Jared Leto: Hollywood's Dark Secret (2026) Movie Script
1
I really wanted to live in LA.
I wanted to find an
agency to start modelling.
This is the building
where the Ford agency is.
I think it was the eighth floor.
It's almost like I can see myself,
like, outside of my body.
I've noticed I do that, though.
Like, if there's, like, some
sort of trauma involved,
I really do, like, just detach.
Jared Leto.
He was standing...
...to the left of those double doors.
My mom noticed him as
we were going up the stairs.
I kind of saw him look over.
He hung up the phone and just, like,
walked right in behind us.
He brought up that he
had won a major award.
Does anybody want
to try it out for size?
You can, if anybody wants to fondle.
Yeah, here.
He was like, "Oh, yeah,
you're gonna get signed.
"Definitely. You're so beautiful."
And he asked for my e-mail
so he can invite me and my
mom to his, like, Oscar party.
I bet this is a first - the first
person to ever...
...give their Oscar away for...
...an orgy in the press room.
I was 16 at the time
and he was 42.
He did e-mail me
and then, very quickly,
it turns into this whole, like,
sexual thing on the phone,
saying all these, like, things that
you shouldn't say to a child.
Thank you very much and
congratulations.
I was... I was 17.
As a 14-year-old girl with a
little... with a little crush on him.
I was very excited to see Jared Leto.
I think that was the first
time I ever met a celebrity.
"Oh, my God. Do you know
who that is?! That's Jared Leto!"
He had invited me to his house.
Asked me to come
meet him in his hotel.
"Jared Leto cordially
invites you to a celebration."
Sending an invite
out to a lot of models.
I ran to the autograph table.
You know, most young girls saw him
very much as a heart-throb.
Wait, but...
...this is problematic.
There's a whole population
who don't know who he truly is.
You really just chose to
take your power and abuse it.
Alarms started going off in my head.
"This is not what I came here for."
"By the time I get back, I would
like your clothes to be off."
"It doesn't matter what your age is.
It doesn't matter if you're underage."
And that's when I realised
he was in his early 30s.
He was 34.
He was 42 at the time.
And then he just goes,
"If you're gonna sleep here,
"you're gonna wake up
with a dick in your ass."
People are like, "What did you
hope to accomplish with your book?"
Two things. I want to be proud
of it and I want to not get sued.
- Yeah.
- Touch and go there for a little while.
Okay.
Mm-hm.
So, Jared Leto is an actor
at the very highest
realms of the industry.
He won an Oscar for his role
in "Dallas Buyers Club,"
in which he played a trans woman.
And the Oscar goes to...
...Jared Leto, "Dallas Buyers Club."
That sealed his status
as a household name
and one of the power
players in Hollywood.
He started out as a
very well-known TV actor
in "My So-Called Life."
His role, Jordan Catalano, was...
...the school dreamboat.
A generation of women,
and, I think, some men,
were mesmerised by those blue eyes.
He's unique, in that he's not only
a high-profile actor,
he's also an entrepreneur.
And he's an investor.
Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, Reddit...
I've always been entrepreneurial
ever since I sold dope as a kid.
Whoo!
He's associated with fashion houses,
and, also, he's a really
successful rock star,
with his band Thirty Seconds To Mars.
Take no more
Take no more...
I think the first time I ever
came across Jared Leto
was watching "Requiem For A Dream"
when I was a teenager.
I always thought you were the
most beautiful girl I ever seen.
Really?
I thought he was incredible.
It was a film that
definitely stayed with me.
Air Mail's a digital
weekly based in New York.
It does a bit of everything.
True crime,
arts and culture.
I've also done investigative work.
I follow this DJ called Allie Teilz,
on Instagram.
In April 2025,
she posted, on her Instagram,
a screenshot of a Facebook status
she'd posted originally in 2012.
She went on to say
that she was underage,
she was 17 at the time,
and that he was aware of her age.
She has a big following.
She has over 100,000 followers.
She started getting a lot of responses
from women who'd had allegedly
similar experiences with Jared,
which she was then posting.
I was refreshing her
story every few hours,
and I was quite stunned by the
wealth of responses that she got.
The experiences ranged from
inappropriate behaviour to assault.
It captured my attention and I
started looking into the story.
My name is Jessica Sartenaer.
I'm a documentary
producer and journalist.
I've been making documentaries
for nearly ten years...
...often looking into
high-profile people.
We saw Allie's post and the reaction.
This is NOT something
you see every day.
If all of this was true,
these were allegations
on a massive scale,
about a very big player in Hollywood.
So, we immediately
started investigating.
I spoke to some of the
women who wrote in to Allie.
I managed to track them down.
I was putting down the phone and
I felt a little bit
sick to my stomach.
Among the allegations,
there was one woman,
she was 18 at the time.
She went over to his
house and he got naked
and grabbed her hand and
put it on his penis and said,
"I want you to spit on it."
I gathered all my research,
put together the story.
Ultimately, nine women contributed.
A lot of them were very scared,
which is why most of
them requested anonymity.
We did send a right to
reply to Leto and his team,
and they responded,
expressly denying every allegation.
The article went live.
It was pretty much
picked up worldwide.
The Guardian,
Italian national newspaper
Il Corriere della Sera.
Actor and musician Jared Leto
has been accused of sexual
misconduct and predatory behaviour.
Allegedly... Allegedly likes
very young girls, teenage girls.
I saw it was reported that
Disney was holding crisis talks.
Um, he was meant to be
playing the lead in "Tron: Ares."
I would like you to meet Ares,
the ultimate soldier.
I think the crisis talks were
surrounding the marketing campaign.
It was a big deal.
And I really thought, you
know, "This is gonna...
"This is gonna have some
real-life repercussions for...
"...for Jared."
When the Air Mail article came out,
this was the first time that
women had gone on the record,
alleging that they had been
sexually abused by Leto.
We watched and waited to see
what the consequences might be.
So, as the days went on...
...I was typing in
"Jared Leto allegations"
or just googling "Jared Leto".
I started seeing other news
about him that was unrelated...
And I saw the articles
surrounding the allegations
start to trickle off.
I thought, "Oh,
wow." Like, "That's it."
I was... I guess I was disappointed.
I was disappointed the world didn't
take my victims' allegations seriously.
Within weeks, Leto started
doing publicity for "Tron: Ares"...
We're in London and
we're super excited.
It's been a great night so far.
...culminating in an appearance
on top of the Piccadilly Lights
as a promotional stunt for the film.
A really uncomfortable
truth about Hollywood is that
there's now calculations being made
that this is not a career-ender.
I think that calculation
got made with Jared Leto.
"We can quash it, we can
ride it out, we can deflect it
"and, six months from now, or,
you know, six minutes from now,
"another story will
come down the pike and
"suck up all the
oxygen in the room."
We were still working on our
investigation in the background.
40 women had written into Allie.
Nine women had gone
on the record with Air Mail.
So we were really asking ourselves,
how widespread was this...
...and how long has
it been going on for?
We started digging deeper...
...and that's when we found Etta.
The first e-mail,
he just sent an
image of the invitation.
"Jared Leto cordially
invites you to a celebration."
I said, "I thank you for the
invite, but I couldn't make it,
"even though I'm sure
it would have been fun."
And he responded, "Text me,"
and gave me his number.
I didn't even consider
how weird it was
to be invited by a 42-year-old
man, at 16, to a party.
I know, for sure, if not then,
I did tell him a couple days
later when we were texting.
We texted for a
couple days and then...
Then, he would start mostly calling.
He never would call me without
making it a private number.
I think he did his best to
make sure there was no proof.
Like, at first, it
was, like, you know,
"Who did you sign with?
"Oh, how did it go?"
But it quickly moved into, um...
"Oh, well, you're a virgin.
Do you have any kinks?
"Like, what are you interested in?
"Oh, can you squirt?"
Like, he seemed very
interested in squirting.
He did, at least once, mention
him and I having sex at some point.
Um, I remember
feeling, like, nervous.
