- 3/23/2025
Don't believe everything you hear! Join us as we explore celebrities whose careers took hits from false rumors and gossip. From Lauryn Hill's misquoted statement to Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction," these stars faced unfair scrutiny that impacted their professional lives. Which celebrity do you think was treated most unfairly by the rumor mill?
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00:00It seems as if they wanted it to be true because nobody got in touch with me.
00:03And of course, the truth comes to light.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at celebs whose careers were
00:10seemingly diminished over questionable gossip.
00:13Yeah, I think betting against me is probably not a good move.
00:18Lauryn Hill. Her only solo project to date, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,
00:23is revered as not just one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time,
00:26but one of the most acclaimed albums ever.
00:30Unfortunately, Hill's career has faced some setbacks since that generational project.
00:37In 1996, a quote emerged in which Hill allegedly asserted
00:41she would rather her children starve than for white people to purchase her music.
00:45This statement has since been thoroughly proven as false.
00:48Sometimes, you know, when the image is too clean, people always want to try and taint it.
00:52Hill responded to the controversy, stating that the rumors had been disheartening
00:56because she considers her music universally appealing.
00:59This would still contribute to Hill's struggle with fame, as would other controversies,
01:03including legal battles over miseducation credits
01:05and facing hate for bravely criticizing the Catholic Church.
01:09Jenna Cooper. Bachelor in Paradise's Jenna Cooper finally got some peace of mind
01:14when after over a year of rumors circulating she cheated on Bachelor co-star Jordan Kimble,
01:18her name was cleared.
01:20I don't think there is a form of justice possible.
01:24I think that could heal or fix me completely.
01:30Or my family, who unfortunately had to deal with that,
01:33which I hate because I wish I just could have taken it all.
01:36The two got engaged in the season five finale of Bachelor in Paradise,
01:39but screenshots were posted by a blogger the same day it aired
01:42that embroiled the couple in scandal.
01:44But I just kind of took it.
01:45I was just like, I don't know what to do.
01:47This isn't true, but what can I say?
01:50And I did not feel any support from them at all.
01:53The text in the images allegedly show Cooper talking to her supposed sugar daddy.
01:58Although she denied the accusation,
02:00Kimble ended his relationship and engagement with her.
02:03Cooper felt vindicated after an investigation led by forensic investigators and lawyers
02:07hired by the star herself to look through her digital devices showed the texts were fake.
02:12Yeah, I learned a lot and I'm so happy to be out of it.
02:15I can appreciate what I got out of it.
02:17Chingy.
02:18According to rapper Chingy, a lie spread by social media influential Sidney Starr
02:23that the two had slept together hurt his career,
02:25even after she admitted to fibbing about the hookup.
02:28I remember actually waking up one morning, my phone went off as a part of mine.
02:32He was like, man, what's this stuff on social?
02:35The Internet?
02:36I ain't know what he was talking about.
02:38I'm so clueless.
02:40Chingy, who rose to rap stardom with his single Right There in the early 2000s,
02:44elaborated that the rumor affected his bottom line due to dubious industry politics
02:49and subsequent sabotage.
02:50The sabotage was already in place.
02:53I lost a record deal because that was so huge on the Internet.
02:58The rumors began to spread after a photo that Chingy and Starr took together
03:02started circulating online in 2010,
03:04with Starr claiming she was in a relationship with the rapper.
03:07It wasn't until 2012 that Starr admitted to fabricating the relationship and apologized,
03:12clarifying that she only took the photos with Chingy as a fan of his.
03:15If I could turn the hands of time, I'll just be like, I would have never done this.
03:20Megan Fox
03:21In 2009, Fox said that Transformers director Michael Bay was a nightmare to work with.
03:26You know, it's unfortunate that it would change public opinion.
03:29That, of course, hurts my feelings.
03:30I don't ever want people to think I'm difficult to work with or that I'm a bitch
03:34because I try to go out of my way to make people feel comfortable.
03:38This prompted an anonymous letter of defense from three male crew members
03:42who trashed Fox with allegations of unprofessional behavior.
03:45The star was dropped from Transformers Dark of the Moon, and her reputation was tarnished.
03:50Fox returned to the zeitgeist with her very public relationship with Machine Gun Kelly.
04:01But what led to a reexamination of Fox's career was a reexamination of a 2009 Jimmy
04:06Kimmel interview that saw Fox explain how she had been sexualized by Hollywood when
04:10she was only a teenager. The host's response? To laugh and make a sexual joke.
04:15It's a microcosm of how Bay's mind works.
04:17Yeah, well, yeah, well, that's really a microcosm of how all our minds work,
04:21but some some of us have the decency to repress those thoughts.
04:26After the clip's resurfacing, a conversation started about Fox's treatment as a young star.
04:31Fiona Apple
04:32At 19, Fiona Apple shook the world with a raw,
04:35explicit acceptance speech at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards.
04:39See, Maya Angelou said that we, we as human beings at our best can only create opportunities.
04:48And I'm going to use this opportunity the way that I want to use it.
04:50I didn't prepare a speech, and I'm sorry, but I'm glad I didn't,
04:53because I'm not going to do this like everybody else does it, she explained.
04:56That she didn't, calling for those watching not to model their lives after celebrities,
05:00but to chart their own path.
