US actor Jonathan Majors was arrested in New York City at the weekend on assault and harassment charges, leading to the US Army pulling a new advertisement campaign featuring the Creed III star.
Majors was arrested on Saturday morning in Manhattan following a domestic dispute, according to police and his defence lawyer.
A 30-year-old woman suffered minor injuries to her head and neck and was taken to hospital in a stable condition, the New York Police Department said. Majors, 33, appeared in court for an arraignment later on Saturday and was released without bail.
Majors recently presented an award alongside his Creed co-star Michael B Jordan at the 2023 Oscars. His character's story begins in Creed III as he emerges from a long prison stint.
He was charged in a criminal complaint of striking the woman's face with his open hand, causing a laceration behind her ear, and of grabbing her hand and neck, causing bruising.
Priya Chaudhry, Majors' defence lawyer, said in a statement that Majors was innocent and that he was “probably the victim of an altercation with a woman he knows”.
She said the episode occurred in a vehicle, and that the driver who witnessed it would help exonerate Majors. She also said that the woman, who has not been publicly named, had provided two written statements “recanting these allegations”.
The US Army said it was temporarily pulling new campaign advertisements featuring Majors.
“While Mr Majors is innocent until proven guilty, prudence dictates that we pull our ads until the investigation into these allegations is complete,” Laura DeFrancisco, a spokeswoman for the Army Enterprise Marketing Office, said in a statement.
Majors rose to fame in the 2019 film The Last Black Man in San Francisco and appeared in Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, released this year.
Reuters contributed to this report
