
Actor and musician Jared Leto has refuted allegations of criminal sexual misconduct made against him in a new BBC documentary. Four women have accused Leto of sexual assault, alleging they were teenagers when the incidents took place.
The documentary, 'Jared Leto: Hollywood's Darkest Secret', released on Wednesday, features allegations from 10 women, all of whom levelled serious accusations against the actor and musician.
Responding to the allegations, Leto said in a statement, "I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my entire life. These claims are absolutely and categorically false," as quoted by Variety.
According to Variety, the BBC documentary includes allegations from 10 women, with nine speaking publicly for the first time.
One of the women alleged that Jared Leto assaulted her in a motel bathroom when she was 17 years old. Another accused the actor of threatening her with sexual assault when she was 19.
A third woman claimed she had a sexual relationship with Leto in California when she was 17, below the state's age of consent, and alleged that he "shrugged off" concerns after she raised that the legal age was 18.
A fourth woman alleged that Leto repeatedly made sexually explicit phone calls to her when she was 16 and, on at least one occasion, suggested that they should have sex, according to the outlet.
The BBC reported that it had reviewed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that the fourth woman alleged she was asked to sign to prevent her from speaking publicly about her relationship with Leto. According to the report, she declined to sign the agreement.
All 10 women featured in 'Jared Leto: Hollywood's Dark Secret' alleged that their encounters with Jared Leto occurred between 2002 and 2016, when the actor and musician—now 54 years old—was in his 30s and 40s.
"This was 25 years ago, he has gotten away with it," one of the alleged victims said in the documentary.
Meanwhile, the BBC said it had corroborated "a number of the women's accounts with friends and family who were told about the encounters with Leto at the time." According to Variety, the broadcaster also reviewed photographs and messages in certain cases that “support the women's accounts.”
The documentary adds to a series of allegations that have previously been made against Leto.
Last year, DJ Allie Teilz accused the singer-actor of sexual misconduct in a social media post, alleging that he had assaulted her when she was 17 years old. Following her claims, many other women also came forward as part of an Air Mail investigation.
Leto denied the allegations made in the report.
Garvit Bhirani is a journalist based in Gurugram. He is a Deputy Chief Content Producer at LiveMint, where he covers national and international news stories, focusing on accuracy and compelling storytelling for readers. <br><br> With a total of six years of experience in journalism, he has previously worked with Vaco Binary Semantics for Google, taking on the role of news curation lead, and reported from the field on health, education, and agriculture stories for 101reporters and News9. He has also served as a content editor for entertainment and news media organisations. <br><br> Garvit holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and mass communication from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and Gurugram University, respectively. During college days, he joined India’s only non-profit student journalism network, where he anchored daily news updates and produced his own weekly show called ‘Data Fix’. <br><br> He was selected for the YES Foundation Media for Social Change Fellowship in Delhi, the Talking Data to the Fourth Pillar residential workshop, and the VOICE Fellowship in Pune. <br><br> He holds certificates in COVID-19-verification reporting, data journalism, food & agriculture, tech policy, media literacy and countering misinformation, and tackling election disinformation courses from Thomson Foundation, IndiaSpend, The Dialogue, US Mission in India, and AFP. <br><br> He can be reached on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/garvit-bhirani">LinkedIn</a> or on <a href="https://x.com/GarvitBhirani">@garvitbhirani</a> on X
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