Jared Leto accused of sexual misconduct by nine women

Jared Leto. Image: AFP via The Straits Times

American actor and musician Jared Leto, who starred in films such as “The Suicide Squad” (2016) and “House Of Gucci” (2021), has been accused of sexual assault by nine women. The youngest was 16 at the time of the alleged incidents.

According to a report by US-based newsletter Air Mail, the accusations stretch over two decades.

The accusations resurfaced when Los Angeles-based DJ Allie Teilz, 30, reposted one of her Facebook posts from 2012, in which she alleged that Leto, now 53, had assaulted her when she was 17.

She wrote: “You’re not really in Los Angeles until Jared Leto tries to force himself on you backstage… I was assaulted and traumatized by this creep when I was 17.”

She described his actions as “predatory, terrifying and unacceptable” as Leto “knew her age,” but claimed he “did not care.”

A second anonymous victim alleged that Leto approached her at a cafe in Los Angeles in 2006 when she was 16, reported Air Mail.

Leto was said to have struck up a “quick conversation” with the girl and got her number. According to the woman, their late-night conversations “turned sexual.”

Former model Laura La Rue, 33, also claimed that Leto had “flirted” with her and “teased” her when he invited her to his Los Angeles home after they had met at an animal rights benefit when she was 16.

During a separate visit, Leto walked out of a room completely naked in front of her, claimed La Rue, who was 17 at the time.

“He just walked out… like it was normal… I thought maybe this was just what adult men do,” La Rue told Air Mail.

Leto’s representative denied La Rue’s claims, stating: “Their communications contain nothing sexual or inappropriate and Ms La Rue later applied to work as Mr. Leto’s personal assistant, further underscoring the absence of anything inappropriate in any of their interactions.”

Though Leto’s representative has “expressly denied” the allegations, the actor has yet to respond to them.

Leto, who made his acting debut in the television series “Camp Wilder” in 1992, won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for playing a transgender woman in the biographical drama “Dallas Buyers Club” (2013).

In 2024, he performed at the Formula One Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix as the lead singer of rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, which he co-founded with his brother Shannon Leto in 1998.  /ra