Gossip GirlActress Chanel Banks Says She’s Not Missing, Makes Explosive Claims About Family Members

Mar. 15, 2025

Chanel Banks.Photo:Jason Kempin/Getty

Jason Kempin/Getty

Chanel Banks, an actress who appeared onGossip Girl, found her name in headlines after her family reported her missing. But days after she was located safe, Banks appeared to go on social media to say she’s never been missing at all — and that she was trying to distance herself from relatives she accused of abusing her.

Banks, 36, was officially reported missing on Nov. 8, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. But despite claims from her family that she had vanished and that something was wrong, Banks was located on Nov. 11 in Texas, where she had seemingly gone on her own volition.

A post on Banks' verified Instagram account appears to explain where she went.

Singh later toldKABCthat Banks typically didn’t go more than 48 hours without speaking to her or her mother.

“What I saw was a woman who did not look like my cousin,” Singh said, according to theLos Angeles Times. “She was much skinnier, the woman in the body camera footage. She was wearing things that my cousin would not normally wear and her voice was different. Her accent was different.”

The paper reported that Banks’ mother, Judy Kumar, also appeared at the press conference and made a similar claim.

Banks also spoke with theTimesabout the ordeal, saying that she had to “distance” herself from her family and reiterated that she is “fine.”

In the post on Banks’ Instagram account, she accused Singh of lying about the closeness of their relationship, saying that she had not spoken to her cousin in over 15 years, a claim that Singh disputed in aFacebookpost. Banks also called Singh, whose GoFundMe has since been taken down, “fame-hungry.”

Banks’ post also claims that her family and her husband’s family were trying to put her in a conservatorship. Her husband, Carlos Jimenez, denied that his family had attempted to do so while speaking to theTimes.He did tell the paper that before she left for Texas, Banks had accused her family of abuse.

Banks told the paper that Jimenez had not harmed her.

Banks appeared on three episodes ofGossip Girl,as well as an episode ofBlue Bloods.

PEOPLE has not been immediately able to reach relatives of Banks or her husband.

source: people.com