Following accusations of rape and sexual misconduct from four women in an article from The Los Angeles Times, comedian Bryan Callen has released a statement strongly denying the serious claims. Well known for his role as Coach Mellor on The Goldbergs and its short-lived spinoff series Schooled, Callen also co-hosts the podcast The Fighter and the Kid alongside Brendan Schaub. Promising a lengthier response to the allegations to come in the next edition of his podcast, Callen immediately addressed each of the claims with a statement of his own.

One of the accusers, Katherine Fiore Tigerman, alleged that Bryan Callen had held her down and forced her into sex despite her pleas for him to stop. According to Tigerman, the alleged incident happened at Callen's home in 1999 after the two had met many years earlier. Although she says she told a friend and her boyfriend about the incident after it happened, Tigerman says she wanted to keep the incident private so her father wouldn't find out -- and potentially go to jail for assaulting Callen.

A second accuser, an American Apparel saleswoman named Rachel Green, also alleges inappropriate conduct from Callen in 2009. According to Green, she had followed Callen up to the second floor of the Pittsburgh location he had ventured into to assist him with gathering clothes to try on. The next day, Callen is said to have returned while wearing a tight Speedo, specifically requesting Green's help. "He ran out of the fitting room to grab something, so I went in to get the clothes he'd already tried on. And then he comes in, pushes me against the wall, closes the curtains and starts kissing my neck as he asks me if I'm going to get in trouble," Green said.

Meanwhile, comedian Tiffany King told the Times about another alleged incident involving Callen. Describing him as a "touchy feely" guy, King says she had considered Callen a friend until she reached out to him for some financial assistance while down on her luck in 2017. Allegedly, Callen offered King stage time and money in exchange for sexual favors, an offer she refused.

Another woman, aspiring actress Claire Ganshert, told the Times that she had a four-year affair with Callen that left her feeling "devalued and demoralized" by the time it was over. Ganshert alleges that during their relationship, Callen had suggested that she should sexualize herself to make it as an actress and once mentioned that women have a "biological, primal desire to be raped."

"Let me be very clear: I have never raped, forced myself upon any woman nor offered to trade stage time for sex. EVER," Callen said in his first statement on the allegations. "I know the truth. And I can only hold my head up high, remain true to myself, my family, my audience and know that I will not allow the cancel culture to subvert what I know and as importantly, what they know, is the truth."

Callen also specifically referred to Tigerman's rape allegation as "demonstrably false," insisting that they "BOTH agreed to have sex." Callen also says that after the alleged incident, Tigerman auditioned multiple times to play his character's wife on a show "that would have had us working together every day of years," adding that that's "not what rape victims do."

Ahead of the eighth season of The Goldbergs, it has been revealed in the midst of the allegations against Callen that he will not be appearing in the upcoming new episodes. Reportedly, this was due to storyline reasons and not because of the allegations, as sources say there were no plans to use Callen's character in season 8. This story comes to us from The Los Angeles Times.