Rose McGowan Speaks Out After Harvey Weinstein Is Sentenced to 15 Years in Jail: 'Massive Exhale'

Rose McGowan released an emotional video on Instagram expressing a sense of relief upon learning that Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a crime committed in New York.

The actress and activist, 53, is one of the first high-profile women to have accused Weinstein of crimes he has denied committing.

She posted shortly after the sentence came down on Wednesday, September 23.

"It's done," she said in the clip. "I can't really adequately explain what this is like, what this feels like. It's too strange and surreal, and massive exhale."

McGowan discussed the moment in terms of the amount of time Weinstein's crimes took away from each victim, creating a ripple effect.

"Enough," she said. "Years stolen from so many of us."

Many victims experienced years of harassment, stalking and terrorizing, according to McGowan, who said the ordeal stretched across nearly three decades of her own life.

She expressed gratitude toward those involved in pursuing the case, while also saying she can only speak to her own experiences and leaving it to others to share theirs.

"Thank you to the women in New York. You did this," she added. In her caption, she wrote that there were "not enough hashtags for this moment."

Weinstein's current prison term resulted from a conviction that took place early in a long-running saga. The 74-year-old was sentenced to serve 15 years for a first-degree criminal sexual act against former production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006. In June 2025, a jury found Weinstein guilty of the charge.

Weinstein was ordered to be under supervised release for five years after serving his prison sentence, and to register as a s-- offender. Haley's lawyer, Gloria Allred, called her client a hero who prevailed through two trials and withstood repeated attempts to discredit her.

McGowan was one of the first women to publicly accuse Weinstein of sexually assaulting her, and her willingness to speak out helped catalyze the global #MeToo, which saw scores of women come forward with their own accounts of abuse in Hollywood and beyond.

Her work advocating for survivors has been costly to her personally. She's spoken publicly about the effects of being an early voice against such a powerful individual, including the surveillance and intimidation she says she faced, but she's remained a steadfast and outspoken advocate throughout the legal proceedings against Weinstein.

The New York sentence is one piece of a bigger picture for the former producer. Weinstein was also convicted in Los Angeles of rape and sexual assault and was subsequently sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2023. Although an appeals court upheld that conviction, he is scheduled to be resentenced.

Weinstein had previously been convicted in New York, but that conviction was overturned on appeal, requiring the second trial that produced the June 2025 verdict and Wednesday's sentence.

Throughout all these cases, Weinstein has maintained that he did nothing wrong.