A little, like, anxious, a
little uncomfortable, but, like,
at the time, I remember
I had a really hard time,
like, saying, like, "no" to things
or, like, putting boundaries up.
He asked me if he could give
my number to a friend of his.
I just remember him,
you know, telling me that
it was, like, a business thing.
And I was like, "Yeah,
sure. Whatever. That's fine."
This guy, he told me
his name was Christian,
he would call me a lot.
He wanted to...
...hire me to shoot porn.
And he was like, "You know, it
doesn't matter if you're underage.
"We'll work it out.
"Like, you know, we'll get a
really nice house in the hills.
"You know, we'll have,
like, six guys in the shower,
"and have them, like,
come all over you."
And because he would also
call me from a private number,
I wouldn't know, sometimes, if
it was going to be Jared or him.
They both were really obsessed
with mentioning the
possibility of squirting.
Both of them, yeah.
I think it would not
be that surprising
if that ended up being
the truth, you know?
And how old are you? You.
17. Come here.
Come here.
Give me a hug, first of all.
Okay, you can let go now.
- What's your name?
- Kate.
Kate. Where are you from?
- LA.
- You're from LA?
"That's what I like
about high school girls."
"I keep getting older, and
they just stay the same age.
"All right, all right, all right.
"All right, all right, all right."
There have been allegations
swirling around Leto for decades.
All the way back in 2005,
there was an article
in the New York Post
alleging that Leto was approaching
teen and underage girls
at a hotel in New York,
and texting them.
But what we were really surprised by
was just how many
allegations actually exist online.
I counted around 120 allegations
relating to highly
concerning behaviour
women said they had witnessed,
heard about or
experienced themselves,
and some of these allegations
dated right back to the early 2000s.
Okay, well, down memory lane, right?
I have a few photos here of...
...back in that day, when
I was a little bit younger.
Oh, my gosh. You guys
remember pictures?!
Everything's digital now.
There's no such thing.
Okay. This is definitely high school.
I recognise my high
school that I used to go to.
Oh, my gosh. This is
probably right around...
Like, right around the
time when I met him.
I look like such a baby.
Looking back on
these pictures, it's...
..it's so crazy to...
I mean, I look...
Yeah, I look so young.
I've always been this, like,
free spirit type of person.
And I still, actually, to
this day, one of those
"act first, think second", you know?
Just try things and
then, if it works out, great,
and if it doesn't, then now you know.
In 2002, when I was 17,
I had this job at Planet Hollywood
in Las Vegas.
I worked in the mall.
A group of guys came in.
One of 'em looked familiar.
So, I said, "Oh, you look familiar.
And he was like, "Well, what
high school did you go to?"
And I said, "Oh, I went to..."
You know, this high school.
And he was like,
"Oh, no way. Me too."
His friends started laughing
and they were like, "He
didn't go to your high school."
They were like, "He's famous.
"This is Jared Leto."
They're coughing.
"He has this movie coming
out called 'Panic Room'..."
Nobody is gonna die, man!
Will you please have the balls
to follow through with something?
"..and we're in Vegas cos we
actually just started this band,
"called Thirty Seconds To Mars."
"Oh, cool." Like, "That's awesome.
"You know, you're famous."
I still didn't know
who he was, right?
So you were saying, all
last night, you missed it.
So I was just showing them around
and taking them through the store,
and it was just, you know, like a...
...you know, like a fun, casual vibe.
That's when Jared Leto was like,
"Hey, like, you seem really cool."
You know, "Can I get
your phone number?"
Like, "Would you
like to hang out later?"
"Yeah." You know,
I'm like, "Oh, cool." Like,
he's a celebrity, right? I'm 17.
This is a happy fucking day, man.
I think that was the first
time I ever met a celebrity.
And so I was gonna meet
up with him after work,
and he asked me to
come meet him in his hotel.
It was really close to my work
and I pulled in, and it
was this dingy motel.
I didn't think much of it.
I just was like, "Oh,
he's still getting ready
"and we're gonna meet up there
"and then we're gonna
go out afterwards."
So I knocked on the door, went in...
...I sat on the bed and he was like,
"Hey, yeah, I'm just gonna
hop in the shower real quick.
"Do you mind waiting?"
And I was like, "No, of course
not." Like, "Go finish getting ready."
Um...
Sorry. This is where it gets hard.
Oh, sorry. I've got to,
like, get myself together.
I was sitting on the bed
waiting for him to get ready and...
...and he called me. He called me
and he was like,
"Hey, like, come in here
"so we can talk while I'm,
you know, in the shower."
And so I went into the bathroom.
I don't think there was
many words exchanged.
And when he opened
the shower curtain...
...he started kissing me.
Uh, and then he grabbed my hand.
I don't even know
how to say this part,
but he grabbed my hand and he...
...I guess, started, like,
touching himself with my hand,
like, using my hand to, I guess,
masturbate himself with my hand.
Um...
...and, um...
...alarms started going off in my
head, like, "What are you doing here?"
Like, "This is not what
you came here for."
In that moment, I...
...I definitely realised that I
was not in a great situation.
You know, I'm alone
in this room and...
Like, I didn't know what
was going to happen, right?
I pulled away and I was
like, "Okay, I'm gonna go."
He got out, put a towel on.
There's a weird thing that
I-I always remembered.
He looked... He went outside
and I remember he, like,
specifically, like, looked
to the left and looked...
Almost, like, seeing if
there was anybody around...
...before he let me out of the room.
We didn't... We didn't have
internet in our hands, right?
And I was at work.
I got off work.
I met up with him.
And so I didn't know
anything about him till
after everything, when I went home,
and then I looked him up on...
like, a computer, you know?
And that's when I realised
he was in his early 30s.
You know, I'm in my 40s now...
...and...
...my whole life...
...I had viewed this event as...
...I was a stupid girl...
...that did something
stupid, did something dumb...
...and so this bad thing happened.
But of course it did, because...
...I did something dumb and so...
...it's on me.
I don't think I ever,
till recently, ever...
...blamed him.
I always blamed me.
In 2005, Thirty Seconds
To Mars release an album
called "A Beautiful Lie,"
and on that album was
a song called "The Kill,"
which was incredibly popular...
Come break me down
Bury me, bury me
I am finished with...
You...
Look in my eyes
- You're...
- Killin' me, killin' me
I am finished with you!
...and it really saw their
entry into the mainstream.
How you doing, New York City?
Suddenly, Leto had access
to this huge, devoted fan base,
many of whom were
young teenage girls.
As a teenager, I was very
much so a punk, Goth kid.
I had coloured hair, I wore fishnets,
I wore black lipstick, I
wore black nail polish.
The scene was so supportive.
It was just a sense
of... like a community.
The first time I ever heard
Thirty Seconds To Mars
was on the radio, and
I was instantly hooked.
I was literally listening
to "The Kill" on repeat.
I saw Thirty Seconds To
Mars at the 99X X-Mas Ball.
My mom got me tickets.
The concert was absolutely amazing.
Oh, I was in heaven when
I saw Jared Leto onstage.
As a 14-year-old
girl with a little...
...with a little crush on him.
So, Thirty Seconds
To Mars gets offstage.
They were allowing people to
get autographs and meet them.
I walked up to Jared Leto,
told him, "I'm a huge fan,"
and I held my shirt
out for him to sign,
hopefully on an arm
or maybe on the belly
and, instead, he chose to
sign my shirt across my breasts.
And he told me,
"You have a nice rack."
And in that timeframe,
he asked his bodyguard to go
ahead and take me backstage.
He didn't even ask me if
I wanted to go backstage.
He literally looked at his
security guard and said,
"Take her... take her back."
I was very short.
I had braces.
It was very obvious
that I was a teenager.
My mother, who was
standing next to me,
was like, "That's my daughter.
"She's fucking 14."
And he looked at her and said,
"It's still a nice rack."
We didn't get to stay
and finish the concert.
My mom took me home.
This was not a pleasant experience
to have to go through.
You should not be touching my
breasts in any way, shape or form.
