Four Women Accuse Jared Leto of Criminal Sexual Conduct — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Four women — Isabel, Alex, Clara and Etta — accuse Jared Leto of criminal sexual conduct in encounters when they were teenagers, including a 2002 motel bathroom assault on a 17-year-old, a 2013 sexual-assault threat against a 19-year-old in London, statutory rape in California at age 17, and grooming via explicit phone calls starting at age 16
- Ten women in total spoke to the BBC documentary Jared Leto: Hollywood's Dark Secret, with nine sharing their stories publicly for the first time; the BBC has counted more than 120 separate online allegations about Leto's behaviour toward women
- Two former band crew members told the BBC that Leto personally directed staff to recruit female models for VIP tickets and backstage access, and that the team felt uncomfortable with how Leto interacted with teenage girls during his 30s and 40s
- One accuser says Leto's representatives sent her a non-disclosure agreement to prevent her from speaking about the relationship, which she refused to sign — and the BBC has seen the document
- Leto denied the allegations after publication, stating: "I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my entire life. These claims are absolutely and categorically false," and did not respond to the BBC's repeated pre-publication attempts to contact him
- Allegations resurfaced last year when LA DJ Allie Teilz publicly accused Leto of assaulting her at 17, and Air Mail published accusations from nine women — claims Leto also denied — making the BBC investigation the second major outlet to surface these claims
- Leto, now 54, won the 2014 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Dallas Buyers Club and is currently touring with Thirty Seconds to Mars across the UK and Europe
Why it matters: The BBC's 14-year pattern of corroborated allegations — spanning statutory rape, sexual assault and threats — puts renewed pressure on a still-active A-list celebrity whose career continues uninterrupted, including a major European arena tour and a Masters of the Universe film role.
Ask SkimNews
