Jared Leto accused of raping underage girl, grooming 16-year-old in new sexual assault claims

Joey NolfiWed, July 29, 2026 at 1:46 PM UTC

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Jared Leto at ‘Tron: Ares’ premiereCredit: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagicKey Points -

Oscar-winning actor and 30 Seconds to Mars band member Jared Leto was accused of sexual misconduct by 10 women.

Leto was accused of sexual assault by an underage girl in the state of California, while another said he groomed her at age 16.

A new documentary by the BBC will outline the allegations. Entertainment Weekly has reached out to Leto’s representatives for comment.

Oscar-winning Hollywood actor and 30 Seconds to Mars band member Jared Leto has been accused of criminal sexual assault by multiple women — including one who alleged she was sexually assaulted by the actor when she was 17.

The BBC published a new report on Wednesday outlining multiple allegations from 10 women, including nine publicly accusing the 54-year-old star for the first time. The allegations are also outlined in the media company’s new documentary Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret, chronicling the accusations that allegedly took place between 2002 and 2016.

Per the women featured in the BBC report and the documentary, one claimed that Leto assaulted her in a “dingy gross motel” bathroom, while another said Leto had sex with her in the state of California when she was 17. The allegation would be classified as statutory rape per laws in the state that set the age of consent at 18.

“He told me, ‘I would like you to call me daddy’. And it was either pretend to be a little girl or ‘my little girl’,” said a woman identified by the BBC as Clara, referencing the allegation involving alleged statutory rape in California.

Actor Jared Leto at 81st Golden GlobesCredit: Christopher Polk/Golden Globes 2024 via Getty

Clara told the BBC she was “so naive and vulnerable” at age 17, and that she had sex with Leto after first meeting him in 2006, when he was in his 30s. Clara alleged that she had a conversation with Leto about the age of consent in California, but that, according to her, “[Leto] just kind of shrugged it off, like it wasn’t a huge concern for him.”

Elaborating on the aforementioned alleged motel incident, a woman identified as Isabel said she didn’t “think there was many words exchanged and he opened the shower curtain and started kissing me,” she told the documentary crew, with the BBC further reporting that she alleged “[Leto] then grabbed her hand and used it to masturbate himself.”

One woman also alleged that Leto groomed her from the age of 16, alleging that he repeatedly made sexually explicit phone calls to her at the time, with one, identified as Etta, alleging that Leto introduced her to a friend, who would “call a lot and ask her to shoot porn, saying it did not matter if she was under age.”

Etta was allegedly “subsequently sent a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to prevent her from talking about her relationship with Leto, which the BBC has seen. However, she refused to sign,” the outlet reported, after previously indicating that its staff had also “seen pictures and messages that support the women’s accounts.”

Four others alleged that Leto engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior with them, while another woman alleged that, during a music festival, Leto once told a security guard to take her backstage after making a lewd remark about her breasts while signing an autograph.

The then-14-year-old, identified as Taylor, alleged that, in 2005, Leto signed her shirt across her breasts at a music festival, and allegedly remarked, “You have a nice rack,” which she said elicited a verbal confrontation from her mother. “He looked at her and said, ‘it’s still a nice rack’. He just did not care,” Taylor alleged.

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Jared Leto attends the 87th Academy AwardsCredit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Also reportedly included in the documentary are accounts from two of Leto’s former staffers, who told the BBC that they felt uncomfortable working with the rock musician and actor, as they alleged he would also frequently interact with teenage girls.

“I think everyone thought the age gap was way too big,” one told the outlet. A man the BBC identified by a fake name, Brad, said that he experienced Leto requesting that his staff call local modeling agencies to offer free concert tickets to female models when 30 Seconds to Mars was in town performing.

One woman alleged that Leto told her that “age is just a number, and anyway, we’re in Europe,” when she reportedly told him that she was only 17 because she “felt the need” to protect herself from harm upon going to his hotel room.

Shannon and Jared Leto performing with 30 Seconds to MarsCredit: Jim Dyson/Getty

Leto, who won an Oscar for his role in 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club and has lodged multiple singles on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart as part of 30 Seconds to Mars, has been accused of sexual misconduct in the past.

In 2025, nine women accused Leto in an Air Mail report of engaging in behavior that was, according to one, “predatory, terrifying and unacceptable.” At the time, a representative for Leto told the publication that the actor “expressly denied” the accusations, calling the allegations “demonstrably false.”

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Entertainment Weekly has reached out to Leto’s representatives for comment on the new allegations brought forth in the BBC documentary.

Outside of starring in recent high-profile films like House of Gucci, Haunted Mansion, Tron: Ares, and Masters of the Universe, Leto also earned a Satellite Award nomination for his performance as WeWork founder Adam Neumann in the 2022 miniseries WeCrashed.

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.

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