Ríos wrote in a follow-up tweet. “Because I have a process. Why didn’t I report? Because I was afraid that this would happen: people who refuse to believe that a SUPER HERO is an abuser, a manipulator and sexual predator.”
“Yes, you @TenochHuerta abuse because you know you have power,” she concluded.
Ríos became an anti-femicide activist after a politician she dated hired men to splash acid in her face when she ended things in 2019, per NBC News. She wears a mask while performing.
Huerta’s breakthrough came with the “Black Panther” sequel, which saw him as the villain and reportedly grossed more than $850 million worldwide. The Mexican actor later went viral when set photos revealed his penis bulge was removed from the final cut.
He is the second Marvel actor to be accused of abuse this year, after “Creed III” star Jonathan Majors was arrested in March on domestic violence charges.
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.