A scathing exposé from a woman named Grace published in the feminist online publication Babe.net accuses Aziz Ansari, comedian, creator and star of the hit Netflix show Master of None, of sexual misconduct.

The woman identified only as Grace told Babe that Ansari and she met during the 2017 Emmy Awards after-party last year. It was their mutual love for analog photography that brought them together. 

Around the tail end of September, Ansari and the then 22-year-old Brooklyn-based photographer went on a date. This happened after the two exchanged a series of texts a few weeks prior. 

The date came with a seafood dinner that was cut short. Ansari invited her back to his apartment where they engaged in sexual activity.

However, Grace wrote that were moments with him where she felt uncomfortable.

“I said something like, ‘Whoa, let’s relax for a sec, let’s chill,'" Grace recalled. She says he then resumed kissing her, briefly performed oral sex on her, and asked her to do the same thing to him. “It was really quick. Everything was pretty much touched and done within ten minutes of hooking up, except for actual sex.”

Ansari would put his fingers in Grace's mouth during the encounter in a way that made her feel uneasy. "His two fingers in a V-shape and putting them in my mouth, in my throat to wet his fingers, because the moment he’d stick his fingers in my throat he’d go straight for my vagina and try to finger me.” 

It was clear from his eagerness that he wanted sex, she said, but Grace told Babe.net that she did not. Throughout the long piece, Grace recalled Ansari's persistence and her reluctance. At one point, after going to the bathroom to stop the sexual tug-of-war,  she sat down on the floor next to Ansari, who sat on the couch. She thought that he might rub her back, or play with her hair to calm her down but he wanted to receive oral sex from her. 

“He sat back and pointed to his penis and motioned for me to go down on him. And I did. I think I just felt really pressured. It was literally the most unexpected thing I thought would happen at that moment because I told him I was uncomfortable.”

The rest of the night was just more of the same. Ansari called Grace an Uber under the name Essence and they departed. She reportedly cried on the way home and told her friends it was the worst night of her life.

“I just want to take this moment to make you aware of [your] behavior and how uneasy it made me,” texted the day after. To that message, Ansari responds: “Clearly, I misread things in the moment and I’m truly sorry.”

In the days following the story, Ansari did not deny the date happening and believed that the encounter was purely consensual via an official statement.

"In September of last year, I met a woman at a party," his statement regarding the accusations read. "We exchanged numbers. We texted back and forth and eventually went on a date. We went out to dinner, and afterwards, we ended up engaging in sexual activity, which by all indications was completely consensual.

"The next day, I got a text from her saying that although 'it may have seemed okay,' upon further reflection, she felt uncomfortable. It was true that everything did seem okay to me, so when I heard that it was not the case for her, I was surprised and concerned. I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said.

"I continue to support the [MeToo] movement that is happening in our culture. It is necessary and long overdue."

Aziz AnsariBabe Sexual Misconduct storyGrace