Asia Argento is shown in bed with a 17-year-old boy and says in texts she had sex with him as obtained by TMZ

Text messages that were allegedly sent by Asia Argento to a friend on Monday reveal that the actress did in fact have sex with her former costar Jimmy Bennett when she was 37 and the boy just 17.

TMZ published the texts, including one that reads: ‘It wasn’t raped but I was frozen. He was on top of me. After, he told me I had been his sexual fantasy since was 12.’
A day later, Argento denied ever having sex with Bennett in a statement while suggesting the young man extorted her and boyfriend, late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, who paid out the settlement.
Argento also allegedly claims to have been unaware that Bennett was a minor when they had sex in 2013 in the texts, despite raving about how talented the boy was when they met in 2003 on the set of The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things on Twitter just months before their encounter.
In that tweet, posted in August 2012, she wrote: ‘At 7 you were already one of the most accomplished actors I’d ever met.’
TMZ also published an image reported to be a post-coital photo of the two taken in May 2013. 

Asia Argento [photo], says she did not have sex with then 17-year-old Jimmy Bennett, but a photo and various text messages between Argento and a friend tell a very different story … she flat-out says she had sex with him

Jimmy Bennett [left] claims Asia Argento [right] slept with him in a California hotel room when he was aged 17 and she was 37 which caused mental health issues and crippled his career. Argento has denied the two ever had sexual intercourse

This is one of 4 photos Bennett, now 22, took in a Marina del Rey hotel room back in 2013. The then 37-year-old Argento and Bennett are on a bed shirtless, their heads on a pillow and their arms entangled. Sources tell TMZ the pic was taken after the 2 had intercourse. It’s a crime in California for an adult to have sex with a person under 18.
Bennett later threatened legal action and, in April, Argento settled with him for $380,000 … which her boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain, paid.
Argento released a statement Tuesday, saying, “I have never had any sexual relationship with Bennett.”

The other person, who is not identified, then asks why she did not report the incident, which she responds to by saying she ‘always felt bad for this Hollywood failed child actor, a casualty of the machine, of his parents.’
Then, in a move that seems to be directly out of the Harvey Weinstein’s playbook, Argento allegedly reveals that a private investigator was hired by Bourdain to follow the boy and there are ’80 pages’ of notes in a text.
Argento also speaks of her plans should she lose work for this incident, stating that she would ‘move to Africa or the Amazon forest’ in one text.
This alleged text conversation took place just after The New York Times published its piece on Argento’s settlement with Bennett.

F: Yeah still need to prove the money came from AB account
Or affiliate account
But this is looking rear for You
This NYT will look like fools. You got This
A: Carrie never wanted to do this, she wanted to go to the press first and show the extortion I was being threatened with
F: Well next steps – request bank statements from Bennet that will show the account that deposited the money clearing your name as the briber
And then find evidence that You rejected this person sexually at any point before 
A: Yes I am thinking about leaking through a trusted friend to the Guardia
If I lose my job I will move to Africa or the Amazon Forest
I want to be among the 90% of the world that doesn’t give a f***about this s***
Not the connivig, sick 10% of the entitles westerners
Entitled*
F: Africa is gorgeous and absolutely safer than people give t credit for
A: Ethiopia or Senegal
Mapia in Brazil 
F: If there’ anytime you’ve talked to your therapist about inappropriate advances before the whole thing that may be helpful
A: Not before, during that meeting where he jumped me
F: What’s up with the photo taken in bed?
I think that’s one that will be harder to cushion. Images are annoyingly assumption nation
A: You can see my tits. That’s all. It Doesn’t mean s***
He is standing up 
A: It’s beyond me. It’s unfathomable
F: You worked with him previously how did the age thing escape?
I mean 16 is the age of consent in most countries around the world
So I was actually shocked about the 17 thing
A: 15 in France and Italy
F: Oh who
A: When I was 17 I wa with a 33 year old man for years
I had just turned 17  

‘I strongly deny and oppose the contents of the New York Times article,’ said Argento in a statement on Tuesday.
‘I am deeply shocked and hurt by having read news that is absolutely false. I have never had any sexual relationship with Bennett.’
She goes on to state that Bennett went after her because of her relationship with Anthony Bourdain, a ‘man of great perceived wealth’ who ‘had his own reputation as a beloved public figure to protect.’
Bourdain paid the settlement despite the fact that it represented almost half of his cash and savings at the time, with court papers submitted after the chef’s death revealing $425,000 of his $1.2 million estate was in cash.
‘Anthony personally undertook to help Bennett economically, upon the condition that we would no longer suffer any further intrusions in our life,’ writes Argento in her statement.
She says that at the request of both Bourdain and Bennett, the matter was settled privately
That payout was only a fraction of the $3.5 million that Bennett had requested in the notice.
‘This is, therefore, the umpteenth development of a sequence of events that brings me great sadness and that constitutes a long-standing persecution,’ claims Argento .
‘I have therefore no other choice but to oppose such false allegations and will assume in the short term all necessary initiatives for my protection before all competent venues.’

Defense attorney for Weinstein [left], decried the fact that Argento [left], was positioning herself at the forefront of those condemning his client, despite the fact that “her sexual relationship with Weinstein was between two consenting adults which lasted for more than four years.”

As reported Harvey Weinstein’s attorney, Ben Brafman jumped into the drama on Monday: “Asia Argento’s got some nerve being the face of the #MeToo movement … ” Brafman said. Adding,  “this development reveals a stunning level of hypocrisy by Asia Argento, one of the most vocal catalysts who sought to destroy Harvey Weinstein.”
Brafman goes on to say, “What is perhaps most egregious, is the timing, which suggests that at the very same time Argento was working on her own secret settlement for the alleged sexual abuse of a minor, she was positioning herself at the forefront of those condemning Mr. Weinstein, despite the fact that her sexual relationship with Mr. Weinstein was between two consenting adults which lasted for more than four years.”