Armie Hammer reveals childhood sexual abuse and suicide attempt following rape allegations
Trigger warning: This article contains mentions of sexual abuse and suicide.
More than two years after becoming embroiled in a scandal involving allegations of rape, sexual abuse, and cannibalistic fantasies, Hollywood actor Armie Hammer has finally broken his silence.
According to Fox News, Hammer denied in an interview with Air Mail any criminal wrong-doing. He insisted that all of his sexual encounters were consensual, but admitted to emotionally abusing former partners.
Hammer confessed that after many women accused him of sexual abuse, he tried suicide in February 2021. The actor also revealed that when he was 13, he was sexually molested by a youth minister, which sparked his interest in BDSM.
"What that did for me was it introduced sexuality into my life in a way that it was completely out of my control... I was powerless in the situation. I had no agency in the situation," he said, adding, "Sexuality was introduced to me in a scary way where I had no control. My interests then went to: I want to have control in the situation, sexually."
Hammer told the outlet that being sexually abused as a teenager "set a dangerous precedent in my life." He explained that his "sexual interests became about being in control because being out of control was very dangerous for me and very uncomfortable," reported Fox News.
However, he staunchly maintained that he never had non-consensual sex with any of his partners and obtained consent before every sexual act.
Hammer's wife, television personality Elizabeth Chambers, filed for divorce in 2020, alleging irreconcilable differences. Months later, claims of sexual assault doomed Hammer's once-thriving Hollywood career.
According to Fox News, an anonymous Instagram account leaked messages reportedly from Hammer, which detailed extreme sexual fantasies involving references to rape, violence, and cannibalism.
Following this, Hammer left the comedy Shotgun Wedding, in which he was to co-star with Jennifer Lopez, soon before production began.
He left the Paramount+ series The Offer, as well as the Starz series Gaslit and the Broadway play The Minutes, shortly after. WME, Hammer's agency, also dropped him.
The actor told Air Mail that he tried suicide in February 2021 because his life was falling apart around him. At the time, he was quarantined in the Cayman Islands with his children, Harper Grace and Ford Armand whom he shares with Chambers.
"I just walked out into the ocean and swam out as far as I could and hoped that either I drowned, or was hit by a boat, or eaten by a shark. Then I realized that my kids were still on shore, and that I couldn't do that to my kids," he remembered, as per Fox News.