Update: December 09th, 2021 01:16 PM:
Lingua Ignota has since shared a in-depth statement on the matter here via her social media.
Original Story:
Kristin Hayter, better known as Lingua Ignota, has spoken further on her allegations of abuse against Daughters vocalist Alexis Marshall. Hayter previously spoke about the abuse she allegedly suffered via Marshall on social media this past October. She also has stated that her latest album, 2021’s “Sinner Get Ready“, was penned about her experiences in the relationship they previously had.
In a newly published interview with The Needle Drop (see below,) Hayter was asked by host Anthony Fantano why she has decided to speak more publicly about the matter now. She replied:
“The truth. I wanted the truth. I wrote the record about this experience. That’s what it’s about. That’s the document, for me. And, you know I was in an abusive relationship with this man for two years. I was emotionally abused. I was mentally abused. I was sexually abused. One incident of sexual abuse led to me needing surgery on my spine, which my fans helped me pay for.
And to my fans, I want to say like thank you because you didn’t know that you were helping me in that way. And you did. And there’s a lot more I could say about the situation, but for now, I’m trying to heal and trying to process a lot of trauma. It’s not easy. I left that situation. Like a fucking hole in the floor. I was nothing. I’d been reduced to like, essentially servitude of this person, who didn’t care about me. And yeah, I am just trying to heal, and it’s important to me that the truth is out there, and that my truth is out there. Because unfortunately, this behavior predates me by quite a bit. And it’s not just me…”
She had previously described the aforementioned surgery as being for a herniated L4 disc. Speaking on why she chose to not be upfront about how she incurred the injury at the time, she offered:
“…I couldn’t say what happened… it’s been brutal. And it’s been brutal to like pretend that I’m happy, when I’m not, and to put on a happy public face when I’m not happy, and when I’m being devalued, in so many different ways. And it’s not to say that I’m a saint, or like a paragon of virtue. But I didn’t deserve to be abused by this person. And he’s going to do what he’s going to do, but I have to focus on myself and my healing. And, you know, I think at some point I will speak in greater detail about it, but it has to be when I have processed what’s going on. There’s been a lot, you know, as you saw, like, my statement is 7000 words.”
When asked what closure on this matter would look like for her, be it for her own mental health or potential accountability, she replied:
“It’s so tricky. I mean, how do we deal with these situations? How do we culturally deal with this shit? It’s impossible. It’s it’s a no-win situation kind of any way you look at it. It’s not about canceling someone’s banned. It’s not about asking anyone to not listen to Daughters or, you know? It’s about this person’s behavior is unacceptable and what do we do about it? You know, I can’t control Alexis. I don’t have any control over him.
I don’t have any control over anything except myself and my own healing. So while accountability would be nice, I can’t expect it. I can’t put my healing on hold, waiting for that. Initially, I thought I did. I thought I required you know, an apology. But you’re not going to get it, you know. So ideally, there would be change in the way that we deal with these situations and there would be change in people’s behavior. And there would be change in the way that we approach our communities and the ways in which we keep women safe in our communities and vulnerable people safe in our communities and abuses of power in our communities.
Ideally like that would be something constructive would come from something like this, and I’m hoping to find a way to help support other survivors and that is more concrete than just having the cathartic outlet of the music. I’d like to find something. So I don’t know. It’s all you know, the world we live in is kind of fucked. And dealing with this stuff in a public forum is incredibly difficult. It’s not an it’s not fun for me to like, come up here. And say this and then expose myself to potentially further abuse and further objectification from people. I don’t know. So I don’t know. It is what it is.”
It would appear that there has been some aftermath for Marshall in the wake of Hayter‘s allegations, as he appears to he absent from the webpage of the Sargent House label roster, despite having released a solo album through the label this past July. For what it’s worth, in July of 2020 Marshall also publicly spoke of undergoing a therapy program.
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