Kevin Spacey, the former star of House of Cards, took the witness stand at a California civil trial Tuesday and acknowledged he was formally diagnosed with “sexual compulsive behavior” in 2017 after he voluntarily entered an inpatient treatment program amid a wave of sexual misconduct allegations.
The diagnosis appeared in a psychiatric summary issued when Spacey was discharged from The Meadows treatment facility in Arizona on Dec. 16, 2017. In a Santa Monica courtroom, Spacey was asked to read part of the summary of his diagnosis aloud.
“Other specified obsessive and related behaviors, sexual compulsive behavior, generalized anxiety disorder,” Spacey said, reading from a screen in the witness box. Asked whether he had “any medical basis to challenge the diagnoses,” he replied, “No.”
Spacey further confirmed that his goal at The Meadows was to “address sexual behavior and boundaries.” As his testimony continued, however, he expressed frustration with notes in his medical records written by the two main doctors who treated him. In one notation, a doctor wrote that Spacey had identified one of his “problem behaviors” as “touching in public without permission.” Spacey denied telling doctors that.
“I can tell you that throughout the medical records, there are comments attributed to me I never said,” he testified, his voice rising. He said the doctors’ narrative notes contained obvious inaccuracies. “They have an idea that I had a British accent, that I have a wife,” the unmarried, openly gay actor said. “They’re dealing with 29 other men. I have no idea how they take notes. I’m simply saying that’s not something I said because that’s not something I did.”
Kevin Spacey testified Tuesday at a trial over claims that an insurance company unfairly denied coverage related to Spacey’s 2017 departure from “House of Cards”
Actor confirmed to jurors he was diagnosed with “sexual compulsive behavior”
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Spacey was called to testify in a case pitting the production company behind House of Cards against its insurer over a nine-figure claim tied to the show’s halted production in 2017 and its subsequent Season Six revisions. The disruption forced the award-winning series to scrap and rewrite what became its final season. At the time the allegations broke, the show was built around Spacey’s character, President Frank Underwood.
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The defendant at the trial, Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, argued that its policy covered only losses resulting from a medically verified, incapacitating illness. According to the company, Spacey was suspended because of the media fallout surrounding the allegations, not because of any qualifying illness. FFIC contends that the production company, Media Rights Capital, placed the show on hiatus on Oct. 31, 2017, and simply never invited Spacey back.
Spacey, 66, had been filming House of Cards on Oct. 29, 2017, when BuzzFeed published an article in which actor Anthony Rapp alleged that Spacey made a sexual advance toward him during a gathering at Spacey’s home in 1986, when Rapp was 14. Days later, CNN reported allegations from eight anonymous House of Cards crew members who accused Spacey of “predatory” behavior, including instances in which he allegedly would initiate a handshake and pull a person’s hand toward his crotch.
At a 2022 civil trial in Manhattan federal court, a jury found Spacey not liable for the sexual misconduct claims brought by Rapp. In 2023, he was acquitted of sexual assault charges in London related to four men. An arbitrator later found Spacey liable for a $31 million payment to MRC. A three-member appellate panel upheld the award, leading Spacey to reach a settlement with MRC. Under the terms of the deal, the $31 million payment was reduced to $1 million because Spacey agreed to hand over medical records and testify in the insurance lawsuit.
Adam Ziffer, a lawyer for MRC, appeared focused Tuesday on persuading jurors that Spacey had a medical issue that persisted even after his release from The Meadows. He began by asking why Spacey sought treatment.
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“I went there to try to help myself. I had just had a series of things happening in my life where my life felt like it was collapsing,” Spacey testified. “So I went to take care of myself and to ask questions. I don’t know if I knew at the time that I had a medical illness or a medical condition, but there were a lot of questions I had.”
Ziffer then asked Spacey to read another medical note. “Patient will hold himself accountable for the adverse impact of his problematic sexual behaviors on self and others,” the document stated.
“I continue to work on taking accountability for when I didn’t get it right, but this is typical of the records where it’s a lot of gobbledygook,” Spacey told the jury. “I don’t speak this way. I don’t recognize it as something I would have said.”
Other medical notes listed goals such as improving Spacey’s “ability to moderate multiple addictive or problematic behaviors” and addressing “sexual behavior and boundaries.” Spacey again expressed frustration on the witness stand.
“It’s written in a way that I don’t speak, so I don’t recall saying that specific thing,” he said. “I certainly think that boundaries are an important thing to recognize. I recognize that. I didn’t always read the room right.”
Before entering treatment, Spacey said he found the allegations against him “frightening,” though he did not believe they were true. “I needed to ask myself some serious questions,” he testified. “I was trying to figure out where I had gotten it wrong, and could I make sure that I never put myself in a situation where someone questioned my motives again.”
MRC’s lawyer then zeroed in on a doctor’s notation that claimed Spacey’s “pending legal status” appeared to be “an impediment” to his “engaging in full accountability work” during his stay at The Meadows. The doctor wrote that Spacey might “benefit from a return to a residential level of care once his legal situation is more resolved.”
Spacey testified that at the time, the only pending legal matter was his dispute with MRC. He said there remains one outstanding case against him in the United Kingdom, but he added that the legal process has largely been vindicating.
“I’ve been enormously happy that I’ve had an opportunity to walk into courtrooms and defend myself and be found not guilty,” he said. “You might not want to go through it, but if that’s the place you have an opportunity to defend yourself with fairness and due process, then I’m happy to be in court.”
Spacey also vehemently denied the allegations described in the CNN report, saying the eight anonymous accusers were not “legitimate.” He confirmed that he told an investigator for MRC that he never touched any crew members in a sexual way.
Asked about the arbitration award, Spacey said he was found to have “broken an MRC policy,” nothing more. Ziffer countered that the arbitrator found that the witnesses who testified against Spacey appeared credible.
“Not each of them. Five of them,” Spacey replied. He said the arbitrator concluded only that the allegations were “more likely” true than not, a standard he described as “a very low bar.”
“So, in your view, none of these occurred, because you don’t misbehave on set?” Ziffer asked, rhetorically. “I think we’ve got a good picture of how that accountability works,” the lawyer scoffed.
Under questioning by Leon Gladstone, a lawyer for FFIC, Spacey was asked about his long career, including his two Academy Awards and his work on Broadway. Gladstone then asked about prior testimony from a medical expert who told the jury that sexual addiction can be a fatal condition.
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“Has any healthcare provider ever told you that you have a fatal condition?” Gladstone asked. Spacey said no and agreed he was “feeling pretty good today.”
“Do you believe or have you ever believed that you suffer from sex addiction?” Gladstone asked. Spacey again answered no. The trial then broke for a recess.
