Jared Leto: Actor and singer accused of 'predatory behaviour', including interactions with underage girls
Actor and singer Jared Leto has been accused of engaging in predatory and inappropriate behaviour, including interactions with underage girls.
In a report by Air Mail on Saturday, nine women came forward with allegations against the 30 Seconds to Mars singer, aged 53, describing his actions as "predatory, terrifying and unacceptable."
One woman said in 2006, when she was 16, Leto approached her outside a Los Angeles café where he was sitting with actor Ashley Olsen, then 19. According to the woman, Leto grabbed her arm, got her number, and later called her repeatedly in the middle of the night.
"I don’t know if he was on drugs or what … It was the weirdest, grossest voice," she said. Leto allegedly invited her to a party at his house, which she declined, saying, "I didn’t even have a driver’s license." She claimed the calls turned sexual, with Leto asking, "Have you ever had a boyfriend? Have you ever sucked a dick?"
Model Laura La Rue, then 16, said Leto approached her at a 2008 Beverly Hills event, asked for her number, and later invited her to his home in 2009. "He was flirting with me. He’d lean in close, then pull away, like it was a game," she said. During another visit when she was 17, La Rue claimed Leto walked out naked in front of her. "He just walked out, dick out, like it was normal," she told Air Mail.
Leto’s representative denied La Rue’s claims, stating their communications were not inappropriate and that she later applied to work as his assistant - an assertion La Rue denies.
Another woman said she began texting Leto while underage and that he asked her explicit questions during visits. She alleged that when she was 18, Leto exposed himself and forced her hand onto him, demanding, "I want you to spit on it."
DJ Allie Teilz also accused Leto of assaulting her when she was 17, reposting a 2012 Facebook status on Instagram that read, "Youre [sic] not really in L.A. until Jared Leto tries to force himself on you backstage." She called his actions "predatory, terrifying and unacceptable."