I was 14,
and that was supposed to be
a sense of community for me.
Things like that aren't supposed
to happen at metal shows.
I'm gonna cry.
Things like that aren't
supposed to happen when you...
...are supposed to
be enjoying yourself.
Thank you.
It really altered my
life in a real way.
I stopped going to
concerts altogether.
I stopped listening
to that kind of music.
I really felt like I had
been taken advantage of.
What turns me on?
I would like to answer
that by asking a question.
What doesn't turn me on?
We wanted to speak to
insiders from the mid-2000s.
So, people who had
spent time with Leto,
who had worked with him
in the context of his band.
So, we contacted hundreds of people,
producers, crew members,
tour staff, even bandmates...
...and it was really, really
hard getting people to talk to us.
A lot of them were
scared to speak out.
Many had signed NDAs.
But then, eventually, we found Simon.
I think that's him.
Hi, Simon. Hi.
Jessica. Thank you so
much for coming all this way.
Okay, let me introduce you
to... the lurkers over here.
Speaking to me anonymously,
is that for fear of repercussions?
I don't want to be
notable in this at all, but...
...I do want to do my part.
Would I want to tell my daughter...
...that I didn't stand
up for what was right
when I got an opportunity
to say something?
Let's talk about Thirty
Seconds To Mars.
I worked with the band
for about a decade.
Jared was generally very
focused and hard-working.
Very demanding.
He had a clear vision
of what he wanted.
During one period of time,
they'd set up their recording
equipment in a spare room in the house,
with just a desk and a few chairs,
a microphone,
a couple of packing blankets.
He would be texting with girls.
There would probably,
typically on a given day,
be about two girls
that might stop by.
It wasn't uncommon that
he would go let them in,
sort of point to a chair
for them to sit down, and,
possibly ignore them
for about 10, 15 minutes.
He might make a sort of rude remark.
Maybe it might be, "You're
a dirty girl, aren't you?"
The feeling...
...was he was trying
to assert control,
trying to assert a sense of power.
There was one particular
instance that I clearly remember,
where a girl had to be
dropped off by her parents.
This particular girl was
very young-looking, and...
...Jared would have
been in his early 30s.
They took off to the bedroom.
When they returned, and she
wanted a photo with him, and,
she tried to give him a kiss
on the cheek, he stopped her...
...and wanted to make
sure that the photo
looked like a sort of
spontaneous platonic meeting.
At that point, she had to contact
her parents to come pick her up.
Probably only an hour had gone by.
She just kind of sat there.
The feeling in the air, it felt like
shame and embarrassment.
I just remember being
really moved by it.
So what did you think
when the allegations
started to surface last year?
I remember reading the articles
and then coming across a video
that a young woman had made,
speaking of her time with Jared.
I remember her reciting some of
the things Jared would say to her.
There was no question about it,
she wasn't making it up.
This is his language.
Could you show me the
video you're talking about?
I first met him when I had
just turned 17 and he was 33.
I met him after a Thirty
Seconds To Mars concert.
He had started to move
from just, like, flirting,
to saying things of a
more sexual nature.
He literally started
calling me Lolita,
telling me he was old
enough to be my father.
He knew I was 17.
He... did various
things, like kiss my neck,
touch my chest, take my
hand, put it on top of his pants.
One time I was backstage with him,
he grabbed my face
and made me promise
that I wasn't gonna tell anyone.
Did those behaviours that she's
describing feel familiar to you?
It's uncanny, the things she says
about how he would behave with her.
It's upsetting.
It's disturbing.
It completely brings back
memories of what I witnessed.
His band was having a concert.
I was with another girl.
And we were backstage.
I was 17.
It wasn't actually Jared
Leto who approached me.
He had sent an acquaintance
of his, probably in his 40s.
He was a comedian.
And he told me, you know,
"Jared's seen you from
where he is over there,
"and he was interested
in getting your number."
I didn't actually meet him
at that venue at that time.
That would come later.
You know, most young girls saw
him very much as a heart-throb.
You know, very
handsome, great features.
Professionally, very good at
what he did as an actor, as a singer.
He was a very magnetic person.
At that age, I had
just been coming out of
a really awkward time in adolescence.
I had always been very,
very shy. Painfully shy.
I'd blush a lot, I'd
trip over my words.
It was very validating
that someone like him would
be interested in me at all.
So, sometime after that concert,
there had been some text exchanges.
He had invited me to meet him at a
place called the Chateau Marmont,
which is right there in the
main area of Hollywood.
I had a friend with me
at the time, so he said,
"Go ahead and bring her."
It's a very kind of secluded,
upscale place where they cater to
a lot of A-list celebrities,
so it was intimidating
at first going in there.
He was at a table with friends.
He kind of waved us over,
we sat down, my friend and I,
and just having some
general banter about things.
We had kind of drifted
into the realm to talk about
the age of consent.
I had mentioned to him that
my dad was in law enforcement,
that I knew with certainty
that, here in California,
the age of consent is 18.
He just kind of shrugged it off
like it wasn't a huge concern for him.
Oh, yes. He did know. Yeah.
So, after that, he had told me
that they were about to
head back to his house.
So, we'd walked in the door
and I remember immediately,
off to the side,
there were these two really distinct
statues from the "Clockwork Orange."
And he had them...
They were two females,
and he had them arranged
in, like, a very sexual position.
He had shown us
where his bedroom was.
We had gone in, we were
sitting on the bed with him.
And so, he suggested to my friend,
"You can wait in the computer
room while her and I hang out."
That is when things
had turned sexual,
when my friend was in the other room.
So there was probably, I would say,
about three or four times that
I had been to his residence.
There was one time in
particular where I had gone over,
I let him know that I was there.
He opened the door and he had told me
that he was in the middle
of some sort of interview.
So he let me in the house...
...I went down the
hallway into his bedroom
and he had made a comment of,
"By the time I get back, I
would like your clothes to be off."
So, he had gone out,
finished the interview.
He'd come back in
the room and he said,
when he noticed that I was undressed,
something to the effect
of, "Brave little girl."
It was this theme that
he kind of stuck with,
wanting to see me as a younger girl.
He told me, "I would like
you to call me Daddy,"
and it was either, "and pretend
to be A little girl or MY little girl."
I had so little exposure
to anything sexual, really,
at that time as a teenager.
Was this what, you know, is expected
when you're intimate
with somebody older?
Is this what they say,
is this what they do?
Just wondering if it was normal.
As time went on, I
realised more and more
how scary that really was,
being that age and being
so naive and vulnerable.
There is no well-adjusted
man in his 30s...
...who's gonna look
at a teenager and think,
you know, "Wow, she
would be a great partner."
The only reason to
approach somebody like that
is because of how easily
manipulated they are.
Let's talk about the lyrics.
You can probably guess
which lyrics I'm gonna
- pick out of "Up In The Air."
- Oh, I'll be...
Oh, I see. I don't know. Surprise me.
"I'll wrap my hands
around your neck so tight
"with love, love, love."
- Yeah.
- Quite erotic.
- Is it?
- Um, tell us a little bit more...
It's funny that you
would take it that way.
About well, tell us what the song's
about, if that's not what it is.
Well, I think, what is it they say?
Um...
Everything is about
sex except for sex.
Sex is about power.
In the late 2000s, Jared
actually took a break
from acting to focus on his
band, Thirty Seconds To Mars.
They were really gaining a
massive fanbase across Europe.
It's from this period that we
noticed a lot of videos online
of Leto inviting young
girls up onstage.
Oh, shit, that's so crazy.
And the story goes on
Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-woah
Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-woah
- Hello?
- Oh, hi, Brad.
It's Jessica from the
BBC. How are you doing?
- I'm good. How are you?
- I'm good.
Brad toured with Thirty
Seconds To Mars around this time,
and he agreed to speak with me
about his experience
of working with Leto.
At the time I was working for them,
they were a very big band, you know,
uh, headlining arenas in
lots of different countries.
What was the atmosphere like on tour?
Very tense.
