NEED TO KNOW
Jared Leto has been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women.
On Saturday, June 7, Air Mail published a story following interviews with nine women who claim that the 53-year-old actor and musician behaved inappropriately toward them, some while they were underage. The women allege a longstanding pattern of such behavior.
“It’s been an open secret for a long time,” an anonymous woman told the outlet.
Among the allegations, Leto is accused of asking sexual questions to a 16-year-old girl, walking out of a room nude in front of a 17-year-old girl and exposing himself and masturbating before putting an 18-year-old’s hand “on him.”
In a statement to Air Mail, a representative for the Thirty Seconds to Mars band member “expressly” denied all allegations. A representative for Leto did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Daniele Venturelli/Getty
Among the allegations featured in the report, Laura La Rue — a model who was 16 in 2008 — recalled meeting Leto at an animal rights benefit that year and connecting with him over email before he invited her to his studio. She visited his studio in April 2009 and recalled him allegedly “flirting” with her while there.
A representative for Leto told Air Mail that their “communications contain nothing sexual or inappropriate” and that La Rue “later applied to work as Mr. Leto’s personal assistant, further underscoring the absence of anything inappropriate in any of their interactions.”
La Rue, however, denied that she applied for the position. She also alleged, per Air Mail, that Leto walked out of a room nude “like it was normal” on one occasion when she was 17.
“I thought maybe this was just what adult men do,” she told the outlet.
One woman claimed that she was 16 years old in 2008 when Leto approached her at Urth Caffé in Los Angeles and “got” her number. She said that, days later, Leto called her home in the middle of the night with the “weirdest, grossest voice,” adding that she didn’t “know if he was on drugs.”
A representative for the actor told Air Mail that Leto “has not had a drink or used drugs in over 35 years.”
The woman alleged that after she turned down an invitation to attend a party, Leto would continue to call her in the early mornings over the span of three weeks, per Air Mail.
“And the conversations turned sexual,” she claimed. “He’d ask things like, ‘Have you ever had a boyfriend? Have you ever sucked a d—?’ ”
She added: “He changed — his voice, the way he talked. It scared me. That was the first time I thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s not just in movies.’ ”
The woman’s mother said she overheard a phone call and could confirm her story, per Air Mail.
Arnold Jerocki/Getty
Another woman, who claims she was underage when she began texting Leto, alleged that the actor would ask her uncomfortable questions during visits to his home and that during one visit when she was 18, “he suddenly pulled his penis out and started masturbating.”
“Then he walked over, grabbed my hand, and put it on him,” the woman alleged, per Air Mail. “He leaned in and said, ‘I want you to spit on it.’ ”
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
Elsewhere in the report from Air Mail, one woman alleged that she was “definitely not the youngest person there” while attending one of Leto’s parties at his home in the 2000s when she was 18.
Per the outlet, she also alleged that the focus of the party appeared to be getting girls to skinny dip.
A representative for Leto told Air Mail that “there was never any recruiting, complaints or impropriety.” Nightlife promoter Brent Bolthouse, who organized multiple parties at Leto’s home, told the outlet he “never saw anyone skinny-dipping.”
Air Mail reported that stories surrounding Leto’s alleged inappropriate behavior surfaced last month when DJ Allie Teilz reposted a Facebook status from 2012 on her Instagram Stories, writing that she was “assaulted and traumatized by this creep when I was 17.”
A representative for Leto told the outlet that her “allegations are demonstrably false.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
