From beloved icons to powerful figures, these celebrities faced serious allegations that were initially overlooked. Join us as we explore the warning signs and red flags that preceded their downfall. We'll examine how these individuals managed to maintain their status despite mounting evidence against them.
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00:00Has someone coerced you into being here?
00:02Do you count Harvey Weinstein as a coercer?
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most
00:08scandalous celebrities who got away with crimes, despite some obvious warnings.
00:12Did you ever try and do anything about Savile?
00:15I did my bit, I said what I had to.
00:19Number 10, Jeffrey Epstein.
00:20He was here around Easter, and he rides his bicycle around, usually with young girls.
00:25While he's now a household name, Jeffrey Epstein first came to the public's attention in 2005,
00:30at a time when he was a popular and successful financer.
00:33In March of that year, a woman informed the Palm Beach Police Department that her
00:37teenage stepdaughter was taken to Epstein's mansion and paid to massage him.
00:41Palm Beach Estate, formerly owned by Jeffrey Epstein, has been demolished.
00:44The demolition of the six-bedroom mansion began yesterday.
00:47An investigation was opened, and it uncovered a long history of
00:50sexual assault involving dozens of girls.
00:53Unfortunately, the law totally bungled the case by giving Epstein a highly
00:56controversial plea agreement, and he received just 18 months in prison.
01:00He was out in 12.
01:01It was a warning that no one heeded, and the assaults and sex trafficking
01:05continued for years after, until he was famously arrested again in 2019.
01:09He says it appears that many people here would prefer to forget or not even bother now
01:14with Jeffrey Epstein.
01:15Number 9, Lance Armstrong.
01:17For years, his achievements have been marred by whispers that he was a drug cheat.
01:22Well, they're whispers no more.
01:23There were few athletes as big as Lance Armstrong in the early 2000s.
01:27He brought cycling to the mainstream and won the Tour de France in seven straight
01:31years from 1999 to 2005.
01:33And from the very beginning, people were trying to tell us that he was a cheater.
01:37Many people came clean about Armstrong's history with doping,
01:40from journalists to fellow cyclists to Armstrong's masseuse.
01:43It was surreal to watch.
01:44You have to understand, this is a man who has fought with everything he could to
01:47maintain this lie through vicious attacks, threats, and lawsuits.
01:51However, their claims were often met with legal threats,
01:54or just blatantly ignored due to Armstrong's influence in the sports community.
01:57And year after year, Armstrong denied it.
02:00That is, until the United States Anti-Doping Agency proved conclusively that Armstrong
02:04was using PEDs, to which he finally came clean and admitted to years of cheating and deception.
02:10And then, of course, there is the question of how much of what he said can even be believed,
02:14since Armstrong clearly admitted to being a very, very good liar.
02:188. Ellen DeGeneres
02:20For a long time, Ellen DeGeneres was regarded as a pop culture icon with an enormously popular
02:25talk show and a legacy of aiding LGBT acceptance on mainstream television.
02:36But the house of cards started collapsing in March of 2020, when comedian Kevin T. Porter
02:41called DeGeneres one of the meanest people alive on Twitter.
02:44Many people responded positively to Porter's tweet,
02:46supporting the claim and sharing personal anecdotes about their harsh run-ins with DeGeneres.
02:58We didn't know it at the time, but this thread was a huge warning.
03:01Just four months later, an extensive report was released in which former
03:04employees accused DeGeneres of harassment, racism, and toxic workplace behavior.
03:09The allegations effectively killed her career and ruined what was once a sterling reputation.
03:257. Bernie Madoff
03:27While not necessarily a celebrity in the traditional sense,
03:41Bernie Madoff was widely known as the chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.
03:45He also owned his own firm, through which he conducted the largest Ponzi scheme in history.
03:50Warnings were raised by multiple people, including financial analyst Harry Markopoulos,
03:54who knew that Madoff's numbers were fraudulent after looking at them for just five minutes.
04:08Markopoulos told the Securities and Exchange Commission about Madoff's
04:11shady accounting back in 1999. They ignored him.
04:14Madoff was eventually turned in by his own sons in 2008,
04:17and investigators concluded that he had stolen over $65 billion from investors.
04:22The SEC was viciously criticized for its poor work ethic in investigating Madoff,
04:26despite repeated warnings over a number of years.
04:386. Kevin Spacey
04:52One of the biggest actors of all time was brought down in October 2017,
04:56when Anthony Rapp accused him of sexual assault. His allegation dates back to 1986,
05:01when Spacey made a drunken and unwanted advance upon the underage Rapp at a party.
