Renewed celebrity astrophysicist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson has denied accusations of sexual misconduct made against him by three women.
In November, two women, including a fellow astrophysicist, alleged that Tyson, 60, inappropriately touched them and made uncomfortable sexual advances as early as 1984 and in recent years. Patheos, a religion spirituality website, first reported the story.
In a post on his official Facebook page, Tyson broke his silence on the accusations, vehemently denying any wrongdoing on his part.
"Accusations can damage a reputation and a marriage. Sometimes irreversibly," Tyson wrote Saturday evening. "I see myself as loving husband and as a public servant — a scientist and educator who serves at the will of the public."
Katelyn N. Allers, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, told Patheos that she was "felt up" by Tyson in 2009 during an after-party which followed a meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS).
Tchiya Amet, a musician, said Tyson offered her water in his apartment and that she later woke up "naked" in his bed.
"He got on top of me and mounted me, and I passed out again," Amet told Patheos.
In his Facebook post, Tyson admitted to having a "brief relationship" with a fellow graduate student in the early 1980s but refuted any claims that he sexually abused her.
"It is as though a false memory had been implanted, which, because it never actually happened, had to be remembered as an evening she doesn’t remember," Tyson wrote.
Another woman, Ashley Watson, told Patheos that she left her job as Tyson's assistant last summer after he tried to persuade her into sex.
Watson told the website that she felt compelled to impress her boss and accepted an invitation from Tyson to his home. There, he spoke about people needing human physical releases and gave her an "awkward and incredibly intimate handshake," she disclosed.
Later, when she was departing, "Tyson then allegedly put his hands on her shoulders, and said he wanted to hug her, but if he did, he'd 'just want more,'" Watson reported to Patheos.
Per HuffPost, Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Tyson is also the host of Fox's Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, and the producers of his show they are reviewing the allegations, according to NBC News. In a statement delivered on Friday, the broadcasters acknowledged they had "only just become aware of the recent allegations regarding Neil deGrasse Tyson."
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