We all remember how squicky we felt when Jared Leto failed to handle criticism for his stereotypical portrayal of a trans woman in Dallas Buyers Club. Now, with his upcoming role as the Joker in Suicide Squad, perhaps we should be worrying that his portrayal will be a little too believable.
When you begin to read stories of encounters with Leto from groupies of his band Thirty Seconds to Mars, an alarming pattern emerges. It seems about half the stories state or imply that some aspect of the sexual encounter was non-consensual on the woman’s (or girl’s–several tell stories of him having sex and flirting with girls as young as fifteen) part. I’ll give some examples below, but first I’m putting out a trigger warning. There’s some nasty stuff here.
Just to clarify, this is all based on his victims’ word — he’s never been taken to court over any of this. But there are a lot of women saying similar things, and it all adds up to a disturbing picture.
The most-quoted groupie story, found in this now-famous Tumblr post, is too explicit to quote at length, but the gist is what the victim wrote at the end: “I felt as though I was being raped and not even a “play rape”. In his mind, it seemed like he thought he was fucking raping me. It was very odd.” The victim explains that he would not stop when she said he was hurting her and that at one point she even attempted to stop him by biting him.
This post on a groupie forum collects stories about encounters with Leto and his bandmates. Here are some of the more alarming excerpts:
“i had sex with him when i was fifteen.”
“I lost all respect for Jared Leto after I met too many teenage girls who have been approached by Jared in order to sleep with them, he’s just another ‘rockstar’ who lets his ego get to his head so he can take advantage of young girls. He even hit on my 15 year old best friend. He’s no better than Roman Polanski in my eyes.”
From a long post by a woman who began having sex with Leto when she was seventeen: “I can say Jared was my first for many sexual experiences and I wholeheartedly regret it nowadays. He was very pushy into coercing me to do sexual acts with him and he was quite rough and forceful. Once he was unnecessarily rough and when I told him it hurt he didn’t stop – he never did anything slowly or for my pleasure . . . And NO, he never asked me if I was ever ok or comfortable with anything he wanted to do, simply because he is not the person to care. So having spent time with him I couldn’t say he’s into S&M or that he’s a sadist and enjoys hurting women . . . it just will always hurt whenever I see Jared Leto on tv or in a magazine, I just see the man who took advantage of my innocence and pressured me into things sexually that I’d never done and wasn’t ready to do at that time.”
Stories of his flirting with the inappropriately aged and choking non-consenting women abound. Why do we continue to give this man our attention and our praise when not only is he creepy, but there are many women for whom the sight of his face is a trigger for their worst memories?
The general unwillingness to acknowledge or believe Leto’s victims and our continued celebration of the man are symptoms of our rape culture. Woody Allen continues to win Oscars despite having raped his own daughter; Roman Polanski is back to movie-making after fleeing justice in the face of a statutory rape conviction; Bill Murray and Sean Penn both abused their ex-wives. How many people you know are aware that John Lennon regularly beat women? Talent, male genitalia, and white skin should not be get-out-of-jail-free cards for abuse. This is a friendly reminder that some of our best-loved celebrities are among the worst offenders in a system that uses violence and intimidation to maintain women’s position as second-class citizens.
Why are you basing your entire “article” on groupies and gossip blogs? Get hard FACTS before your slander someone’s reputation. Jared Leto is no Cosby and by the way Bill Cosby has not been convicted by a court of law, yet…WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. This is shameful.
Funny how this article starts by talking about how people ignored 30 women who called Bill Cosby a rapist, and how people only believed the story when Cosby himself was the one who accept he was a rapist… And you are doing the same thing with this lol.
So just because is written on the internet by a group of teenagers is bullshit? Are you even reading yourself?
The fact that they were teenagers has to tell you something. Most of teenagers don’t know how to process this, what to do and where to go. Hell, most of teenagers are told that dating older men is hot/better, or that relationships are suppose to be abusive to be real relationships.