05:02You shouldn't model your life about what you think that we think is cool and what we're
05:05wearing and what we're saying and everything. Go with yourself.
05:09It's just stupid that I'm in this world, but you're all very cool to me, so thank you very much,
05:13she concluded.
05:14The speech helped to amplify rumors that the singer suffered from mental health issues.
05:18And I'm sorry for all the people that I didn't thank, but man, it's good, bye.
05:23While she has been vocal about her mental health challenges,
05:26the rumors misrepresented the problem.
05:28Monica Lewinsky
05:30In her early 20s, Monica Lewinsky had an affair with a much older married man.
05:35Yes, many might question her actions.
05:37Yes, that man happened to be the president.
05:39Thanks to the internet and a website that at the time was scarcely known outside of Washington,
05:45D.C., within 24 hours, I became a public figure, not just in the United States,
05:52but around the entire globe.
05:55But that doesn't mean that she deserves to be vilified for the rest of her life for
05:58something she did when she was young, especially given the considerable power dynamic at play.
06:03Nobody took a step back, nobody, and said, wait a minute, what about this young girl?
06:08That didn't stop the media at the time from placing much of the blame at the young woman's feet,
06:12with inaccurate rumors dogging her for years.
06:15It wasn't until the past few years that I've been able to fully reclaim my narrative,
06:18almost 20 years later, Lewinsky said in 2019.
06:21So I think that really the kind of the takeaway, if anybody who's
06:25watching this is struggling or feels they've been shamed, is that you can get through it.
06:30So I think that really is the most important thing.
06:33Janet Jackson.
06:34A scandal erupted in the wake of Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson's performance
06:38at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.
06:40The term wardrobe malfunction was birthed from the incident, retroactively called nipplegate.
06:46During the show, Jackson's right breast was exposed for a fraction of live airtime
06:51after part of her outfit was torn away by Timberlake.
06:54The events puzzled many, and in the decades since,
06:57some have questioned what really went down and who's to blame.
07:00Was that whole thing planned or not?
07:02What's the consensus, said Trevor Riley, linebacker for the New England Patriots in 2018.
07:07All the emphasis was put on me, not on Justin, and, uh...
07:14Justin, we were friends.
07:17Shannon Darby.
07:19Shannon Darby successfully made the leap from child stardom to adult roles.
07:23Nobody knows me here.
07:25I could be anybody.
07:27I could be somebody.
07:28But her career faced some turbulence during the 90s due to an onslaught of sensationalized
07:33tabloid stories that earned her a reputation as a notorious bad girl.
07:37The instant her star had risen due to the teen drama, Beverly Hills 90210,
07:41the press scrutinized her every move.
07:44In 2019, Darby said she had come to terms with her old rep,
07:48once she admitted she earned, although not every rumor was true.
07:51But she also said she'd evolved, and that all of the negative things she'd done brought her
07:55to where she was then, as a much more mature human being deserving of forgiveness.
07:59Tragically, Darby passed away from cancer in 2024.
08:02And later took Hollywood to the next level.
08:05She was the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
08:09Tragically, Darby passed away from cancer in 2024.
08:12And later took Hollywood by storm.
08:14Often literally headstrong and talented.
08:17She shot to fame, fell from grace, reinvented herself,
08:21unapologetic, and always the picture of a survivor.
08:26In 2018, Ashley Judd filed a defamation lawsuit against producer Harvey Weinstein,
08:31citing false and misleading statements he made to sabotage her career.
08:35I also talked with my dad.
08:36And when I talked with my mom, I told her what I was thinking about doing.
08:39And she said, go get him.
08:41Judd alleged that, while filming the thriller Kiss the Girls in 1997,
08:45she was invited to Weinstein's hotel room,
08:47where the producer offered her a massage and asked her to watch him shower.
08:51I lost career opportunity.
08:52I lost money, she claimed, due to her rejection of his advances.
08:56I can see it in my eyes.
08:58Your elbow seems to be pushing him back while you're holding his hand.
09:05Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson backed the actor's allegations,
09:08saying he was warned by Weinstein's production company that Judd was a nightmare to work with.
09:13In hindsight, I realized that this was very likely the Miramax smear campaign in full swing,
09:18he explained.
09:19So we all do the best we can, and our best is good enough.
09:24And it's really okay to have responded however we responded.
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09:45Courtney Love
09:46At the height of the Me Too movement, several women in the entertainment industry bravely
09:50came forward with experiences of inappropriate sexual treatment at the hands of producer
09:54Harvey Weinstein.
09:56He ruined lives.
09:57He crushed dreams.
10:00I still am scared of him.
10:02He is a master predator.
10:04Courtney Love, however, had already issued warnings about his bad behavior a decade earlier.
10:09At Comedy Central's roast of Pamela Anderson in 2005,
10:12Love was asked to advise young women entering Tinseltown.
10:22After hesitating, she said,
10:24If Harvey Weinstein invites you to a private party in his fourth season's hotel room,
10:28don't go.
10:29Although I wasn't one of his victims,
10:30I was eternally banned by CAA for speaking out against hashtag Harvey Weinstein.
10:35Love tweeted after a video of the interview was unearthed in 2017.
10:39Do we miss another celebrity who was unjustly caught in the rumor mill?
10:42Let us know in the comments.
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