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"Matthew Fox has again insisted that the assault case filed against him last year was baseless. The former Lost star - who told Men&amp;#039;s Health that the situation was &amp;quot;bulls**t&amp;quot; - was accused of assaulting a woman outside a bar in August 2011. Prosecutors decided not to file charges against Fox, while a civil case was dropped earlier this year. Appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Fox explained that he wanted to clear up the story. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s been a very tough year for myself and my family,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s difficult to be accused of something that I did not do. I never hit a woman in my life - never have, never will. That&amp;#039;s not a part of who I am as a man and I hold that very dear to how I define my character, so that&amp;#039;s been very difficult.&amp;quot; Fox explained that the incident occurred when he retaliated to being &amp;quot;sucker punched in the face&amp;quot; by a man. &amp;quot;She was a woman that was in proximity to that and she decided that she was going to write a different version of events that happened that night and try to extort money from me,&amp;quot; he explained.       &amp;quot;The prosecutors in Cleveland took about six seconds to see that it was a hoax and threw that out. But then it moved into a civil case and we had to depose witnesses and find the truth, and that took quite a long time. So now it&amp;#039;s in the past and the case was dismissed and now I can finally speak my side of the story for the first time.&amp;quot; Fox also explained his decision to remain silent about the case until now, explaining that he had been advised not to discuss the incident because of the ongoing civil case. &amp;quot;I also find it&amp;#039;s just a little bit undignified to come out and respond to people&amp;#039;s allegations that are so outlandish,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;I was going to let the courts resolve it on that end and then I knew there would be a time down the road where I got an opportunity to tell the truth.&amp;quot; Digital Spy breakfast show - watch Anna Williamson discuss the day&amp;#039;s biggest stories including Girls Aloud, X Factor and The Great British Bake Off:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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