Ten women accuse Jared Leto of sexual offences when they were teenagers, BBC reports

BBC corroborated allegations with NDA, photos, and witness testimony

A BBC investigation published Wednesday includes interviews with ten women who allege sexual misconduct by actor and musician Jared Leto when they were teenagers. The BBC said it corroborated several accounts with friends and family who were told about the encounters at the time, and reviewed pictures and messages that supported the women’s statements, including a non-disclosure agreement sent to one woman.

One woman, identified as Etta, said she met Leto at a modeling agency in Los Angeles with her mother in 2014 when she was 16. Leto asked for her email address and quickly began making sexual phone calls, she told the BBC. He asked explicit questions about whether she was a virgin and about sexual kinks, and on at least one occasion suggested they should have sex, she said. Etta was subsequently sent a non-disclosure agreement that the BBC reviewed, which she refused to sign.

Two former crew members who worked with Leto’s band, Thirty Seconds to Mars, described internal practices that made them uncomfortable. One, identified as Brad, said the band would call local modeling agencies to offer female models free VIP tickets, a request he said came directly from Leto. He said young girls would join Leto onstage for final songs and then be invited backstage to his dressing room by crew members. A second former crew member, identified as Simon, said at one point approximately two girls a day would visit Leto at a house where the band was recording.

The BBC counted more than 120 separate allegations relating to Leto’s conduct toward women posted online over the years. Last year, a Los Angeles DJ posted on social media that she had been assaulted by Leto when she was 17, prompting additional women to share similar claims. Nine women also accused Leto of sexual impropriety in an article published by the U.S. media outlet Air Mail last year. Leto denied those allegations.

A woman identified as Clara said she first had sex with Leto when she was 17 and he was 34, at his house in California. She said an associate of Leto’s approached her backstage at a Thirty Seconds to Mars concert in 2006, obtained her phone number, and facilitated the meeting. Clara said she discussed the age of consent in California with Leto — her father worked in law enforcement — and that Leto “just kind of shrugged it off, like it wasn’t a huge concern for him.” Sex with a minor under the age of consent in California can constitute statutory rape. Clara described visiting Leto’s home three or four times, and said Leto asked her to call him “daddy” or “my little girl.”

A woman identified as Taylor said that in 2005, when she was 14, Leto signed her T‑shirt across her breasts at a music festival autograph session and told her, “you have a nice rack.” She said Leto instructed a security guard to take her backstage. Taylor’s mother confronted Leto, but he repeated the comment, she said. Taylor said the encounter stopped her from attending concerts.

A woman identified as Isabel said she was sexually assaulted in a motel bathroom in Las Vegas in 2002 when she was 17. She said she had met Leto at her workplace and agreed to meet him at his hotel, expecting to go out elsewhere. She was sitting on the bed when Leto called her into the bathroom to talk while he showered, she told the BBC. He opened the shower curtain, began kissing her, then grabbed her hand and used it to masturbate himself, she said. She pulled away and told him she wanted to leave. Isabel said she blamed herself for years after the incident.

Another woman, identified as Alex, said she was invited to a Thirty Seconds to Mars concert at London’s O2 arena in 2013 through her modeling agency when she was 19. She said she was encouraged by Leto’s assistant to attend an after‑party and then a hotel room, where she found herself alone with Leto. She said she asked if she could sleep on the chaise longue and Leto replied, repeatedly, that if she did she would wake up “with a dick in her ass.” Alex said she left the room after realizing she was not safe and later texted a friend about what happened.

Leto did not respond to the BBC’s repeated requests for comment before publication. After the investigation was published, Leto issued a statement through his representatives to the BBC saying: “I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my entire life. These claims are absolutely and categorically false.”

Leto won the Academy Award for best supporting actor for Dallas Buyers Club in 2014 and has appeared in films including Fight Club, Blade Runner 2049, and Suicide Squad. His band Thirty Seconds to Mars, formed in 1998, is scheduled to tour mainland Europe and the United Kingdom next spring, with concerts at the O2 London and Manchester’s Co‑op Live arena.