Arcade Fire Frontman Win Butler Responds to Allegations of Sexual Misconduct

[CW: This piece includes discussion of alleged sexual assault and attempted suicide.]

Arcade Fire vocalist and guitarist Win Butler has been accused of sexual misconduct ranging from nonconsensual sexting to sexual assault by three women and a gender-fluid fourth person, according to an extensive Pitchfork report that cites text and Instagram message screenshots, and interviews with “friends and family members who said they recalled being told about the alleged incidents.” Butler acknowledged these extramarital relationships, but disputed details of their nature in one of two written statements he issued to the outlet via New York-based crisis public relations expert Risa Heller, “vehemently” denying any nonconsensual contact and apologizing multiple times in the other. His Arcade Fire bandmate and wife of 19 years, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Régine Chassagne, backed Butler in a written statement of her own.

The three women, Stella, Sarah and Fiona (who requested the use of pseudonyms in Pitchfork’s report), “made allegations of sexual interactions with Butler that they came to feel were inappropriate given the gaps in age, power dynamics, and context in which they occurred.” They were “devoted Arcade Fire fans” ranging in age from 18 to 23 when their interactions with Butler began—said interactions overlapped from 2016 to 2020, when Butler was between 36 and 39 years old. The fourth person, Lily (also a pseudonym), alleges that Butler sexually assaulted them twice in 2015—once when they were in a car together, and a second time when he allegedly showed up to their apartment against their wishes—when they were 21 and he was 34. Butler maintains that “every single one of these interactions [was] mutual and always between consenting adults. It is deeply revisionist, and frankly just wrong, for anyone to suggest otherwise.”

Lily and Butler’s accounts of their relationship differ widely: Lily, who was aware Butler was married, and who “had a long-term partner at the time” themself, maintains that “their interactions were friendly, not flirtatious,” while Butler’s account is of a mutual attraction. While driving Lily home from dinner, Butler allegedly “stuck his hands into their pants without consent,” a touching of their crotch Lily acknowledged may have been “through their pants rather than […] inside,” but characterized as “very aggressive.” About two days later, Butler “texted asking to come over and Lily repeatedly told him not to,” they say—instead, Butler allegedly showed up at their Montreal apartment and “pinned [Lily] up against the wall and was aggressively grabbing [their] body and sticking his tongue down [their] throat,” refused to leave when asked multiple times, “physically constrained” and “tried to go down on [Lily]” despite their not consenting, and “began berating them for denying his advances.” Butler maintained that their kissing was “definitely mutual,” ”[Lily] never asked [him] to leave, and [he] never berated [them].” Lily came to view these encounters as sexual assaults. “I would never assault anyone and I did not assault [Lily],” Butler told Pitchfork.

Stella alleged that Butler sexted her without her consent when she was 18 and he was 36: “I definitely said explicitly that the texts and pictures were not wanted, but that did not stop him.” A friend of Stella’s confirmed that Butler had sent Stella pictures of his genitals, telling Pitchfork, “She was devastated.” Another friend of Stella’s recalls of an encounter with Butler they had at a bar, “To me he was just another creepy old guy, and to her it was her hero.” “I didn’t realize the significance of the age difference at the time,” Butler said of his interactions with Stella. “I can now see how it could be overwhelming thinking back to when I was 18, but at the time I didn’t appreciate that.”

Sarah and Fiona both claim that Butler “responded to Instagram messages about their love for his music with casual conversation that shifted in tone when he began requesting and then demanding to be sent increasingly explicit sexual videos”—they were 23 and 20 at the time, in 2018 and 2017, respectively, and describe their encounters with the musician “in terms of the exploitation of a power dynamic,” saying that “the transactional nature of the interactions took an emotional toll.” Both women allege that Butler repeatedly demanded sexts and sexual video chats from them; “I did everything because it was him,” Sarah told Pitchfork. “I don’t like doing any kind of video stuff, especially sexual stuff. I remember being so nervous and so ashamed that I did it. I’d be like, ‘I don’t feel well.’ And he’d be like, ‘Send me a picture right now.’”

Sarah’s mother said she was struck by “her depression” around that time, describing her daughter as “spiraling and more troubled than I’d seen her in a while.” Fiona alleges that her interactions with Butler eventually included in-person sexual activity, which Butler maintains “was consensual.” But after one alleged sexual encounter in 2017, Fiona says she “attempted suicide by swallowing a large quantity of extra-strength Tylenol,” recalling to Pitchfork, “I felt incredibly low. The toll of having to keep everything secret, constantly pushing my needs aside in order to appease him, lack of boundaries, and the guilt of being the other woman was getting too hard to ignore.”

Pitchfork also reports that another unnamed woman, “unconnected to the others, described an in-person sexual interaction with Butler that she felt blurred the lines of consent due to the power dynamic between them,” telling the outlet, ”It’s this really complicated thing. Yes, it was consensual, but also, there’s a side to it that was almost like, I couldn’t say no.”

“Apologies are things I’ve come not to expect from people who perpetuate harm,” Lily told the outlet of Butler’s response to their account. “But if he could sit back for a moment and realize what he has done enough to understand that he has to change his behavior, then maybe that would be enough to protect other people moving forward.”

When reached for further comment, a rep for Arcade Fire referred Paste to the statements Butler and Chassagne shared with Pitchfork.

Read Butler and Chassagne’s statements below, and the full report at Pitchfork.