They think that what they’re doing is cool, till they realized that it isn’t. That what they’re doing is only hurting them, and the dude abusing them is an asshole. But even then, people like you are like “But you wanted to be with him, honey; so is only your fault.”
Facts? What kind of facts do you want? That one of the girls got pregnant and had a kid so you can use a DNA test? Because I bet you would be saying that she was ok with this till she realized that she could get money out of it. Or do you want a video tape? So it circulates through the internet and other rapist enjoy the video?
What the hell happened to innocent until proven guilty? I’ll tell you: you’re ok with pretending that Jared Leto isn’t a rapist because there aren’t enough “proves.” But then what about the girls making those accusations? Don’t they deserve the same kind of treatment that you’re giving to Jared? That they can be right. That maybe they are saying the truth? But no, that’s ok only when we’re talking about the white rich famous man.
They have to be lying if they are teenage girls, right? Because that’s what tv shows tells you. That they would do and say everything for attention (and if money is in the middle, then better for them). Well, I’m sorry but that’s bullshit and you are full of double standards.
I’ve been a victim of shit myself but do you think I sat here and vented to the internet for all eyes? No, I brought law into it. Hello, teenage girl here, people post stuff on the internet for the tumblr sadsies treatment. Honestly the type of double standards is how we give girls an access to be “right” with rape accusations when they’re mere accusations, than we give guys.
-not all accusations for ANY crime is true, innocent until proven guilty is the law, not to suit “white men”, but to give those accused a chance to prove they are innocent, hell, the Innocence Program exists because even when found guilty there are those who are innocent where law was corrupted. If we didn’t have innocent until proven guilty by our sides then those who are corrupt would have more of a power to accuse us into any bill solely off of stereotype.
-not all men are accusable to be rapists
Its plausible that their accusations could be true and it’s also plausible that he’s innocent. Get hardwired into thinking any accusation is true all you want, but there’s a chance on either side and I refuse to base my opinion on the unknown like that. He may or may not be guilty, that doesn’t mean we should discredit women OR label him as a rapist.
i like how near the end you tried to play it off as if you’re completely neutral when literally your first paragraph here was extremely victim-blame-y. even IF these girls were lying? what’s gonna happen. jared will still have millions of adoring fans. these girls have everything to lose, and apparently all they’re gaining is “tumblr sadsies”. think about it; what’s the point of lying when you’re not getting anything out of it?
also: do you not know what “accused” means? like. inherently that word means that it has the possibility of not being true. why are you getting all up in arms about it when the article already presents the accusations as exactly what they are.
and i know its hard to accept this, but people are allowed to judge how they see fit. for many, they share your opinion; accusations should mean nothing. but for others, accusations are enough to taint how they view a person, and they are 100% valid in that. even if they end up being untrue.
chill.
The girls have everything to lose, victim-blamey?
That’s a real ass backwards way of thinking about it, let’s look at the facts first. There are none to these rape accusations, Jared is innocent until PROVEN guilty. That’s a right everyone has, saying someone raped them doesn’t automatically get someone thrown in jail, cause the burden of proof is on the accuser for any type of crime, not just rape. It’s a legal system that tries to bring justice, not favor lunch mins cause of someone’s word. Humans are flawed, we have the capability of lying, almost everyone does it on a daily basis regardless of how low or high scale the lie is. You’re also thinking the situation it is, Jared is a celebrity he does have a lot to lose, accusations could cost him fans and future deals. The girls accusing him have nothing to lose, but maybe get a big settlement check and their 15 minutes of fame. It’s crazy to just jump to such conclusions when no one knows the truth except for the girls accusing Jared and Jared himself. You’re on he outside like we all are, and to think your opinion should be taken as fact over someone who’s stating facts about law is ridiculous.
Truth of the matter in a perfect world, no one should judge either parties until after enough evidence has been gathered together to prove if he’s guilty. Stories like these are not new and they’re abundant, celebrities always have big targets on them.
You can bet if I ever came in contact with you and you were a celebrity and I knew if I can fabricate a story of how you sexually assaulted me and I can make it believable, you’d damn well be ready for me to get some cash cause I got bills coming up that need to be paid.
