A woman who has long claimed Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler made her abort their baby in the 1970s when she was just 17 has sued the rock star under a California law that expires Saturday.
The suit, filed by Julia Holcomb in Los Angeles and first reported by Rolling Stone, does not name Tyler, but quotes Tyler’s 2011 memoir, in which he described the relationship. Holcomb has told her story previously, but had just days remaining to sue under the state law that tolls the statute of limitations for certain sexual abuse crimes.
“With my bad self being twenty-six and she barely old enough to drive and sexy as hell, I just fell madly in love with her,” Tyler, who referred to the girl as “Diana,” wrote. “She was a cute skinny little tomboy dressed up as Little Bo Peep. She was my heart’s desire, my partner in crimes of passion.”
Exclusive: In a lawsuit filed this week, Steven Tyler has been accused of sexually assaulting a minor and coercing her into getting an abortion.https://t.co/zH4v7ElRRn
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) December 30, 2022
Holcomb claims in the lawsuit that she met Tyler at a Portland, Oregon, concert in 1973 just after turning 16. She said she went to the star’s hotel room after the show. According to the suit, the encounter began what would be a three-year, drug-fueled affair that Tyler allegedly conducted with the blessing of Holcomb’s mother.
The claims line up with Tyler’s admissions in the book that he “almost took a teen bride” whose “parents fell in love with me, signed a paper over for me to have custody, so I wouldn’t get arrested if I took her out of state.” In the lawsuit, Holcomb accuses Tyler of sexual assault, sexual battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Holcomb claims she became pregnant in 1975, but that he pressured her into an abortion after a fire in her apartment, telling her the baby might have been injured in utero.
Holcomb later converted to Catholicism and became a pro-life activist. Holcomb appeared on Fox News in 2020, where she told Tucker Carlson her story.
“I met Steven Tyler when I was just 16 years old, and he became my legal guardian,” she said. “He made the decision that he wanted me to have an abortion…and it didn’t really matter how I begged to keep my baby, that decision really wasn’t going to be in my hands.”
Holcomb’s lawsuit was filed under the California’s Child Victims Act, a law that allowed for a three-year window, ending on Dec. 31, for filing civil suit involving alleged child sexual abuse.