I've been on the road
since I was a teenager
and Jared is one of the worst people
I've ever worked for, in
any way, shape or form.
Nice to see you.
Give me a hug. It's been a long time.
Good to see your face.
We've met before.
Yeah, I remember, of
course. How could I forget?
How could I ever forget?
No. I'm joking, I'm joking.
Of course I remember
you. You're beautiful.
Did anyone on the crew
feel uncomfortable about
the way Jared was
interacting with female fans?
No one enjoyed watching
that or being involved in that,
if he ever asked anyone to get
a phone number or anything like that.
I think everyone thought that
the age gap was way too big.
And what sort of age range
were these girls, do you think?
Teens.
Yeah, you with the pink hair.
Come over here. With the pink hair.
Pink hair, pink hair,
pink hair, pink hair.
Pink. Pink. Pink hair.
Do-do-do, I
Fell apart
But got back up again, yeah...
Would he ever ask for any of
the fans to be brought backstage?
I remember at least
one or two incidents
of girls coming onstage
for the final song and...
and crew members
being instructed to,
you know, grab those girls
and invite them to come
backstage after the show.
And he would talk to them
in his dressing room and...
I couldn't tell you
what happened from there.
Was there anything else
crew members were asked to do
that made them feel uncomfortable?
Uh, whenever they would play cities
that had a lot of modelling
agencies, like Milan
or Berlin, Paris etc,
crew members were instructed
to call up the modelling agencies
and offer free tickets
for the female models.
They would give all of the models
VIP passes and they would
have a room backstage for them.
I know that people involved in that
did not particularly
enjoy having to do that,
because it was all... Well, I mean,
calling up a modelling agency
and saying,
"We only want your female
models," is a little bit uncomfortable.
And who requested this?
That was direct from Jared.
I moved to London in 2013.
I went to Elite Models.
There was a manager from my agency
who told me that Thirty
Seconds To Mars had put out
an invitation that we
could go and see the show
and then there was also
a VIP meet-up afterwards
that we could go to.
The concert was at the O2.
It was a good concert, I remember.
Somehow the assistant got to
me and asked if I wanted to go
to an after-party at
Shoreditch House.
And I remember thinking to
myself, "I've never been there.
"I want to go. I want
to see what it is."
So we were eight people,
mostly just women, and then Jared.
I remember going to the
bathroom and when I came out,
he was standing,
like, in the corridor.
He says something and it gets me
to say, "Do you know how old I am?"
And then he... says, "No,"
and then I lie and I say, "I'm 17."
At the time, I'm 19.
I just remember that
I felt the need to say
that I'm younger than I am.
He said, "Age is just a number
"and, anyway, we're in Europe."
I remember speaking to
the assistant, who was saying
that there was the
next place to go to.
It was in a hotel.
I was a bit drunk and
my phone was dying.
So I was saying, "But I
don't know where it is.
"How am I gonna get there?"
She kept, like, pushing
and saying, "It's really easy.
"It's right over there."
The assistant is a woman,
so I trusted her.
I get into the hotel room.
It's really dark.
And then I see that it's just him.
"Weren't there supposed
to be other people?"
And I think he just says,
"No, it's just you and I."
Then I'm sat there and saying,
"Okay, well, my phone is dying,
"so I can't really
get home from here."
So I ask him if he
has a phone charger.
"No, I don't."
"Okay. I also don't have any cash left.
"Could I get some cash
to get a cab home?"
"No, I don't have any cash."
I was sat on a chaise
longue kind of thing.
So I was kind of like, thinking to
myself, "Could I just sleep here?"
I ask him, "Can I
just sleep here, then?"
And then he just goes,
"If you're gonna sleep here,
"you're gonna wake
up with a dick in your ass."
And I think I ask him,
like, "What did you say?"
And he says this a few times.
"If you're gonna sleep here,
"you're gonna wake
up with a dick in your ass."
At that point, I was
like, "I'm not safe here.
"Okay, I need to get out."
I went to the bathroom first,
and then, from there, I
was closer to the door.
When I got out of the hotel, I
remember being really angry.
I was angry at myself for
going into the hotel room.
I came home at, I
think, six in the morning.
I texted my then best friend.
And she was saying, "He
was threatening sexual assault.
"You should report him."
And in my head, I was like, "Nah.
"I put myself in that situation.
"He didn't touch me. It was
probably a misunderstanding.
"I was probably the only one."
But I'm probably not the only one.
And it's probably
been a lot worse. Yeah.
Do you feel like you were
tricked into going to that hotel?
Throughout this whole night,
I told the assistant all the reasons
why I shouldn't go to the next place.
And every time that I had
an excuse for not going,
I was getting nudged to go further.
The assistant knew what to
say to lure me into his hotel room.
It seemed that it was planned out.
"Never have I ever hooked
up with a fan on tour."
- Oh, ho!
- Really? Yeah. Yeah.
How did staff feel about having
to procure women
for Jared in this way?
I don't think anyone
liked being involved,
but it's also the kind of
camp where I think everyone
is slightly fearful for their job
and you don't want
to say no to anything.
He's not really someone
you want to fuck with.
He had a lot of people around that
just were constantly
jumping through hoops
for him and doing
anything he demanded.
There's sort of a secret rule
that you don't talk about what the
creative talent does in Hollywood.
There's a general sense
of just turning a blind eye.
Not a single person spoke up.
There were not only just men
of his age, but also women.
These dozens of people who were
travelling with him,
touring with him.
Not a single one said anything to
myself about looking out
for him or being concerned
about how young I
looked hanging around him.
Nobody said anything.
An enormous part of everything
that we're talking about is money.
In Hollywood, in music,
there's a superstructure.
There's layers and
layers of people around
the individual who are
incentivised to say and do nothing,
assistants, manager, lawyer...
...and an unfortunate reality
with these kinds of stories is that
it is not uncommon
for sources to be silenced.
Everyone has a vested
interest in all of this going away.
Um, it's about two
years after I met him,
I got a call from Jared.
From what I recall,
he said his lawyer
was concerned about his
relationships with women.
Uh, he kind of, like, chuckled,
laughed at that part
and said that he...
...uh, that his lawyer wants to have
all the women in his life sign NDAs.
I mean, I didn't feel comfortable
with it, like, right away,
but I was willing
to, like, look at it.
It didn't just cover,
like, present and future.
It covered things that I
would have said in the past.
"Commencing on the date on
which my association with you began,
"I hereby acknowledge
and agree that a confidential
"relationship exists
between you and me."
It didn't seem right being
able to be held liable
for something that I
had done previously,
before I even knew I wasn't
allowed to speak about him.
It seemed like a really
great way to get sued.
I never signed it.
I made an excuse the first time,
and then just didn't respond after that.
How has it gotten this far
without this becoming
a larger scandal?
People knew about it in Los
Angeles and in Hollywood.
Is it people just not wanting
to believe the allegations about him?
Is it because they believe what
he's accused of isn't that bad?
Is it just because they've met him
and think he's charming
and fun and cool?
Frankly, honestly, I don't get it.
Three women, after they
spoke to me for my article,
asked me to retract their testimony
because they were pursuing
legal action against him.
I'm not sure what
came of the legal action.
I know that there's been no kind of
case in the public domain thus far.
It's been a year since the
Air Mail article was published,
and since then, Leto has
been in two major movies.
Most recently, he played Skeletor
in "Masters Of The Universe."
Thirty Seconds To Mars have announced
that they're going on tour in 2027.
So we have no idea what
the impact of our investigation
is going to be because,
honestly, it seems Leto's career
has been unaffected
by previous allegations.
Seeing him continue to
do whatever he wants to do
and get accolades for
it is pretty infuriating,
because he's left a trail of
emotional destruction
for a lot of young women.
It makes me lose faith because, like,
why... why are you
supporting a man like that?
How can you support a man like that?
So do you think he thought
that he'd get away with it?
Well, he has. Right? He
HAS gotten away with it.
This was 25 years ago.
Um... apparently he's been doing it.
Apparently people know about it.
