Morgan Spurlock leaves his production company after confessing to sexual misconduct

Morgan Spurlock, director of hit documentary Super Size Me, is stepping down from his production company after admitting to a history of sexual misconduct.

Spurlock co-founded New York-based company Warrior Poets with Jeremy Chilnick in 2004.

In a statement issued on Thursday by the company, partners Jeremy Chilnick and Matthew Galkin said: “As of today, Morgan Spurlock will be stepping down effective immediately.

“We will continue to lead the company as equal partners, producing, distributing & creating from our independent production company.”

Spurlock’s representative Marian Koltai-Levine said Spurlock had no comment.

Production company SpringHill Entertainment, founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, has cut ties with Spurlock on a planned documentary series focusing on the opening of James' I Promise School in Akron, Ohio in the autumn of 2018.

“SpringHill Entertainment will be cancelling its production agreement with Morgan Spurlock and Warrior Poets. We will continue moving forward to tell the important story of the I Promise School,” said a spokesman for SpringHill Entertainment in a statement issued to ESPN.

Amid the #MeToo movement which has seen dozens of women come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against men in positions of power, Spurlock said he wanted to be “truthful” about his past.

In a blog post, he said he was “part of the problem” and revealed a history of sexual misconduct, including an allegation of rape and a settlement for sexual harassment.

“As I sit around watching hero after hero, man after man, fall at the realisation of their past indiscretions, I don’t sit by and wonder 'who will be next?' I wonder, 'when will they come for me?'” he wrote.

​Spurlock recounted how he had been “floored” in college when he heard that a girl had written a story in her class which accused him of raping her.

“In my mind, we’d been drinking all night and went back to my room,” he wrote.

“We began fooling around, she pushed me off, then we laid in the bed and talked and laughed some more, and then began fooling around again.

“We took off our clothes. She said she didn’t want to have sex, so we laid together, and talked, and kissed, and laughed, and then we started having sex.”

Spurlock said he stopped having sex when the woman started to cry, claiming he “tried to comfort her” and “believed she was feeling better”.

“She believed she was raped,” he added.

He also detailed a payment he made to a former female assistant who he said demanded money in exchange for keeping silent about his sexual harassment eight years ago.

“I would call my female assistant ‘hot pants’ or ‘sex pants’ when I was yelling to her from the other side of the office,” he wrote.

“Something I thought was funny at the time, but then realised I had completely demeaned and belittled her to a place of non-existence.

“So, when she decided to quit, she came to me and said if I didn’t pay her a settlement, she would tell everyone.”

He added he paid “for peace of mind” and “so I could remain who I was”.

Speculating as to what drove him to his actions, the film-maker revealed he had been sexually abused as a child and a teenager, and said his father had left his mother when he was young.

He said he had been drinking since 13 “to fill the emotional hole inside me and the daily depression I coped with”.

Spurlock said he would be “more honest” and “lay it all out in the open”.

“Maybe that will be a start. Who knows. But I do know I've talked enough in my life ... I'm finally ready to listen,” he wrote.