Highlights
- Four women accuse Jared Leto of sexual assault in new BBC documentary
- 10 women total detail encounters with Leto spanning 2002 to 2016
- BBC says it corroborated accounts with friends, family, photos and messages
Jared Leto is facing fresh allegations of misconduct after four women accused him of criminal sexual conduct in a bombshell new BBC documentary.
The film, titled Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret, features 10 women speaking to the program-makers about their encounters with the Oscar winner, with 9 of them publicly recounting their experiences for the first time.
Among the most disturbing claims is one from a woman identified by the BBC as Isabel, who alleged she was sexually assaulted by Leto in a Las Vegas motel bathroom in 2002, when she was 17. She claims Leto, who was in his 30s, grabbed her hand and used it to masturbate himself while he was in the shower.
Another woman recalled meeting Leto backstage at a Thirty Seconds to Mars concert in 2006, when she was just 17. She told the BBC he instructed her, “He told me, ‘I would like you to call me daddy,'” adding, “‘And it was either pretend to be a little girl or “my little girl.”‘” She said she felt “so naive and vulnerable” at the time.
A woman identified as Etta alleged she received sexual phone calls from Leto when she was aged 16 after meeting the star at a Los Angeles modeling agency in 2014. She claims she was later asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which she refused, though she reportedly showed the document to the BBC.
The broadcaster says it has corroborated “a number of the women’s accounts with friends and family who were told about the encounters with Leto at the time” and, in some cases, has reviewed pictures and messages that “support the women’s accounts.”
Two men who previously worked with Leto’s band also appear in the documentary, describing discomfort among staff over the rocker’s behavior around teenage girls. “I think everyone thought the age gap was way too big,” one of them told the BBC.
The allegations echo claims that first surfaced last year, when L.A. DJ Allie Teilz accused Leto of assault, writing on social media, “You’re [sic] not really in LA until Jared Leto tries to force himself on you backstage at an M83 show.. In a Kilt.. And a snow hat.”
That post led to a wave of similar claims and a subsequent exposé from Air Mail detailing accusations from nine women, all of which Leto’s representatives denied at the time, calling them “demonstrably false.”
Leto did not respond to the BBC’s requests for comment for the new documentary. The 54-year-old actor and musician has yet to publicly address this latest round of allegations.