Don’t get your mind skewed by crazy tumblr posts cause the real deal is you might be dead wrong in who the victim is. The girls have absolutely nothing to lose, they’re nobodies to the public eye, even you only know them as a bunch of characters on a tumblr blog, and if Jared turns out innocent, these accusations will still haunt him in his career in the future. Look at the media today, every person who ever got accused of rape and were proved innocent still have to live with that accusation in their daily lives, especially the college campus stories. Mattress girl and the frat party gang rape for example. They accused men who were proven innocent and they still have to get treated like criminals by the public despite being proven innocent.
Agreed with the above. Plus I want to know where Bill Cosby admitted to sexually assaulting any of these 30+ women. Why wasn’t that cited that instead of a Tumblr post? This article is a mess: baiting with talk of Cosby for the title and introduction, and somehow spiraling to a conclusion about white men getting away with domestic and sexual abuse against other women.
What are you talking about? Are you that stupid that you do not know there were only 3 stories and at least 2 of them were taken from a fan fiction website? Do some research before you make accusations about someone. Also even in the stories you listed everyone of the women consented to sex – that is not rape and is an insult to everyone who has been raped.And the one story of the woman who said she was too young at the time, 17 and didn’t know what she was doing – that’s BS. Now she wishes she hadn’t done it. That is not rape it is called regret and that is her problem.Stop trying to ruin this man’s life because of your jealousy.
Because. It’s the internet, not a court of law. This is the place where things are revealed. Calm down, you’ll survive.
But has anyone here actually considered the fact (and we all know this to be true, whether we admit it or not) that most rapists get by with it because rape is very hard to prove and there are already standards held against women that blame them for it? Have none of you seen how many excuses will be made up to justify the rape? Shit, does anyone remember when Curtis Lepore ADMITTED to rape and still walked free? So keep in mind that just because they’re proven innocent doesn’t always mean they are innocent. A very small percentage are false accusations. A very VERY small percentage. It is true, we can’t know whether or not these accusations are valid yet, but when the number of them build up and the stories become vivid, you have to wonder… But I really am hoping they’re false.
This might seem pedantic, but innocent until proven guilty is in regards to the legal system. It is in no way a hard and simple fact that a person should be treated as if they are innocent until infallible evidence is presented proving their guilt.
Some girl bit down on him during sex? That sounds hot to me, biting all part of the fun! Did she ever ACTUALLY ask him to stop? These ‘groupies’ should know they are playthings, not potential girlfriends/future wives, expectation leads to dissapoitment which turns to bitterness & then exaggerated stories circulate on gossip blogs to paint a darkened picture of the celebrity that they feel so rejected by. To suggest that a man (whover he may be) has sexually assaulted a girl, this should be backed up with hard facts & evidence before being made public & dragging a name through the dirt! Typical case of the media building someone up to celebrity status just so they have the pleasure of tearing them back down.
I won’t be sharing this post on any of my many social media networks, as it DOES NOT deserve any further attention!
You clearly didn’t read the article.
She said she bit him to make him stop, BECAUSE SHE ASKED HIM TO STOP AND HE DIDN’T.
So, you’re suppose to treat a girl with respect ONLY when you want her as a wife??? Are you fucking kidding me? What a misogynistic thing to say.
No, none should be a “plaything.” You can have a one night with someone and still treat that person with respect, not as a toy, because, guess what? THEY ARE PEOPLE.
And everyone is like “we need proves!”
Exactly what kind of proves do you want?
And it looks like you’re ok with that creepy man dating underage girls… Because you think that he did date them, but because he didn’t want anything serious with them, they are now accusing him of something that he never did.
Again: double standards.
Some people will never get it. Smmfh.
You got your information from gossip blogs written by groupies, This is slander, you have no right to say these things about him without true evidence. This is just another vicious rumour starting article. Not impressed.
