The artist Lingua Ignota has accused Alexis Marshall, who is the frontman of the noise-rock group Daughters, of rape, mental and sexual abuse in a Twitter statement. She also accused him of driving her to suicide.
The singer, Lingua Ignota’s real name is Kristen Hayter, and has shared a short statement detailing her allegations of abuse against her ex-boyfriend, Alexis Marshall. She started, “I was in an abusive relationship with Alexis Marshall from July 2019 through June 2021. I endured mental and emotional abuse and sexual abuse resulting in bodily harm. I was subjected to multiple sexual assaults/rapes where I was fully penetrated while sleeping without my consent after I explicitly stated this was not okay with me.”
I’ve decided to release my full statement about my experience at this time. Hopefully this will answer any questions and clarify timelines. Heavy content warning. https://t.co/5Rz0xNe7v6
— LINGUA “UNHINGED KRAMPUS MOM” IGNOTA (@LINGUA_IGNOTA_) December 9, 2021
She said, “Alexis caused a severe injury to my spine and did not stop when I told him I was hurt. This injury resulted in debilitating pain and physical incapacitation for months. I needed surgery to treat this injury, a massive lumbar disc herniation that created an emergency condition called Cauda Equina Syndrome, which threatened permanent loss of bladder and bowel function.”
The artist also claimed that her ex-boyfriend, Marshall, took advantage of her financially and blamed her for everything that was wrong in his life and was resentful of her professional relationships and isolated her from friends.
She confessed that she attempted suicide in December 2020 in the basement of their home as a result of his ongoing abuse and said, “Alexis’ response to my suicide was cold and unfeeling. Meanwhile, Alexis used threats of suicide and self-harm to manipulate me often, such as when I told him I needed to cut contact with him for my own well-being or when I confronted him about lying.”
She concluded her shorter statement by saying, “As a result of this relationship, my quality of life decreased significantly. I suffered enormous psychological and physical damage. I continue to do physical therapy to treat ongoing issues with my spine and am in intensive therapy.”
However, the frontman of Daughters, Marshall, denied the allegations and said, “I absolutely did not engage in any form of abusive behavior towards Kristin. Kristin is a person that I loved and cared deeply for, however, our relationship was unhealthy for both of us. I can assure anyone reading this that I absolutely did not abuse her, mentally or physically. I am investigating legal options.”
Net Worth Of Lingua Ignota
Lingua Ignota had shared with Rolling Stones about her struggle before and during the pandemic and revealed that 90 percent of her income was probably from her playing in the shows so when the pandemic started, it was a quiet struggle for the artists like her, and she also had a medical issue with her spine.
The artist has her song titles in a dramatic, evocative, and occasionally biblical language such as Faithful Servant Friend of Christ, I am the Beast and Sorrow! Sorrow! Sorrow!. She has explained, “There’s an absoluteness to biblical language. It was also an effective way for me to process this stuff because it’s not confessional, contemporary language. So I don’t have to go through a slew of things that actually happened to me. I can just put it in some kind of allegorical, biblical box. And it makes it a little bit separate from me and my experiences. It makes it like less about me and more about these kinds of absolutes.”
Kristin Hayter also agreed that extreme music is overdue, reckoning with misogyny and violence, and said, “A lot of my work comes out of extreme music and heavy music that’s in a misogynist context. I’m trying to re-contextualize that phallocentric format for people who need it.”
The singer has announced the postponement of her fall shows to 2022 and said, “I am so sorry to let you all know I’ve decided to postpone all my shows until spring 2022. New dates for Boston, Chicago, and New York are forthcoming. I feel terrible about doing this, but I know I can’t give you the performances you deserve right now – significantly: I can’t sing. A couple of months ago, I had an upper molar extraction/bone graft that was much gnarlier than expected, and the damage extended into my sinuses and is taking forever to heal. Rehearsing for these shows reopened my wound and has further prolonged my healing process.”
She continued, “I am also emotionally/mentally completely fucked from two very dark years, which I will fully speak on when I feel able, and I know that I cannot give you 100% in any capacity at this point. I need time to regain my sense of self. I hope you can forgive me and understand. I want these shows to be spectacular. Thank you to my booking agent, management, and the venues for working with me on this. I will see you IRL in 2022, in the meantime, I will continue to create and write. Love you all.”
Lingua Ignota: 2022 Tour
4 May 2022: Thalia Hall Chicago, IL
7 May 2022: Le Poisson Rouge New York, NY
8 May 2022: Le Poisson Rouge New York, NY
11 May 2022: The Sinclair Cambridge, MA
2 June 2022: Primavera Sound 2022 Sant Adria De Besos, Spain
13 October 2022: Amplifest Porto 2022 Porto, Portugal
Is Lingua Ignota Religious?
According to her interviews, Lingua Ignota was raised Catholic and became atheist and then kind of rediscovered it and admits misdiscovering it again. She shared, “I did start to redevelop a relationship with Catholicism-the imagery is strongly immersed in my head. I don’t know; my relationship is kind of complex. I think in musical terms I like religion because of its purported absolute rights and wrongs. There is a very conscious splitting in terms of good and evil and absolute evil and the holy vengeance, the holy wrath of God as a weapon for a survivor to use to move through trauma.”
In another interview, Kristin has talked about how she had always had a really strong affinity for spaces of worship, art, and music of worship and that she loves the pageantry and theatricality of Catholicism, the kind of twisted materialism. She said, “I met so many people on the road who were also catholic, or lapsed Catholics. And I met a few people who were raised catholic but who are trans or queer and felt shunned by their religion, but said that my music provided an opening or a way to hear a hymn, and I feel deeply indebted to that response.”