Friends of the University of Virginia student whose account of a brutal campus gang rape drew national attention before coming under increasing scrutiny challenged key aspects of her story in new interviews.
The Washington Post, citing interviews with friends who were depicted in the widely-read Rolling Stone story as being primarily concerned with how the incident would reflect on their social status if the accuser known as “Jackie” reported it, reports that Jackie’s friends dispute several aspects of the Rolling Stone account.
“It didn’t happen that way at all,” one said. “I mean, obviously, we were very concerned for her. We tried to be as supportive as we could be.”
The Rolling Stone article roiled the UVA community when it was published last month, but discrepancies in Jackie’s account led the magazine to issue an apology last week and to say it no longer trusts her as a source.
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Write to Noah Rayman at noah.rayman@time.com