Tainting a person’s reputation with idle gossip and no facts is the way of the world as this garbage is what gets read. How about writing about Jared Leto and his humanitarian work,WWF ambassador and all the good he and his band do for this planet. For you and others to shame names of celebrities taking the word of groupies who thrive on your articles is disgraceful. Working a lifetime to do good for the planet can be taken away in an instant by these false claims
You bashing him and calling him creepy based off of unconfirmed and unproved accounts and interactions is wrong. Get proof before you sit behind your computer and accuse people of such acts.
You really have a lot of time on your hands. Cosby was an actual rapist with actual victims. Your writing is based on your own dislike of Jared. Very unprofessional and biased. You should get sued by Jared because this is slander. You based your whole “article” on hearsay without even confirming these so called accusations. What journalist gets their evidence from a Tumblr page anyway? Fraudulent writers.
Jawdropping stuff here and not coz of what some pathetic groupie wrote/imagined (are u one of them?), they should take your PhD away before you even get one and since the name I apologize on the behalf of all Dutchies ;//
Well to be honest this man is very strange, also is weird the fact so many women were writing similar things about him,and it seems the cycle didn’t stopped according to his nowadays actions,plus his friendship with terry is even more strange which makes his reputation even worse. If he wasn’t so strange in the first place I think would never exist rumors about such serious things, his present actions lead to believe that such serious allegations are very possible
read it and weep/rectify: http://evererika.tumblr.com/post/107945759842/what-happened-with-jared-leto-did-he-rape
about ‘uncle Terry’ I totally agree with ya ;D although if we all were guilty by association then most of us would get fanfic-style/quality ‘articles’ written about them, on a meh (malfunctioning, can’t press → or ← without being dragged to a far superior piece about Comboverdude + Sarah Failin’, go Justin!) site
and Evilgeline, u over(re)tweet, nobody is THAT fascin8ing dearest *unfollow*
and calling out every weirdo on being a rapist is like blaming shortskirtwearing actual rapevictims ;'(
now, to end things on a happier, spidysaving note; https://youtu.be/0T1ueoWO6EM (I’d put that in the ‘Website’ field but…youguessedit….out of order!!!!)
This guy is a PEDOBEAR. He is in relationship with a russian model Valery Kaufman. They first met in 2012 when she was 16 or 17 years old. This is a fact and don’t defend him.
Sam Taylor first met Aaron Taylor-Johnson when he was a minor and now they are married and have two children. Also we can judge her for dating a man 21 year younger than her?
He all so hung out with Ruby Aldridge when she was 16 – 17. I’m sorry but the man only has himself to blame for the gossip. He encourages it by continuing to be seen with Young Models he’s done it for years. He certainty has a type. Now that he has an Oscar and is taking on a very important role in a film which I’m guessing the studio has a lot of money riding on it to do well. This kind of gossip would have studio executives worried. But what gets me is that I always thought that this kind of gossip was put out by his people a few years ago when Jared’s career was non existent way before his Oscar win.. Bad gossip is better then no gossip for celebrities look at the Kardashians they make a living from it. Now he’s back peddling with a team of lawyer’s to cover it all up just like his early modelling photos and Jordan Catalano. The Man is completely in LaLA land
Age of consent in Russia is 16. Your argument is invalid. Calling someone a pedophile based off an arbitrary number is bullshit. Because the age of consent outside of America, all across European nations and other countries we are super bestest pals with, ranges from 14 to 18. With only FIVE countries in Europe, including The Vatican, having an age of consent higher than 16 — two of them are seventeen, three are eighteen. That’s it. This is why statutory rape is a load of horseshit on the by and by, because we literally crucify people based on whatever number our region decides is “grown up,” enough by *our standards.* Even if someone has sex with someone in another country, where the age of consent is as low as 14 (Germany, Italy, Austria, many others), we still crucify them because of what WE decided. Which is total bullshit. It undermines these young women’s autonomy and their power by telling them they’re not capable of making valid choices even though they have been empowered by their own government to do so. And if you look throughout the United States — a large portion of the US, the Age of Consent isn’t even 18 because of States Rights. Literally, cross state lines with your fiance’ and because she’s 17, you go to prison because you’re 18 and her parents got pissed off and can charge you because one state over the law changes. I’m sorry but those arbitrary numbers are bullshit and ruin lives.
