Four women have accused actor and musician Jared Leto of criminal sexual conduct in a BBC documentary released on July 29, 2026, alleging the Oscar winner and Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman targeted them when they were teenagers between 2002 and 2016. The film, “Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret,” features accounts from ten women overall, with nine speaking publicly for the first time about encounters at concerts, backstage areas, hotels, motels, and over the phone, during a period when Leto was in his 30s and 40s and the women ranged from 16 to 19 years old. Leto is now 54.
The first accuser, identified in the documentary as Isabel, alleges that Leto sexually assaulted her inside a Las Vegas motel bathroom in 2002 when she was 17. A second woman, Alex, says she was 19 at a London concert in 2013 when she told Leto she was 17, prompting him to reply,
“Age is just a number, and anyway, we’re in Europe,”
according to the documentary.
Later, alone with him in a hotel room, she says he threatened her with sexual assault when she asked whether she could sleep on the chaise longue. A third woman, Clara, claims she had sexual intercourse with Leto in California when she was 17, which would qualify as statutory rape, and that he dismissed a conversation about the state’s age-of-consent laws. The fourth, Etta, says Leto began making repeated sexually explicit phone calls to her when she was 16, suggested they should have sex on at least one occasion, and later sent her a nondisclosure agreement she refused to sign. The BBC says it reviewed the agreement along with supporting messages, photographs, and statements from friends and family who heard about the encounters at the time.
Six additional women describe receiving strange and often sexual phone calls from Leto during their younger years, while one more recounts a lewd comment about her body at an autograph event when she was 14 followed by an invitation backstage that her mother confronted and Leto repeated. Two former crew members from Thirty Seconds to Mars told the filmmakers that staff felt uneasy about Leto inviting teenage girls to dressing rooms or recording houses, with one ex-crew member saying the request for female models at concerts came “direct from Jared.” The BBC has counted more than 120 separate allegations made online relating to Leto’s behavior toward women. The claims last surfaced publicly in 2025 when Los Angeles DJ Allie Teilz posted on social media saying she had been assaulted by the actor when she was 17, prompting several other women to come forward with similar accounts.
Jared Leto has not responded to the specific allegations presented in the documentary despite repeated attempts by the BBC to reach him. His representatives denied any misconduct in 2025 when the earlier accounts surfaced. No criminal charges have been filed in connection with the current claims, and the 10 to 24 years that have passed since the alleged events may affect legal options under statutes of limitations in Nevada and California. Leto’s professional activities continue. He won the 2014 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for “Dallas Buyers Club,” and Thirty Seconds to Mars, formed in 1998, is scheduled to tour the United Kingdom and mainland Europe next spring. A version of the documentary is also available as a companion audio report on the BBC’s site.
Readers can review the BBC’s full investigation into the allegations against Leto, listen to the companion BBC audio report featuring documentary director Alice McShane, and consult Academy Awards records confirming Leto’s 2014 Best Supporting Actor win for biographical and career context. As of July 29, 2026, the documentary is drawing wide attention across platforms, and additional statements from Leto, his representatives, or legal filings by the women involved could shape the next phase of coverage.
