Ex-Maroon 5 bassist Mickey Madden has been accused of domestic violence and sexting a teenage girl.
In court documents seeking a domestic violence restraining order against Madden, his wife, Kate Bowman, says he attacked her on July 21 at their Los Angeles home after she discovered sexual messages with “at least two high school girls,” including “fantasies” about “raping one of the girls”, per Billboard.
Bowman filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court on July 30, and has since been granted a temporary restraining order against Madden until a court date scheduled for August 20.
According to People, Madden is currently in a rehabilitation facility.
In the filing, Bowman writes that she received a message from a teenage girl on July 21 alleging there had been contact between her and Madden. Bowman’s statement read: “I was extremely hurt and disturbed. I needed to understand what was going on between them.”
“When he denied it, I asked him to hand me his phone,” she wrote in court documents. “He would not hand me his phone, but I could see that he was quickly deleting the evidence from his phone.”
Bowman alleges that Madden “became enraged” after she took his phone and ran from the property, and that: “He physically abused me. Extreme emotional harm. I’m now terrified of him.”
Her filing says of the alleged attack: “He put both his arms around my body around my abdomen and arms to restrain me. He then slammed my body against the marble kitchen counter. I felt pain in my hip and waist area. He shoved me to the ground and was out of his mind. I landed on my knees. He kept screaming for me to give him the phone. He appeared literally insane to me. I had never seen such uncontrollable anger and a completely different person.”
In screenshotted messages submitted in the restraining order request, Madden allegedly described the communication between him and the teenage girl as “a private and fake harmless fantasy” which had “no bearing on real life at all”.
A message from Bowman also reads: “Mickey. I do not know the man who hires 18 year old prostitutes to text them about wanting to be their stepdad and rape them while we are on our honeymoon.”
Another alleged message from Madden reads that he was “beyond sorry for my actions and for engaging in any form of expression of those impulses” and maintained “that I would never act on any of that consensual fantasy talk”.
Madden is yet to comment on the restraining order lawsuit.
In 2020, Madden stepped away from Maroon 5 following an arrest for domestic violence. He was a founding member of the band in 1994.
It’s unclear if that alleged incident involved Bowman or another alleged victim.
“I have some things that I need to deal with and address right now and so I have decided to take a leave of absence from Maroon 5 for the foreseeable future,” Madden said to People in a statement.
In June that year, Madden was charged with a wilful infliction of “a traumatic injury on a spouse or cohabitant”, which is a felony charge in California. The identity of the alleged victim remains unclear. The bassist was released on the day of arrest after posting his $50,000 bond, with a court hearing scheduled on September 29.
A spokesperson for Maroon 5 told Page Six that the band were “deeply devastated by this disappointing news”.
“As we learn more, we are looking at this very seriously. For now, we are allowing all of the individuals involved the space to work things through.”
For help, support and advice regarding domestic abuse, visit Refuge here or call the freephone, 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
