Sarah Silverman let Louis CK masturbate in front of her

Louis CK and Sarah Silverman. Photo / Getty Images

Sarah Silverman has revealed she gave her old friend Louis CK permission to masturbate in front of her on multiple occasions.

The comic, 47, speaking on The Howard Stern Show on Monday, said the incidents happened when both were much younger.

"I'm not making excuses for him, please don't take this the wrong way, but we are peers we are equals, so when we were kids and he used to ask if he could masturbate in front of me, sometimes I would go "f*** yeah, I wanna see that.'"

Silverman made the distinction between herself, and other women who felt coerced into giving Louis CK permission to pleasure himself, the DailyMail reports.

"It's not analogous to the other women who are talking about what he did to them," she said.

"He could offer me nothing, so sometimes yeah I wanted to see it, it was amazing. Sometimes I'd be like 'f**ing gross, no'. And we'd get pizza."

Silverman tried to put the incidents in context, by explaining they came at a time of her life when both she and Louis CK were experimenting.

"We talked openly. We were letting our freak flags fly."

She said she felt his sudden fame meant he didn't understand the implications of his actions.

"I'm not saying what he did was okay. I'm just saying at a certain point, when he became influential, not even famous, but influential in the world of comedy, it changes," she said. "He felt like he was the same person, but the dynamic was different and it was not okay."

After Louis CK was subject to a New York Times November 2017 expose that claimed he had exposed himself and masturbated in front of at least five women in cases starting from 2002, he admitted the admitted the allegations about him were 'true' - but he felt his behavior was 'OK' at the time because he always asked before exposing himself.

He said: "These stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was OK because I never showed a woman my d*** without asking first. But what I learned later in life, too late, is that when you have power over another person, asking them to look at your d*** isn't a question. It's a predicament for them."

As a result of his confession, he was dropped from voicing main dog Max in the Secret Life of Pets sequel by Universal and Illumination Animation, while The Orchard dropped I Love You, Daddy from their release schedule.

He was also ditched by APA, 3 Arts and his publicist, while FX Networks and FX Productions terminated their deal with his production company Pig Newton.

FX said in a statement: "He will no longer serve as executive producer or receive compensation on any of the four shows we were producing with him - Better Things, Baskets, One Mississippi and The Cops."

Among the women to accuse Louis CK after the report was Sarah Silverman's sister Laura, who said he masturbated at least 20 times in front of her during a cross country trip before he was famous.