So, by all means, I think
he has gotten away with it.
I really wanted to live in LA.
I wanted to find an
agency to start modelling.
This is the building
where the Ford agency is.
I think it was the eighth floor.
It's almost like I can see myself,
like, outside of my body.
I've noticed I do that, though.
Like, if there's, like, some
sort of trauma involved,
I really do, like, just detach.
Jared Leto.
He was standing...
...to the left of those double doors.
My mom noticed him as
we were going up the stairs.
I kind of saw him look over.
He hung up the phone and just, like,
walked right in behind us.
He brought up that he
had won a major award.
Does anybody want
to try it out for size?
You can, if anybody wants to fondle.
Yeah, here.
He was like, "Oh, yeah,
you're gonna get signed.
"Definitely. You're so beautiful."
And he asked for my e-mail
so he can invite me and my
mom to his, like, Oscar party.
I bet this is a first - the first
person to ever...
...give their Oscar away for...
...an orgy in the press room.
I was 16 at the time
and he was 42.
He did e-mail me
and then, very quickly,
it turns into this whole, like,
sexual thing on the phone,
saying all these, like, things that
you shouldn't say to a child.
Thank you very much and
congratulations.
I was... I was 17.
As a 14-year-old girl with a
little... with a little crush on him.
I was very excited to see Jared Leto.
I think that was the first
time I ever met a celebrity.
"Oh, my God. Do you know
who that is?! That's Jared Leto!"
He had invited me to his house.
Asked me to come
meet him in his hotel.
"Jared Leto cordially
invites you to a celebration."
Sending an invite
out to a lot of models.
I ran to the autograph table.
You know, most young girls saw him
very much as a heart-throb.
Wait, but...
...this is problematic.
There's a whole population
who don't know who he truly is.
You really just chose to
take your power and abuse it.
Alarms started going off in my head.
"This is not what I came here for."
"By the time I get back, I would
like your clothes to be off."
"It doesn't matter what your age is.
It doesn't matter if you're underage."
And that's when I realised
he was in his early 30s.
He was 34.
He was 42 at the time.
And then he just goes,
"If you're gonna sleep here,
"you're gonna wake up
with a dick in your ass."
People are like, "What did you
hope to accomplish with your book?"
Two things. I want to be proud
of it and I want to not get sued.
- Yeah.
- Touch and go there for a little while.
Okay.
Mm-hm.
So, Jared Leto is an actor
at the very highest
realms of the industry.
He won an Oscar for his role
in "Dallas Buyers Club,"
in which he played a trans woman.
And the Oscar goes to...
...Jared Leto, "Dallas Buyers Club."
That sealed his status
as a household name
and one of the power
players in Hollywood.
He started out as a
very well-known TV actor
in "My So-Called Life."
His role, Jordan Catalano, was...
...the school dreamboat.
A generation of women,
and, I think, some men,
were mesmerised by those blue eyes.
He's unique, in that he's not only
a high-profile actor,
he's also an entrepreneur.
And he's an investor.
Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, Reddit...
I've always been entrepreneurial
ever since I sold dope as a kid.
Whoo!
He's associated with fashion houses,
and, also, he's a really
successful rock star,
with his band Thirty Seconds To Mars.
Take no more
Take no more...
I think the first time I ever
came across Jared Leto
was watching "Requiem For A Dream"
when I was a teenager.
I always thought you were the
most beautiful girl I ever seen.
Really?
I thought he was incredible.
It was a film that
definitely stayed with me.
Air Mail's a digital
weekly based in New York.
It does a bit of everything.
True crime,
arts and culture.
I've also done investigative work.
I follow this DJ called Allie Teilz,
on Instagram.
In April 2025,
she posted, on her Instagram,
a screenshot of a Facebook status
she'd posted originally in 2012.
She went on to say
that she was underage,
she was 17 at the time,
and that he was aware of her age.
She has a big following.
She has over 100,000 followers.
She started getting a lot of responses
from women who'd had allegedly
similar experiences with Jared,
which she was then posting.
I was refreshing her
story every few hours,
and I was quite stunned by the
wealth of responses that she got.
The experiences ranged from
inappropriate behaviour to assault.
It captured my attention and I
started looking into the story.
My name is Jessica Sartenaer.
I'm a documentary
producer and journalist.
I've been making documentaries
for nearly ten years...
...often looking into
high-profile people.
We saw Allie's post and the reaction.
This is NOT something
you see every day.
If all of this was true,
these were allegations
on a massive scale,
about a very big player in Hollywood.
So, we immediately
started investigating.
I spoke to some of the
women who wrote in to Allie.
I managed to track them down.
I was putting down the phone and
I felt a little bit
sick to my stomach.
Among the allegations,
there was one woman,
she was 18 at the time.
She went over to his
house and he got naked
and grabbed her hand and
put it on his penis and said,
"I want you to spit on it."
I gathered all my research,
put together the story.
Ultimately, nine women contributed.
A lot of them were very scared,
which is why most of
them requested anonymity.
We did send a right to
reply to Leto and his team,
and they responded,
expressly denying every allegation.
The article went live.
It was pretty much
picked up worldwide.
The Guardian,
Italian national newspaper
Il Corriere della Sera.
Actor and musician Jared Leto
has been accused of sexual
misconduct and predatory behaviour.
Allegedly... Allegedly likes
very young girls, teenage girls.
I saw it was reported that
Disney was holding crisis talks.
Um, he was meant to be
playing the lead in "Tron: Ares."
I would like you to meet Ares,
the ultimate soldier.
I think the crisis talks were
surrounding the marketing campaign.
It was a big deal.
And I really thought, you
know, "This is gonna...
"This is gonna have some
real-life repercussions for...
"...for Jared."
When the Air Mail article came out,
this was the first time that
women had gone on the record,
alleging that they had been
sexually abused by Leto.
We watched and waited to see
what the consequences might be.
So, as the days went on...
...I was typing in
"Jared Leto allegations"
or just googling "Jared Leto".
I started seeing other news
about him that was unrelated...
And I saw the articles
surrounding the allegations
start to trickle off.
I thought, "Oh,
wow." Like, "That's it."
I was... I guess I was disappointed.
I was disappointed the world didn't
take my victims' allegations seriously.
Within weeks, Leto started
doing publicity for "Tron: Ares"...
We're in London and
we're super excited.
It's been a great night so far.
...culminating in an appearance
on top of the Piccadilly Lights
as a promotional stunt for the film.
A really uncomfortable
truth about Hollywood is that
there's now calculations being made
that this is not a career-ender.
I think that calculation
got made with Jared Leto.
"We can quash it, we can
ride it out, we can deflect it
"and, six months from now, or,
you know, six minutes from now,
"another story will
come down the pike and
"suck up all the
oxygen in the room."
We were still working on our
investigation in the background.
40 women had written into Allie.
Nine women had gone
on the record with Air Mail.
So we were really asking ourselves,
how widespread was this...
...and how long has
it been going on for?
We started digging deeper...
...and that's when we found Etta.
The first e-mail,
he just sent an
image of the invitation.
"Jared Leto cordially
invites you to a celebration."
I said, "I thank you for the
invite, but I couldn't make it,
"even though I'm sure
it would have been fun."
And he responded, "Text me,"
and gave me his number.
I didn't even consider
how weird it was
to be invited by a 42-year-old
man, at 16, to a party.
I know, for sure, if not then,
I did tell him a couple days
later when we were texting.
We texted for a
couple days and then...
Then, he would start mostly calling.
He never would call me without
making it a private number.
I think he did his best to
make sure there was no proof.
Like, at first, it
was, like, you know,
"Who did you sign with?
"Oh, how did it go?"
But it quickly moved into, um...
"Oh, well, you're a virgin.
Do you have any kinks?
"Like, what are you interested in?
"Oh, can you squirt?"
Like, he seemed very
interested in squirting.
He did, at least once, mention
him and I having sex at some point.
Um, I remember
feeling, like, nervous.
