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A woman that James Ransone once saved from sexual assault is speaking out following the actor’s tragic death earlier this month.
Molly Watts took to Instagram on Tuesday to reveal that the late “Wire” star, who died by suicide on Dec. 19 at the age of 46, came to her rescue during a traumatic incident back in 2006.
“I found out yesterday that James Ransone died,” she began alongside a photo of the beloved actor. “I’m usually private but I want to publicly say I am so grateful that this man existed and don’t know if the trajectory of my life would be the same if he hadn’t.”
Watts wrote that she and Ransone were neighbors in New York City’s Chinatown nearly 20 years ago when she was “attacked at the threshold of our building” and “screamed for help.”
“My attacker put his hands around my throat so I would stop making noise,” she recalled. “I couldn’t breathe. I remember the certainty that I was going to die or be raped as I was choked unconscious.”
But moments later, the “It Chapter Two” star – whom Watts referred to by his nickname, PJ – suddenly appeared and saved Watts from her attacker.
“PJ heard my screams and ran to help. He came running shirtless, carrying a bat or pipe,” she shared. “He scared my attacker, who ran.”
Although the assailant fled the scene, Ransone reportedly chased him down.
“PJ chased him to the building he fled to,” Watts continued. “Because of the chase, the police were able to identify him, a repeat sexual offender.”
“PJ saved me,” she added. “I’m not sure if I would have the same life if he hadn’t run down that night. Even as an adult, I’m not sure how I would have handled the weight of what could have happened or how long it would take to heal – I was already emotionally fragile.”
Ransone, meanwhile, recalled the shocking incident himself years later during an appearance on the “Jim and Sam Show” in 2016.
Although the “Poker Face” actor downplayed his heroic actions, he did recount the event and how it unfolded from his perspective.
“I was watching TV with my then-girlfriend at the time,” he shared at the time. “I was in just pajama bottoms. It was like April, and it was raining a little bit. And I hear this scream for help. I hear this commotion, and I run.”
The news of Ransone’s tragic passing broke on Dec. 21, two days after the “Black Phone” star was reportedly found hanging in a shed, per the Los Angeles County medical examiner.
Ransone’s widow, Jamie McPhee, took to Instagram on Sunday night to remember her late husband with an emotional tribute. The couple shared two children.
“I told you I have loved you 1000 times before and I know I will love you again,” McPhee mourned alongside a sweet photo of the pair. “You told me – I need to be more like you and you need to be more like me – and you were so right.”
“Thank you for giving me the greatest gifts – you, Jack and Violet,” she added. “We are forever.”
Several of Ransone’s former co-stars and colleagues have also spoken out to pay tribute to the “What We Found” star.
In 2021, Ransone came forward as a sexual abuse survivor via a lengthy Instagram note he sent his alleged abuser.
“The strongest memory I have of the abuse was washing blood and feces out of my sheets after you left,” he wrote four years before his death. “I remember doing this as a 12 year old because I was too ashamed to tell anyone.”
Watts, in her tribute to Ransone, acknowledged the actor’s own experience as a survivor of sexual abuse and expressed “regret” that she never thanked him for saving her that night in 2006.
“What’s especially hard for me with PJ’s passing is that he lived with that kind of violence,” she wrote. “What I was spared, he endured in a different form, at an age where there is no emotional defense, and the self is still forming.”
“I get the sense that PJ’s like was haunted by what happened to him then,” Watts added. “This world is rarely gentle to people who are hurt, vulnerable, acting out.”
“Over the years, I have thought of PJ from time to time,” Watts ended her touching post. “I wanted to reach out to him to let him know how grateful I was that he ran towards my screams. I didn’t. I regret that.”