Jared Leto is back in the headlines this week, but it has nothing to do with a new blockbuster flop.
The BBC released a documentary on July 29 titled Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret, in which ten women describe encounters with the actor between 2002 and 2016. Four of the women accuse Leto of conduct they allege amounted to criminal sexual conduct. One woman alleges Leto assaulted her in a Las Vegas motel bathroom in 2002, when she was 17 and he was in his 30s. Another alleges he threatened her with sexual assault after a Thirty Seconds to Mars show at London’s O2 Arena in 2013, when she was 19. A third woman claims she had a sexual encounter with Leto at his California home when she was 17, below California’s age of consent, and says he brushed off her concerns after she raised the issue. A fourth woman, identified by the BBC as Etta, alleges the calls began when she was 16 after they met through a modelling agency in Los Angeles in 2014, and says she was later presented with a non-disclosure agreement that she refused to sign.
Nine of the ten women had never spoken publicly before taking part in the documentary. The BBC says it reviewed photographs, private messages and other material during its investigation into the allegations. The broadcaster also spoke to friends and family members who said the women had told them about the alleged incidents years earlier. Two former Thirty Seconds to Mars staff members also told the broadcaster they were uncomfortable with how often teenage girls were invited backstage or to the house where the band recorded.
Leto has issued a statement denying every allegation from the documentary. “I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my entire life,” he said. He also called the claims “absolutely and categorically false,” according to Deadline.
Similar allegations had already surfaced before the BBC documentary. In 2025, Air Mail published an investigation featuring nine women who described comparable behaviour.
But one part of the story hasn’t received as much attention. Leto remains attached to Disney’s Lunik Heist, a Soviet spacecraft heist film in development at Searchlight Pictures. It follows a run of box-office disappointments — we’ve covered how none of them have stuck to him quite like this news might.
His involvement in the promotional campaign for Masters of the Universe was noticeably limited, although neither Amazon MGM Studios nor Leto has publicly linked those decisions to the allegations or the BBC documentary. We covered that limited campaign in detail here. Whether the latest allegations affect Lunik Heist remains unclear.
Leto has not been charged with a crime and has denied the allegations in full. Whether the documentary changes the course of his career, including his attachment to Lunik Heist, remains to be seen. Neither Disney nor Searchlight has commented on Leto’s involvement with the project or on what, if any, effect the allegations may have on his future work.
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