According to the Times, McGowan stated she received the offer through her lawyer in September, and that it came from a source close to Weinstein.
Though McGowan reached a settlement with Weinstein for $US100,000 in 1997, she realised over the summer that the contract had not included a confidentiality clause.
"I had all these people I'm paying telling me to take it so that I could fund my art," McGowan told the Times. She said she responded by asking for $US6 million in an effort to slowly torture her alleged abuser.
"I figured I could probably have gotten him up to three," she said. "But I was like -- ew, gross, you're disgusting, I don't want your money, that would make me feel disgusting."
McGowan continued that she told her lawyer to rescind the offer within one day of the Times' October 5 expose on Weinstein, which detailed the alleged pattern of abuse Weinstein engaged in over decades, and seven other settlements he had made with other women.
Though McGowan did not offer comment for the Times' detailed account of harassment allegations against Weinstein, she had said in the past that she was a rape survivor and her abuser was a powerful Hollywood executive.
After an additional report was published in the New Yorker, McGowan confirmed that Weinstein was her alleged attacker.
The actress best known for her role on the WB Network series Charmed has built a large following online as an outspoken feminist, and gave a speech at the Women's Convention in Detroit on Friday.
Director Robert Rodriguez, McGowan's former boyfriend, told Variety last week that he cast the actress in his 2007 film Grindhouse, released by Weinstein Co, as a rebuke to Weinstein for his alleged assault against McGowan.
