James Franco Reveals Sex Addiction 4 Years After Misconduct Allegations In His Acting School: 'I Did Sleep With Students'

Nearly four years since he was first plagued with sexual misconduct allegations, actor James Franco has admitted having sex with his students at the acting school he once ran.

Speaking on SiriusXM's "The Jess Cagle Podcast," the "Pineapple Express" actor confessed he "did sleep with students, and that was wrong," but noted he had not started the now-defunct Studio 4 acting school to lure women for sexual purposes, the BBC reported.

For years, the actor remained tight-lipped over the allegations, claiming he needed to listen to people's opinion of how he could clean up his act.

Excerpts from the podcast were released on Wednesday and revealed Franco has been on sex addiction recovery since 2016, during which he reflected on himself and "changed who I was."

His addiction, according to Franco, clouded his judgment and made him unaware that being an acting teacher and professional actor in the sexual relations he established with students may have distorted the concept of consent.

"I suppose at the time, my thinking was if it's consensual, OK," he confessed. "At the time, I was not clear-headed. I was in recovery before for substance abuse. There were some issues that I had to deal with that were also related to addiction."

In July, Franco, 43, agreed to pay out $2.2m to victims after being sued for engaging in "sexually-charged behavior towards female students".

In the class-action lawsuit filed in Los Angeles in 2018, Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, who were students at the acting school, alleged the actor "created a pipeline of young women who were subjected to his personal and professional sexual exploitation in the name of education."

In January 2018, Tither-Kaplan also told "Good Morning America" that Franco "abused his power by exploiting the non-celebrity women that he worked with under the guise of "giving them opportunities."

She was one of four students who accused the actor of sexually inappropriate behavior, People noted.

The paperwork further claimed Franco, who is known for his roles in the Spider-Man films, made his students victims of fraud for asking them to pay for the acting school while he sexually objectified and intimidated them.

Since then, his pal Seth Rogens moved to distance himself from Franco and said in May that he does not intend to work with the embattled actor and director at the moment, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Addressing the controversy, Franco told Cagle in the podcast, "I love Seth Rogen. I worked with him for 20 years. We didn't have one fight for 20 years. Not one fight. He was my absolute closest work friend, collaborator. We just gelled."