TEXAS — Police say “Gossip Girl” actress Chanel Maya Banks has been found safe in Texas, after her family reported her missing.

What You Need To Know

  • Banks, 36, had been reported missing by family members on Nov. 8, who said they had last spoken to her on Oct. 30

  • On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Police Department told the City News Service that authorities in Texas had found Banks safe and that no crime was involved

  • After media outlets reported that the actress had been found, Banks' cousin took to Facebook, claiming that she was still missing and that the woman found in Texas was not her cousin

  • But late Wednesday afternoon, Banks appeared to speak out about her situation in a flurry of posts on her Instagram disputing her family’s claims and alleging that she has been abused since she was a child

Banks, 36, had been reported missing by family members on Nov. 8, who said they had last spoken to her on Oct. 30. One of Banks’ cousins, Danielle-Tori Singh, created a GoFundMe to help bankroll the search effort, which has raised over $4,000.

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Police Department told the City News Service—a Southern California regional news agency—that authorities in Texas had found Banks safe and that no crime was involved. 

After media outlets reported that the actress had been found, Singh took to Facebook, claiming that Banks was still missing and that the woman found in Texas was not her cousin. Singh claimed that while the woman located in Texas was in possession of a “10-year-old expired New York City driver’s license” with Banks’ name on it, she was not her cousin.

Singh said that the money raised by the GoFundMe will be used to help pay for a private investigator “because LAPD have thrown in the towel.”

But late Wednesday afternoon, the actress appeared to speak out about her situation in a flurry of posts on her Instagram disputing her family’s claims. 

One of the posts alleges that Banks experienced “ritual sexual abuse, manipulation, and outright endless torment..at the hands of my own so-called family, whom are all so very ‘concerned’ about my current whereabouts.” 

The posts specifically accuse Banks’ stepfather of sexual abuse since she was a child and allege that the abuse was “spearheaded” by her mother. It also accuses Singh of being “fame hungry.”

The post ends with the accusation that Banks’ family and her husband were trying to establish a conservatorship over her—a legal status which gives a conservator control over a person’s financial and personal affairs.

“Please do not donate to any GoFundMe that says I’m missing,” the post concludes.

Banks’ Instagram bio now says “I AM NOT MISSING. I just want to be free of a toxic woman and her family. That’s my right. That’s it. The end. They made up LITERALLY everything else.”