I can’t say one way or another what’s been done and what hasn’t but calling him a pedophile because he’s hung around with 15-17 year old models? Oh no. Considering models come from a variety of countries, especially Europe, and the age of consent in countries like France, Iceland, Greece, Spain, and so on is 15? Again, seriously, ridiculous. Like I said, the age of consent dips as low as 14 in Europe and so far, haven’t heard one accusation that young even, so people need to stop with the pedophile shit. If he raped someone? Fine. Call him a rapist. But he’s not a pedophile. And calling him one spits in the face of every single childhood sexual assault victim out there.
And overall, the problem with this article is that instead of talking to ANYBODY, this “article” goes off of shit read on the internet. I’m not saying it did or didn’t happen either way, but this is pisspoor journalism.
By now, most Americans probably have formed an opinion about what comedian Bill Cosby did or didn’t do sexually to or with at least 16 women beginning in the 1960s.
What a load of fucking bollocks. Have you ever heard of FANFICTION?? That’s all these stupid made up allegations come from. I hope he sues whoever wrote this. Love you Jared. #INTHEWORDSOFJAREDLETOBLOWME
No, not Cosby, more like Jian Ghomeshi. WAY more like Jian Ghomeshi…
Your story is total bullshit. You have taken them from old fandom sites, they have been there for years and there are like 4 stories. No proof that any of them are true.None of them ever claim they were drugged and they all agreed to have sex. Also those that claim to have been under age – they met him in clubs where his band performed so they had to lie their age to get in, what makes you think they didn’t lie to him. This story is nothing but slander and I hope Jared sues you for printing unsubstantiated stories about him.
Argh I’m disturbed that you can write such an article without sufficient evidence… What’s wrong did jared turn you down? It’s called Fanfiction for a reason. If there were any truth in this I’m damn sure reports would have been filed and investigations would be underway…so what if jared likes to fuck his groupies most guys would it’s no one’s business but his and who ever he is with at the time.
Plz take your obvious contempt and put it to use elsewhere.
Mammaechelonsaysblowme!
you need to enter your report to the police (if you dare) ,not in media ,you must report the rape of underage girl,it looks like you are you full of into and confident of news are you here, why be afraid to talk to the police ?,you want to be a hero for the young girl were raped jared,don’t articulate mediated will ALL the CRAP you ,you have to dare to also report to the police,jared famous ppl would not listen to the mouth of the foam you are lowly just talking about sex,it seems you are a girl hungry for sex and seeking attention jared,you need to report and the police have catch a liar.a media not accurate to the authenticity of the news ,if you want to know the lie ,sin,and infidelity all our celebrities need paparazzi ,if a legal case we need the police,not print media STUPID !
Okay, I saw someone post this on Facebook, who quite frankly only tends to post on the trendy things to get upset about. While this is so insanely serious, these stories are from “tumbler?” No one tried to file a report? You could argue that victims have trouble coming forward, but they DID via social networking. How old was Leto when he had sex with these girls? I find it disgusting that you’re even putting race into his article, because it’s not relevant. You’re discussing Bill Cosby, getting into trouble because he’s black?! That’s not a race issue, what he potentially did was disgusting and wrong and by playing up the whole “white man” thing you’re diminishing the validity of the girls in the Cosby case.
Innocent until proven guilty. Just because it’s posted on the Internet does not make it fact. This kind of writing undermines good writing. Please stop.
“This is a friendly reminder that some of our best-loved celebrities are among the worst offenders in a system that uses violence and intimidation to maintain women’s position as second-class citizens.”
Honestly, I *wish* this was true, but it’s not. The fact is that coercive, non-consensual, unenthusiastic sex is not extraordinary. It’s common enough that these “worst offenders” exhibit fairly typical behavior.