05:05This accusation opened the floodgates, and Spacey's downfall is now the stuff of legend.
05:10But did you know that Rapp tried to warn us about Spacey before 2017?
05:22Yep, he shared this exact story with the LGBT magazine The Advocate all the way back in 2001.
05:27However, Spacey's name was redacted for legal reasons, and because no one knew who Rapp was
05:32talking about, the accusations were largely ignored. Heck, even Family Guy tried to warn
05:36us back in 2005. 5. Harvey Weinstein
05:50It was basically an open secret in Hollywood that Harvey Weinstein was a creep. Rumors of
05:54his salacious casting couch had circulated for decades, and references to his inappropriate
05:59behavior popped up in shows like Girls and 30 Rock.
06:07But it wasn't just shows. Multiple celebrities alluded to Weinstein's crimes years before they
06:14were publicly known. Seth MacFarlane made a joke at the Oscars, Courtney Love gave a startling
06:18piece of advice at the roast of Pamela Anderson, Gwyneth Paltrow told David Letterman that Weinstein
06:23will coerce you to do a thing or two. Looking back, these were obvious clues, but they went
06:27completely ignored and unchecked, allowing Weinstein's crimes to continue unabated for
06:32years to come. 4. Jimmy Savile
06:52The once-popular Jimmy Savile wasn't around to experience his downfall, as it occurred after
06:57his death in 2011. But there had been many warnings beforehand, warnings that went completely
07:02ignored. In fact, the allegations date all the way back to the 1950s. An official police
07:07investigation against Savile was opened in 1958 following claims of sexual abuse, but there was
07:12not enough evidence to charge him. Sex Pistols vocalist Johnny Rotten alluded to Savile's crimes
07:23in a 1978 interview with the BBC. Heck, even Savile himself tried to warn us. He wrote an
07:28autobiography in 1974 titled As It Happens, inside of which are blatant admissions of criminal
07:33conduct. No one cared. 3. R. Kelly
07:53The first major warning sign about R. Kelly appeared in the December 1994 issue of Vibe
07:57magazine. Inside was the secret marriage certificate between Kelly and Aaliyah. Their
08:02marriage had privately occurred on August 31st, 1994, when Kelly was 27 and Aaliyah just 15.
08:08Things took an even darker turn in 1996, when a woman named Tiffany Hawkins tried to tell the
08:13world about Kelly's dark propensities. She filed a lawsuit against the singer,
08:24claiming that she had been sexually abused and that Kelly had a thing for younger women.
08:27The suit was quietly settled in 1998 for $250,000. It was another four years before
08:33the Chicago Sun-Times broke the Kelly story wide open and kick-started the famous criminal
08:37proceedings of the 2000s. 2. Bill Cosby
08:53There were a multitude of allegations against Bill Cosby before the famous reckoning of 2014,
08:58but no one wanted to incriminate America's dad. Joan Tarshis told a reporter named John Millward
09:03that she was sexually assaulted by Cosby back in the 1980s. Millward did not write about it.
09:08Playboy playmate Victoria Valentino made sexual assault allegations against Cosby in 1996.
09:13The report was never published. The National Enquirer wrote a story about Cosby in 1990,
09:26and radio show host Wendy Williams openly spoke about the story on her program.
09:30No one cared. Lachelle Covington filed a complaint against Cosby in 2000. The district
09:34attorney never prosecuted him. Plenty of people tried speaking out, but everyone refused to listen.
10:011. Diddy
10:12While the allegations date back to the early 90s, the first major red flags against Diddy
10:17popped up in 2017. This is when his personal chef, Cindy Rueda, filed a lawsuit against him
10:22claiming sexual harassment. It was quietly settled in 2019, and the singer faced no
10:27major ramifications to his public image. Regardless, it was a clear snapshot of what
10:31was to come in 2023 and 2024 when Diddy faced an onslaught of accusations.
10:36Attorney Andrew Van Ardsdale reports that he's heard from 3,000 people with accusations against
10:42Diddy, and according to the Washington Post, over 120 lawsuits will be brought against him.
10:46Half of the plaintiffs claimed to have reported Diddy to the police,
10:50and some even went directly to the FBI.
10:52Wow, I mean, shocking details to say the very least, and I'm sure just the start
10:56of what's to come. Do you remember when these scandals broke? Let us know in the comments below.
11:00Many powerful people. There are many dirty secrets.
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