A little, like, anxious, a
little uncomfortable, but, like,
at the time, I remember
I had a really hard time,
like, saying, like, "no" to things
or, like, putting boundaries up.
He asked me if he could give
my number to a friend of his.
I just remember him,
you know, telling me that
it was, like, a business thing.
And I was like, "Yeah,
sure. Whatever. That's fine."
This guy, he told me
his name was Christian,
he would call me a lot.
He wanted to...
...hire me to shoot porn.
And he was like, "You know, it
doesn't matter if you're underage.
"We'll work it out.
"Like, you know, we'll get a
really nice house in the hills.
"You know, we'll have,
like, six guys in the shower,
"and have them, like,
come all over you."
And because he would also
call me from a private number,
I wouldn't know, sometimes, if
it was going to be Jared or him.
They both were really obsessed
with mentioning the
possibility of squirting.
Both of them, yeah.
I think it would not
be that surprising
if that ended up being
the truth, you know?
And how old are you? You.
17. Come here.
Come here.
Give me a hug, first of all.
Okay, you can let go now.
- What's your name?
- Kate.
Kate. Where are you from?
- LA.
- You're from LA?
"That's what I like
about high school girls."
"I keep getting older, and
they just stay the same age.
"All right, all right, all right.
"All right, all right, all right."
There have been allegations
swirling around Leto for decades.
All the way back in 2005,
there was an article
in the New York Post
alleging that Leto was approaching
teen and underage girls
at a hotel in New York,
and texting them.
But what we were really surprised by
was just how many
allegations actually exist online.
I counted around 120 allegations
relating to highly
concerning behaviour
women said they had witnessed,
heard about or
experienced themselves,
and some of these allegations
dated right back to the early 2000s.
Okay, well, down memory lane, right?
I have a few photos here of...
...back in that day, when
I was a little bit younger.
Oh, my gosh. You guys
remember pictures?!
Everything's digital now.
There's no such thing.
Okay. This is definitely high school.
I recognise my high
school that I used to go to.
Oh, my gosh. This is
probably right around...
Like, right around the
time when I met him.
I look like such a baby.
Looking back on
these pictures, it's...
..it's so crazy to...
I mean, I look...
Yeah, I look so young.
I've always been this, like,
free spirit type of person.
And I still, actually, to
this day, one of those
"act first, think second", you know?
Just try things and
then, if it works out, great,
and if it doesn't, then now you know.
In 2002, when I was 17,
I had this job at Planet Hollywood
in Las Vegas.
I worked in the mall.
A group of guys came in.
One of 'em looked familiar.
So, I said, "Oh, you look familiar.
And he was like, "Well, what
high school did you go to?"
And I said, "Oh, I went to..."
You know, this high school.
And he was like,
"Oh, no way. Me too."
His friends started laughing
and they were like, "He
didn't go to your high school."
They were like, "He's famous.
"This is Jared Leto."
They're coughing.
"He has this movie coming
out called 'Panic Room'..."
Nobody is gonna die, man!
Will you please have the balls
to follow through with something?
"..and we're in Vegas cos we
actually just started this band,
"called Thirty Seconds To Mars."
"Oh, cool." Like, "That's awesome.
"You know, you're famous."
I still didn't know
who he was, right?
So you were saying, all
last night, you missed it.
So I was just showing them around
and taking them through the store,
and it was just, you know, like a...
...you know, like a fun, casual vibe.
That's when Jared Leto was like,
"Hey, like, you seem really cool."
You know, "Can I get
your phone number?"
Like, "Would you
like to hang out later?"
"Yeah." You know,
I'm like, "Oh, cool." Like,
he's a celebrity, right? I'm 17.
This is a happy fucking day, man.
I think that was the first
time I ever met a celebrity.
And so I was gonna meet
up with him after work,
and he asked me to
come meet him in his hotel.
It was really close to my work
and I pulled in, and it
was this dingy motel.
I didn't think much of it.
I just was like, "Oh,
he's still getting ready
"and we're gonna meet up there
"and then we're gonna
go out afterwards."
So I knocked on the door, went in...
...I sat on the bed and he was like,
"Hey, yeah, I'm just gonna
hop in the shower real quick.
"Do you mind waiting?"
And I was like, "No, of course
not." Like, "Go finish getting ready."
Um...
Sorry. This is where it gets hard.
Oh, sorry. I've got to,
like, get myself together.
I was sitting on the bed
waiting for him to get ready and...
...and he called me. He called me
and he was like,
"Hey, like, come in here
"so we can talk while I'm,
you know, in the shower."
And so I went into the bathroom.
I don't think there was
many words exchanged.
And when he opened
the shower curtain...
...he started kissing me.
Uh, and then he grabbed my hand.
I don't even know
how to say this part,
but he grabbed my hand and he...
...I guess, started, like,
touching himself with my hand,
like, using my hand to, I guess,
masturbate himself with my hand.
Um...
...and, um...
...alarms started going off in my
head, like, "What are you doing here?"
Like, "This is not what
you came here for."
In that moment, I...
...I definitely realised that I
was not in a great situation.
You know, I'm alone
in this room and...
Like, I didn't know what
was going to happen, right?
I pulled away and I was
like, "Okay, I'm gonna go."
He got out, put a towel on.
There's a weird thing that
I-I always remembered.
He looked... He went outside
and I remember he, like,
specifically, like, looked
to the left and looked...
Almost, like, seeing if
there was anybody around...
...before he let me out of the room.
We didn't... We didn't have
internet in our hands, right?
And I was at work.
I got off work.
I met up with him.
And so I didn't know
anything about him till
after everything, when I went home,
and then I looked him up on...
like, a computer, you know?
And that's when I realised
he was in his early 30s.
You know, I'm in my 40s now...
...and...
...my whole life...
...I had viewed this event as...
...I was a stupid girl...
...that did something
stupid, did something dumb...
...and so this bad thing happened.
But of course it did, because...
...I did something dumb and so...
...it's on me.
I don't think I ever,
till recently, ever...
...blamed him.
I always blamed me.
In 2005, Thirty Seconds
To Mars release an album
called "A Beautiful Lie,"
and on that album was
a song called "The Kill,"
which was incredibly popular...
Come break me down
Bury me, bury me
I am finished with...
You...
Look in my eyes
- You're...
- Killin' me, killin' me
I am finished with you!
...and it really saw their
entry into the mainstream.
How you doing, New York City?
Suddenly, Leto had access
to this huge, devoted fan base,
many of whom were
young teenage girls.
As a teenager, I was very
much so a punk, Goth kid.
I had coloured hair, I wore fishnets,
I wore black lipstick, I
wore black nail polish.
The scene was so supportive.
It was just a sense
of... like a community.
The first time I ever heard
Thirty Seconds To Mars
was on the radio, and
I was instantly hooked.
I was literally listening
to "The Kill" on repeat.
I saw Thirty Seconds To
Mars at the 99X X-Mas Ball.
My mom got me tickets.
The concert was absolutely amazing.
Oh, I was in heaven when
I saw Jared Leto onstage.
As a 14-year-old
girl with a little...
...with a little crush on him.
So, Thirty Seconds
To Mars gets offstage.
They were allowing people to
get autographs and meet them.
I walked up to Jared Leto,
told him, "I'm a huge fan,"
and I held my shirt
out for him to sign,
hopefully on an arm
or maybe on the belly
and, instead, he chose to
sign my shirt across my breasts.
And he told me,
"You have a nice rack."
And in that timeframe,
he asked his bodyguard to go
ahead and take me backstage.
He didn't even ask me if
I wanted to go backstage.
He literally looked at his
security guard and said,
"Take her... take her back."
I was very short.
I had braces.
It was very obvious
that I was a teenager.
My mother, who was
standing next to me,
was like, "That's my daughter.
"She's fucking 14."
And he looked at her and said,
"It's still a nice rack."
We didn't get to stay
and finish the concert.
My mom took me home.
This was not a pleasant experience
to have to go through.
You should not be touching my
breasts in any way, shape or form.
I was 14,
and that was supposed to be
a sense of community for me.