You know, that’s a good point. In fact, there’s been a lot of good writing on that lately–especially about coerced sex in the dating world, which is a huge problem. I guess that just didn’t spring to my mind at the time I wrote this. Probably because I was already so depressed from reading these girls’ accounts.
I think this article is a disgrace. Yu should really be more careful abt your sources if you want to be a pro. i think you should be sued for writting this based on nothing.
I’ve worked on set with Jared Leto when I was in my early 20’s and he definitely gave me a feeling of general unease. He was surely hitting on me at one point, and when I didn’t bite he booty called a celebrity who shall remain anonymous and they went off to a secret corner to do their thing. These allegations are unfortunately not a surprise to me at all.
Wow – Are we supposed to take the word of someone who won’t even identify themselves? Also so what if he hit on you- you turned him down and he went else where. Nothing to do with what this story suggests.
All of the fangirl/boy sycophants in the comments claiming they need hard evidence have obviously never been in the court room for a rape case of a nonpowerful man let alone a loaded celebrity. This guy raped teenaged girls. Multiple. There are multiple accounts online. From women who liked him. Who were even trying to be gentle in how they discussed him raping them. And you all still go after teenage victim rather than the powerful celebrity. Gross and shameful.
Great article. I’ve been aware of this for a while and its very disconcerting.
You are a liar to say you have been aware of this for awhile. These stories are BS.There are no teenage victims. There is no rape here.Rape is when someone is forced to have sex. Even if you believe them -Not one person ever said he forced them into sex – they entered into it willingly.I am so sick of women saying I was young I didn’t know – that is BS – one girl claimed to have been 17 and it was not her first hook up with a rock star – according to her posts.So now she has regrets and wants to blame the guy.She is the only one to blame.
The teenage girls issue is extremely concerning and is something that needs to be addressed through the music industry. However, calling these accounts stories of rape is an insult to rape victims. Have you ever heard a rape victim say “if you can handle a big cock, go for it”? Most of these accounts do not indicate that the victim withdrew or tried to withdraw consent. I think these accounts show a misogynistic narcissist, but a rapist on the scale of Cosby?
I, too, found the girls’ attempt to apologize for Leto and be “gentle” about it particularly disturbing. What a sad sign of the pressure of our misogynist culture.
Bullshit. Many obssesed crazy girls can say such things like they had sex with Jared. OMG HOW CAN WE EVEN BELIEVE THIS rubbish? These days fans or anti fans do everything to get noticed 😀 grow up already
Always try to harm the image of celebreties!!!!
This people just want money
It’s going to repeat the same case as Michael Jackson
Please stop this bullshit!
And by his role on Dallas club he won an oscar so stop bitching about …
Cosby?! Have you actually read the accounts?
The one you mainly quote as being the most dramatic ends with “if you can handle a big cock, I say go for it”. Have you ever heard anyone say that about their rapist – go for it? Come on.
Very few of the accounts mention lack of consent or withdrawing consent – some state that he was careful to get consent for those acts. Does that make sense to you?
This isn’t a man drugging and raping women, not based on these accounts. In 90% of these stories, he’s not a predator – these girls are figuring out what to do to have the best chance of hooking up with him, and there are very few that say they tried to say no or stop him doing what he was doing.
I can’t believe that you would relate someone to Cosby on the basis of these accounts. There’s simply no correlation. I’d say he’s a narcissistic misogynist who uses groupies – but a rapist? Show me the account that includes rape. I’ve just read through them and I can’t find one.
I detest rapists, and I take victim accounts very seriously, but to read these and accuse someone of being a serial rapist is reactionary and ridiculous.
[Woody Allen continues to win Oscars despite having raped his own daughter]
That was not at all a credible accusation, reckless to print it as if it happened.
You referenced Cosby in the headline you Dumb ass. Now you’re going to act like it’s a white thing? By your own admission it’s a celebrity thing. Mj,cosby,oj
Leto,penn,murray
Un-fucking believable.