Missing ‘Gossip Girl’ Actress Chanel Banks Speaks Out: ‘I’m Finally Free’

“Gossip Girl” actress Chanel Banks is sharing her side of the story days after she was found safe in Texas.

In a written statement, Chanel told “True Crime News” on Wednesday, “Not only am I okay, but I’m finally free.”

Earlier today, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to “Extra” that Banks was found safe in Texas on November 11 with no evidence of foul play. The missing persons investigation has been closed.

Banks’ family had reported her missing, but she’s making some shocking accusations about them.

The 36-year-old claimed that she has “been silently carrying the pain of the ritual … abuse, manipulation, and outright endless torment I’ve endured continuously since I was a defenseless baby at the hands of my own so-called family.”

After the LAPD announced that Chanel was found safe, her cousin Danielle-Tori Singh insisted that it was “fake news.”

According to Banks, she hasn’t spoken to Singh in “over 15 years.”

She accused her family of trying to silence her all these years, saying, “For decades, my family has been my spiritual, physical, and emotional warden giving me zero authority of my personage. I was not allowed to make any decisions in life in any way without their approval.”

Chanel elaborated, “When I spoke up, they called me mad, mercilessly gang-stalked me, and obliterated any semblance of peace, a career, or connections I ever had. In this digital era, they were able for decades without my knowledge or consent to reach out to my colleagues, friends, and even neighbors to sabotage and effectively destroy not only my life’s work but any semblance of happiness or peace I could hold on to.”

“It’s like they took shifts to isolate me by gaslighting me,” Chanel went on. “It was their life’s goal to destabilize and break me.”

Banks claimed that her family and her husband’s family were “vehemently pursuing a conservatorship” to silence her further.

Chanel noted that she won’t be silenced any longer, saying, “I want to come out so that people like me won’t be ashamed anymore. I want justice. I’m asking God to help me get justice. I’m releasing a clarion call to those in high places who still have a soul and want to keep it in such a time as this. Reach out. Help the cause. Help me. I will never allow myself to be silenced ever again — least of all by my abusers.”

Banks ended her letter, “There will be no more lies. Everything in the darkness must come to light. Thus says the Lord.”

In a Facebook video on Wednesday morning, Danielle-Tori insisted that the woman found by law enforcement was not actually Chanel. She said, “I have seen the bodycam footage, I’ve heard the audio from the bodycam, I can positively tell you, 1,000% that the person in the bodycam footage, who has my cousin’s 10-year-old expired New York City driver’s license with her name and her date of birth… that woman that has Chanel’s ID… That woman could not answer not one personal question, not about our family, not about herself.

“Please, don’t stop looking for my cousin… My cousin has not been found,” Danielle-Tori went on. “Please keep sharing the GoFundMe.”

Days ago, Danielle-Tori set up a GoFundMe page to help find Chanel.

According to Singh, Banks had last communicated with her family on October 30.

Welfare checks were done on November 7 and November 8, but Banks was not at her Los Angeles apartment either time.

On the GoFundMe page, Danielle-Tori claimed that Chanel’s dog was left behind at her apartment. Chanel denies it, telling “Extra,” “My dog was never left unattended.” The dog is being cared for by her husband.

Though the GoFundMe mentioned a “busted lip and marks and scratches” on her husband, she insists he has never harmed her.

Chanel reiterated that she just wants her family to “leave [her] alone.”

Chanel was found by an outside agency on November 11, but the news didn’t come out until today. LAPD spokesperson Charles Miller explained to TMZ that there was a delay since coordination between two law enforcement agencies was required.

On her Instagram Story, Banks is urging people not to donate to the GoFundMe, writing, “Please do not donate to any GoFundMe that says I’m missing I am not missing.”