Russell Simmons is stepping down from his companies, including hip-hop label Def Jam and his clothing brands, after screenwriter Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married, The Mummy) accused him of sexual assault in a guest column for The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday.

In a statement obtained in an e-mail by Vanity Fair, Simmons apologized to Lumet and announced that he plans to “step aside and commit myself to continuing my personal growth, spiritual learning, and, above all to listening.”

In her column, Lumet, who is the daughter of the late filmmaker Sidney Lumet and the granddaughter of singer Lena Horne, wrote that the entrepreneur forced her to have sex with him in 1991. She recalled one particular incident, years after she had appeared in Simmons’s movie with Run D.M.C. in 1987.

After this film, she said Simmons “pursued [her] lightly,” but that it was “never a big deal” until one evening when she was around 24. She said Simmons told the driver “no” when Lumet asked to be driven to her New York apartment. Instead, he took her to his home.

“You didn’t punch me, drag me, or verbally threaten me. You used your size to maneuver me, quickly, into the elevator. I said ‘Wait. Wait.’ I felt dread . . . I saw no one else. I recall you were behind me. I was still hoping the Russell I knew would reappear, as I could not recognize the man moving me deeper into the apartment—the man who had said ‘No’ to his driver. Twice. You moved me into a bedroom. I said ‘Wait.’ You said nothing. I made the trade in my mind. I thought ‘just keep him calm and you’ll get home.’ Maybe another person would have thought differently, or not made the trade. It was dark, but not pitch dark. You closed the door. At that point, I simply did what I was told.”

On November 22, Simmons responded, via a statement to T.H.R. regarding a November 19 L.A. Times article in which model Keri Claussen Khalighi accused him of sexual assault and harassment. In her piece, Lumet referenced a quote from Simmons’s November 19 Facebook statement, which reads: “Abusing women in any way shape or form violates the very core of my being.”