London — Four women speaking to CBS News' partner network the BBC have accused actor and band frontman Jared Leto of criminal sexual conduct when they were teenagers. One woman said the Oscar-winning actor and "Thirty Seconds to Mars" band frontman sexually assaulted her in a motel when she was 17, while another told the BBC said she had sex with Leto in California when she was the same age — which would qualify as statutory rape. A third woman told the BBC that Leto threatened her with sexual assault when she was 19 while she was alone with him in a hotel room.
Another alleges the star groomed her as a teenager, on one occasion suggesting they should have sex. Others say they received sexual phone calls or lewd comments from Leto. In total, 10 women spoke to the BBC for the documentary, Jared Leto: Hollywood's Dark Secret , including nine who said they were sharing their stories for the first time.
The women all say they encountered Leto when he was in his 30s and 40s, between 2002 and 2016. He is now 54. "This was 25 years ago … he has gotten away with it," one of his accusers said.
CBS News has not independently corroborated the accusations. Leto's representatives shared a statement from him saying: "I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my entire life. These claims are absolutely and categorically false." Leto has been plagued by allegations of sexual misconduct for years, but has denied all wrongdoing.
No criminal charges have ever been filed against him. Two men who worked with Thirty Seconds to Mars, Leto's band, told the BBC that staff were uncomfortable about his interactions with teenage girls, saying he occasionally invited them to his dressing room or to the house where the band was recording. The BBC said it corroborated several of the women's accounts with family and friends who were aware of the interactions with Leto at the time.
The network also said it viewed pictures and messages supporting the women's claims. "I think everyone thought the age gap was way too big," one former band employee told the BBC. The four women accusing Leto of criminal behavior, whom the BBC identified only as Isabel, Alex, Clara and Etta, go into detail in the documentary about what they say took place.
Isabel, now in her 40s, said she was 17 when she agreed to meet Leto at a hotel, where he started kissing her and used her hand to masturbate himself. She said she pulled away and told him she wanted to leave, adding that Leto then put on a towel and let her out of the "dingy gross motel" room after appearing to check who was around. Clara told the BBC she had sex with Leto when she was 17 and he was 34, at his California home, while her friend waited in another room.
In California, if an adult has sex with someone below the age of 18 it can be classified as statutory rape. "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'," she said in the documentary.
She said she was "naive and vulnerable" and unsure if the behavior was normal in an adult relationship. "There is no well-adjusted man in his 30s who's going to look at a teenager and think … she would be a great partner," Clara told the BBC. Etta told the BBC she was sent a non-disclosure agreement by Leto two years after he sent her explicit sexual emails, even though he knew she was 16.
"He did at least once mention him and I having sex at some point," she said. She never signed the NDA, which was seen by the BBC. In June 2025, nine women accused Leto of sexual impropriety in a news story published by U.S.
outlet Air Mail . The story also detailed how, a month earlier, Los Angeles DJ Allie Teilz had reposted a 2012 Facebook status in which she wrote: "Youre [sic] not really in L.A. until Jared Leto tries to force himself on you backstage… In a kilt..
And a snow hat." Air Mail reported that Teilz wrote in an Instagram story: "I was assaulted and traumatized by this creep when I was 17 … He knew my age and didn't care. What he did was predatory, terrifying and unacceptable." A representative for Leto "expressly denied" the accusations in the Air Mail piece, calling Teilz's allegations "demonstrably false." The BBC said it counted more than 120 separate allegations made about Leto's behavior toward women, many of them online, some of which were historical. Leto won the 2014 Academy Award as best supporting actor for his role in "Dallas Buyers Club." Leto is set to tour Europe and the U.K.
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