Things like that aren't supposed
to happen at metal shows.
I'm gonna cry.
Things like that aren't
supposed to happen when you...
...are supposed to
be enjoying yourself.
Thank you.
It really altered my
life in a real way.
I stopped going to
concerts altogether.
I stopped listening
to that kind of music.
I really felt like I had
been taken advantage of.
What turns me on?
I would like to answer
that by asking a question.
What doesn't turn me on?
We wanted to speak to
insiders from the mid-2000s.
So, people who had
spent time with Leto,
who had worked with him
in the context of his band.
So, we contacted hundreds of people,
producers, crew members,
tour staff, even bandmates...
...and it was really, really
hard getting people to talk to us.
A lot of them were
scared to speak out.
Many had signed NDAs.
But then, eventually, we found Simon.
I think that's him.
Hi, Simon. Hi.
Jessica. Thank you so
much for coming all this way.
Okay, let me introduce you
to... the lurkers over here.
Speaking to me anonymously,
is that for fear of repercussions?
I don't want to be
notable in this at all, but...
...I do want to do my part.
Would I want to tell my daughter...
...that I didn't stand
up for what was right
when I got an opportunity
to say something?
Let's talk about Thirty
Seconds To Mars.
I worked with the band
for about a decade.
Jared was generally very
focused and hard-working.
Very demanding.
He had a clear vision
of what he wanted.
During one period of time,
they'd set up their recording
equipment in a spare room in the house,
with just a desk and a few chairs,
a microphone,
a couple of packing blankets.
He would be texting with girls.
There would probably,
typically on a given day,
be about two girls
that might stop by.
It wasn't uncommon that
he would go let them in,
sort of point to a chair
for them to sit down, and,
possibly ignore them
for about 10, 15 minutes.
He might make a sort of rude remark.
Maybe it might be, "You're
a dirty girl, aren't you?"
The feeling...
...was he was trying
to assert control,
trying to assert a sense of power.
There was one particular
instance that I clearly remember,
where a girl had to be
dropped off by her parents.
This particular girl was
very young-looking, and...
...Jared would have
been in his early 30s.
They took off to the bedroom.
When they returned, and she
wanted a photo with him, and,
she tried to give him a kiss
on the cheek, he stopped her...
...and wanted to make
sure that the photo
looked like a sort of
spontaneous platonic meeting.
At that point, she had to contact
her parents to come pick her up.
Probably only an hour had gone by.
She just kind of sat there.
The feeling in the air, it felt like
shame and embarrassment.
I just remember being
really moved by it.
So what did you think
when the allegations
started to surface last year?
I remember reading the articles
and then coming across a video
that a young woman had made,
speaking of her time with Jared.
I remember her reciting some of
the things Jared would say to her.
There was no question about it,
she wasn't making it up.
This is his language.
Could you show me the
video you're talking about?
I first met him when I had
just turned 17 and he was 33.
I met him after a Thirty
Seconds To Mars concert.
He had started to move
from just, like, flirting,
to saying things of a
more sexual nature.
He literally started
calling me Lolita,
telling me he was old
enough to be my father.
He knew I was 17.
He... did various
things, like kiss my neck,
touch my chest, take my
hand, put it on top of his pants.
One time I was backstage with him,
he grabbed my face
and made me promise
that I wasn't gonna tell anyone.
Did those behaviours that she's
describing feel familiar to you?
It's uncanny, the things she says
about how he would behave with her.
It's upsetting.
It's disturbing.
It completely brings back
memories of what I witnessed.
His band was having a concert.
I was with another girl.
And we were backstage.
I was 17.
It wasn't actually Jared
Leto who approached me.
He had sent an acquaintance
of his, probably in his 40s.
He was a comedian.
And he told me, you know,
"Jared's seen you from
where he is over there,
"and he was interested
in getting your number."
I didn't actually meet him
at that venue at that time.
That would come later.
You know, most young girls saw
him very much as a heart-throb.
You know, very
handsome, great features.
Professionally, very good at
what he did as an actor, as a singer.
He was a very magnetic person.
At that age, I had
just been coming out of
a really awkward time in adolescence.
I had always been very,
very shy. Painfully shy.
I'd blush a lot, I'd
trip over my words.
It was very validating
that someone like him would
be interested in me at all.
So, sometime after that concert,
there had been some text exchanges.
He had invited me to meet him at a
place called the Chateau Marmont,
which is right there in the
main area of Hollywood.
I had a friend with me
at the time, so he said,
"Go ahead and bring her."
It's a very kind of secluded,
upscale place where they cater to
a lot of A-list celebrities,
so it was intimidating
at first going in there.
He was at a table with friends.
He kind of waved us over,
we sat down, my friend and I,
and just having some
general banter about things.
We had kind of drifted
into the realm to talk about
the age of consent.
I had mentioned to him that
my dad was in law enforcement,
that I knew with certainty
that, here in California,
the age of consent is 18.
He just kind of shrugged it off
like it wasn't a huge concern for him.
Oh, yes. He did know. Yeah.
So, after that, he had told me
that they were about to
head back to his house.
So, we'd walked in the door
and I remember immediately,
off to the side,
there were these two really distinct
statues from the "Clockwork Orange."
And he had them...
They were two females,
and he had them arranged
in, like, a very sexual position.
He had shown us
where his bedroom was.
We had gone in, we were
sitting on the bed with him.
And so, he suggested to my friend,
"You can wait in the computer
room while her and I hang out."
That is when things
had turned sexual,
when my friend was in the other room.
So there was probably, I would say,
about three or four times that
I had been to his residence.
There was one time in
particular where I had gone over,
I let him know that I was there.
He opened the door and he had told me
that he was in the middle
of some sort of interview.
So he let me in the house...
...I went down the
hallway into his bedroom
and he had made a comment of,
"By the time I get back, I
would like your clothes to be off."
So, he had gone out,
finished the interview.
He'd come back in
the room and he said,
when he noticed that I was undressed,
something to the effect
of, "Brave little girl."
It was this theme that
he kind of stuck with,
wanting to see me as a younger girl.
He told me, "I would like
you to call me Daddy,"
and it was either, "and pretend
to be A little girl or MY little girl."
I had so little exposure
to anything sexual, really,
at that time as a teenager.
Was this what, you know, is expected
when you're intimate
with somebody older?
Is this what they say,
is this what they do?
Just wondering if it was normal.
As time went on, I
realised more and more
how scary that really was,
being that age and being
so naive and vulnerable.
There is no well-adjusted
man in his 30s...
...who's gonna look
at a teenager and think,
you know, "Wow, she
would be a great partner."
The only reason to
approach somebody like that
is because of how easily
manipulated they are.
Let's talk about the lyrics.
You can probably guess
which lyrics I'm gonna
- pick out of "Up In The Air."
- Oh, I'll be...
Oh, I see. I don't know. Surprise me.
"I'll wrap my hands
around your neck so tight
"with love, love, love."
- Yeah.
- Quite erotic.
- Is it?
- Um, tell us a little bit more...
It's funny that you
would take it that way.
About well, tell us what the song's
about, if that's not what it is.
Well, I think, what is it they say?
Um...
Everything is about
sex except for sex.
Sex is about power.
In the late 2000s, Jared
actually took a break
from acting to focus on his
band, Thirty Seconds To Mars.
They were really gaining a
massive fanbase across Europe.
It's from this period that we
noticed a lot of videos online
of Leto inviting young
girls up onstage.
Oh, shit, that's so crazy.
And the story goes on
Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-woah
Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-woah
- Hello?
- Oh, hi, Brad.
It's Jessica from the
BBC. How are you doing?
- I'm good. How are you?
- I'm good.
Brad toured with Thirty
Seconds To Mars around this time,
and he agreed to speak with me
about his experience
of working with Leto.
At the time I was working for them,
they were a very big band, you know,
uh, headlining arenas in
lots of different countries.
What was the atmosphere like on tour?
Very tense.
I've been on the road
since I was a teenager
and Jared is one of the worst people
I've ever worked for, in
any way, shape or form.
