The actor took aim at Fox in May (12) after a female fan asked him to persuade Fox to join Twitter, so she could tweet him. Monaghan fired off a tweet claiming his former co-star “beats women”.

When the fan, named Becca, responded to his comments, writing, “What about all those good times you had together?”, Monaghan shot back, “How do you know we ever did? you don’t know either of us.he beats women.not isolated incidents.often.”

And when followers suggested Monaghan was stumbling into legal hot water with his claims, he shot back, “It’s very difficult to sue someone for speaking the truth.”

Fox, who hit headlines last year (11) when he was accused of allegedly lashing out at a female bus driver, refused to be drawn into a war of words at the time, but now he has spoken out about his former castmate’s comments.

He tells Men’s Fitness magazine, “It’s been a long, trying year of sitting on my hands on a lot of negative s**t said about me, when they’re the furthest things from who I am.

“In the 46 years I’ve been breathing on this planet, I have never hit a woman before. Never have, never will. I think there’s still gonna be a lot of people out there who’ll think it’s true no matter what. The Cleveland situation, the Monaghan situation – was a pile of bulls**t, and I’m not gonna waste too much breath on that.”

Supporting Fox’s remarks, Heather Boorman – the bus driver who accused the actor of assaulting her as he tried to board a party bus in Cleveland, Ohio – has since dropped her lawsuit, but Monaghan is refusing to back down from his original tweets.

He tells WENN, “Some people were a little bewildered about why I would say it, but I know why I said it. I’ve not made a name for myself for talking s**t about people; it’s not something that I do.

“My job as an actor is to entertain people but if I want to say something I will say it. I don’t need to qualify those statements.”