Elmo not a perv!
The young man who accused Elmo Muppeteer Kevin Clash of having a sexual relationship with him when he was a minor suddenly recanted his story yesterday.
“He wants it to be known that his sexual relationship with Mr. Clash was an adult consensual relationship. He will have no further comment,’’ said the unidentified accuser’s lawyers in a curt statement.
It was released about an hour after lawyers for both sides discussed a possible “six-figure’’ financial settlement, the Web site TMZ reported, quoting a source “close to the situation.”
The development came a day after it was revealed that the now-23-year-old man had accused Clash — the puppeteer and voice behind “Sesame Street’s” most famous monster — of having a relationship with him seven years ago, when Clash was 45 and he was 16.
Clash, an Upper West Side divorced dad, was forced to come out of the closet while admitting the pair had a relationship — but strenuously denied it occurred when his lover was underage.
“I am relieved that this painful allegation has been put to rest,’’ Clash, 52, said in a statement yesterday. “I will not discuss it further.”
When the allegation surfaced, Clash announced that he was taking an indefinite leave of absence from the show to challenge the “false’’ and “defamatory’’ accusation.
A “Sesame Street” source yesterday said it’s unclear when he might return to work the studios in Long Island City, Queens.
Sesame Street Workshop released a statement saying only, “We are pleased that this matter has been brought to a close, and we are happy that Kevin can move on from this unfortunate episode.’’
Meanwhile, the accuser’s backtracking didn’t end the embarrassment for the middle-aged Muppeteer.
Clash once admitted in a salacious e-mail to his much-younger male lover that he just couldn’t keep his mind off sex, TMZ reported.
“I’m sorry that I keep talking about sex with you, it’s driving me insane,” Clash allegedly wrote.
“I want you to know that I love you and I will never hurt you. I’m here to protect you and make sure your dreams come true.
“I’ll have my assistant book a ticket for you to come to NY and we can talk about this in person.”
Clash wrote the e-mail in 2010 or 2011, said a show executive, who confirmed its contents to The Post.
He wrote it from his company e-mail address, which is why he has been disciplined for violating the show’s policy on Internet use, the source said.
The source did not reveal how Clash — who divorced his college sweetheart years ago and has a 20-year-old daughter — was disciplined.
Clash’s bosses first learned of the underage-sex allegation in June, when his accuser e-mailed the show’s p.r. department saying “he had information about . . . one of the voices of a famous puppet,’’ the source said.
That call triggered a flurry of meetings between the man and the show’s lawyers — but the accuser could never produce any proof, the source said.
“We knew about the e-mail. We’d seen it. We determined there was a relationship but that [the accuser] was a consenting adult,’’ the source said.
“We kept repeatedly asking the accuser if he’d provide evidence. Believe me, there was a search.”
By August, “they told [the accuser] that they did not believe him,’’ the source said.
Additional reporting by Amber Sutherland and Dareh Gregorian