Nice to see you.
Give me a hug. It's been a long time.
Good to see your face.
We've met before.
Yeah, I remember, of
course. How could I forget?
How could I ever forget?
No. I'm joking, I'm joking.
Of course I remember
you. You're beautiful.
Did anyone on the crew
feel uncomfortable about
the way Jared was
interacting with female fans?
No one enjoyed watching
that or being involved in that,
if he ever asked anyone to get
a phone number or anything like that.
I think everyone thought that
the age gap was way too big.
And what sort of age range
were these girls, do you think?
Teens.
Yeah, you with the pink hair.
Come over here. With the pink hair.
Pink hair, pink hair,
pink hair, pink hair.
Pink. Pink. Pink hair.
Do-do-do, I
Fell apart
But got back up again, yeah...
Would he ever ask for any of
the fans to be brought backstage?
I remember at least
one or two incidents
of girls coming onstage
for the final song and...
and crew members
being instructed to,
you know, grab those girls
and invite them to come
backstage after the show.
And he would talk to them
in his dressing room and...
I couldn't tell you
what happened from there.
Was there anything else
crew members were asked to do
that made them feel uncomfortable?
Uh, whenever they would play cities
that had a lot of modelling
agencies, like Milan
or Berlin, Paris etc,
crew members were instructed
to call up the modelling agencies
and offer free tickets
for the female models.
They would give all of the models
VIP passes and they would
have a room backstage for them.
I know that people involved in that
did not particularly
enjoy having to do that,
because it was all... Well, I mean,
calling up a modelling agency
and saying,
"We only want your female
models," is a little bit uncomfortable.
And who requested this?
That was direct from Jared.
I moved to London in 2013.
I went to Elite Models.
There was a manager from my agency
who told me that Thirty
Seconds To Mars had put out
an invitation that we
could go and see the show
and then there was also
a VIP meet-up afterwards
that we could go to.
The concert was at the O2.
It was a good concert, I remember.
Somehow the assistant got to
me and asked if I wanted to go
to an after-party at
Shoreditch House.
And I remember thinking to
myself, "I've never been there.
"I want to go. I want
to see what it is."
So we were eight people,
mostly just women, and then Jared.
I remember going to the
bathroom and when I came out,
he was standing,
like, in the corridor.
He says something and it gets me
to say, "Do you know how old I am?"
And then he... says, "No,"
and then I lie and I say, "I'm 17."
At the time, I'm 19.
I just remember that
I felt the need to say
that I'm younger than I am.
He said, "Age is just a number
"and, anyway, we're in Europe."
I remember speaking to
the assistant, who was saying
that there was the
next place to go to.
It was in a hotel.
I was a bit drunk and
my phone was dying.
So I was saying, "But I
don't know where it is.
"How am I gonna get there?"
She kept, like, pushing
and saying, "It's really easy.
"It's right over there."
The assistant is a woman,
so I trusted her.
I get into the hotel room.
It's really dark.
And then I see that it's just him.
"Weren't there supposed
to be other people?"
And I think he just says,
"No, it's just you and I."
Then I'm sat there and saying,
"Okay, well, my phone is dying,
"so I can't really
get home from here."
So I ask him if he
has a phone charger.
"No, I don't."
"Okay. I also don't have any cash left.
"Could I get some cash
to get a cab home?"
"No, I don't have any cash."
I was sat on a chaise
longue kind of thing.
So I was kind of like, thinking to
myself, "Could I just sleep here?"
I ask him, "Can I
just sleep here, then?"
And then he just goes,
"If you're gonna sleep here,
"you're gonna wake
up with a dick in your ass."
And I think I ask him,
like, "What did you say?"
And he says this a few times.
"If you're gonna sleep here,
"you're gonna wake
up with a dick in your ass."
At that point, I was
like, "I'm not safe here.
"Okay, I need to get out."
I went to the bathroom first,
and then, from there, I
was closer to the door.
When I got out of the hotel, I
remember being really angry.
I was angry at myself for
going into the hotel room.
I came home at, I
think, six in the morning.
I texted my then best friend.
And she was saying, "He
was threatening sexual assault.
"You should report him."
And in my head, I was like, "Nah.
"I put myself in that situation.
"He didn't touch me. It was
probably a misunderstanding.
"I was probably the only one."
But I'm probably not the only one.
And it's probably
been a lot worse. Yeah.
Do you feel like you were
tricked into going to that hotel?
Throughout this whole night,
I told the assistant all the reasons
why I shouldn't go to the next place.
And every time that I had
an excuse for not going,
I was getting nudged to go further.
The assistant knew what to
say to lure me into his hotel room.
It seemed that it was planned out.
"Never have I ever hooked
up with a fan on tour."
- Oh, ho!
- Really? Yeah. Yeah.
How did staff feel about having
to procure women
for Jared in this way?
I don't think anyone
liked being involved,
but it's also the kind of
camp where I think everyone
is slightly fearful for their job
and you don't want
to say no to anything.
He's not really someone
you want to fuck with.
He had a lot of people around that
just were constantly
jumping through hoops
for him and doing
anything he demanded.
There's sort of a secret rule
that you don't talk about what the
creative talent does in Hollywood.
There's a general sense
of just turning a blind eye.
Not a single person spoke up.
There were not only just men
of his age, but also women.
These dozens of people who were
travelling with him,
touring with him.
Not a single one said anything to
myself about looking out
for him or being concerned
about how young I
looked hanging around him.
Nobody said anything.
An enormous part of everything
that we're talking about is money.
In Hollywood, in music,
there's a superstructure.
There's layers and
layers of people around
the individual who are
incentivised to say and do nothing,
assistants, manager, lawyer...
...and an unfortunate reality
with these kinds of stories is that
it is not uncommon
for sources to be silenced.
Everyone has a vested
interest in all of this going away.
Um, it's about two
years after I met him,
I got a call from Jared.
From what I recall,
he said his lawyer
was concerned about his
relationships with women.
Uh, he kind of, like, chuckled,
laughed at that part
and said that he...
...uh, that his lawyer wants to have
all the women in his life sign NDAs.
I mean, I didn't feel comfortable
with it, like, right away,
but I was willing
to, like, look at it.
It didn't just cover,
like, present and future.
It covered things that I
would have said in the past.
"Commencing on the date on
which my association with you began,
"I hereby acknowledge
and agree that a confidential
"relationship exists
between you and me."
It didn't seem right being
able to be held liable
for something that I
had done previously,
before I even knew I wasn't
allowed to speak about him.
It seemed like a really
great way to get sued.
I never signed it.
I made an excuse the first time,
and then just didn't respond after that.
How has it gotten this far
without this becoming
a larger scandal?
People knew about it in Los
Angeles and in Hollywood.
Is it people just not wanting
to believe the allegations about him?
Is it because they believe what
he's accused of isn't that bad?
Is it just because they've met him
and think he's charming
and fun and cool?
Frankly, honestly, I don't get it.
Three women, after they
spoke to me for my article,
asked me to retract their testimony
because they were pursuing
legal action against him.
I'm not sure what
came of the legal action.
I know that there's been no kind of
case in the public domain thus far.
It's been a year since the
Air Mail article was published,
and since then, Leto has
been in two major movies.
Most recently, he played Skeletor
in "Masters Of The Universe."
Thirty Seconds To Mars have announced
that they're going on tour in 2027.
So we have no idea what
the impact of our investigation
is going to be because,
honestly, it seems Leto's career
has been unaffected
by previous allegations.
Seeing him continue to
do whatever he wants to do
and get accolades for
it is pretty infuriating,
because he's left a trail of
emotional destruction
for a lot of young women.
It makes me lose faith because, like,
why... why are you
supporting a man like that?
How can you support a man like that?
So do you think he thought
that he'd get away with it?
Well, he has. Right? He
HAS gotten away with it.
This was 25 years ago.
Um... apparently he's been doing it.
Apparently people know about it.
So, by all means, I think
he has gotten away with it.