These scandals started bad and got worse as time progressed. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re examining ten scandals that got progressively more unsettling as new details and developments emerged.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Weinstein is now hitting back at the Times claiming the explosive report is quote
00:03saturated with false and defamatory statements.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're examining 10 scandals that got progressively more
00:12unsettling as new details and developments emerged.
00:16Kevin Spacey sat down on the sofa next to me asked if that was my girlfriend then reached over.
00:24The Catholic Church abuse scandal.
00:26Ignored when he spoke up, just one example out of hundreds
00:30swept into the carpet by the Catholic Church.
00:33The issue of abusive Catholic priests goes back decades, but as is usually the case,
00:39victims were discouraged from coming forward and the problems were handled internally.
00:44Which really meant that nothing much more was done about it.
00:47However, the issue began receiving limited press in the 1980s and a growing awareness
00:53spread the following decade, thanks in large part to Sinead O'Connor's infamous
00:58act of protest on Saturday Night Live.
01:05Fight the real enemy.
01:06But we had no idea just how deep it went.
01:10By 2002, the Boston Globe had broken the story wide open, revealing a decades-long
01:16pattern of abuse and systemic cover-ups by the Catholic Church.
01:20Before long, reports and investigations were erupting in countries all across the world.
01:26We gotta nail these scumbags.
01:27We gotta show people that nobody can get away with this.
01:31Not a priest or a cardinal or a freaking pope.
01:34Anthony Weiner.
01:35Did you send that picture to that college student in Washington State?
01:39I did not.
01:40Everyone remembers the time that sexting brought down a congressman.
01:44In May of 2011, he accidentally tweeted a lewd photo that was meant for a woman.
01:49He tried the whole My Account Was Hacked thing, but it didn't work, and Weiner eventually
01:55came clean.
01:56It gets worse.
01:57He also admitted to doing this with about six other women over the last three years,
02:02and he resigned from Congress.
02:04In 2013, Weiner attempted a political comeback, but was caught yet again.
02:10Two more times, in fact.
02:11New York Post reports today that Weiner has been texting once again with a 40-year-old
02:16woman this time.
02:17It gets worse.
02:18In 2016, he was accused of sexting an underage girl, and he pleaded guilty to transferring
02:24obscene material to a minor.
02:26He was given 21 months in prison and had to register as a sex offender.
02:31Anthony Weiner has already lost so much.
02:33His congressional seat, the chance to be New York City mayor, and his wife.
02:37Now this morning, he's waking up to the reality that on top of everything else, he's now about
02:41to lose his freedom.
02:43Marilyn Manson.
02:44Evan Rachel Wood says she knew it would be a big problem when she decided to publicly
02:48name her alleged abuser as Brian Warner, known to many, of course, as Marilyn Manson.
02:53Controversy has always followed Marilyn Manson.
02:56But things took a turn for the personal in 2021.
03:00It started in February, when a number of women, including Manson's ex-fiancé, Evan Rachel
03:06Wood, accused him of abuse.
03:08And with this, the floodgates opened.
03:11Further stories soon came pouring in, and before long, more than a dozen women had accused
03:16Manson of some kind of mistreatment.
03:18Was there a first step of like, oh, this doesn't feel right?
03:23Literally the first day on tour.
03:25Five women also filed civil lawsuits against the musician, including one Jane Doe, who
03:30claimed that she was groomed as a minor back in the 1990s.
03:34Some lawsuits were dismissed, others were settled out of court.
03:38And while Manson maintains his innocence, even going so far as to sue Wood for defamation,
03:43his reputation has been thoroughly tarnished.
03:46And he beat me with a whip, and he filmed it.
03:49Jeffrey Epstein.
03:51And when he is here at his home on Palm Beach, it appears he prefers to stay out of sight.
03:57This famous financier was rocked by scandal in 2005, when a woman in Palm Beach, Florida
04:03accused Epstein of assaulting her teenage daughter.
04:05The accusation was bad enough for his public image, but police looked into it and uncovered
04:10an entire network of abuse involving dozens of women and young girls.
04:15He was here around Easter, and he rides his bicycle around, usually with young girls.
04:19He served one year in prison.
04:21But as we all know, even that wasn't the end of the story.
04:25Fast forward to July 2019, when the FBI targeted Epstein and arrested him for sex trafficking.
04:31This arrest has spawned countless conspiracy theories, like the fact that Epstein was running
04:36an enormous underground sex ring involving the world's elite.
04:39This theory was further bolstered by his curious death in prison.
04:44Do you believe that Jeffrey Epstein took his own life, or do you believe he was got at?
04:49I believe he took his own life.
04:50Jimmy Savile.
04:52But the evidence amounts to much more than that.
04:55It's a pattern of offending that these complainants are speaking about.
05:00Everyone knew that Jimmy Savile was a bit eccentric, but a few knew that he was downright
05:06evil.
05:06Savile died in October 2011, and the following year, ITV released an episode of Exposure,
05:13in which multiple women accused Savile of sexual assault.
05:16Following its release, London police were so inundated with further accusations that
05:22they launched Operation U-Tree and began extensively digging into Savile's history.
05:27I was really aware that I needed to start talking.
05:31What they uncovered was nightmarish.
05:34They released a report in January 2013 detailing extensive abuse, with hundreds of women and
05:41young girls being attacked across the country over a span of 50 years.
05:45The scandal rocked Britain and beyond, leading to increased awareness of institutional abuse
05:51and a number of reforms to improve the safety of children.
05:54But basically, this whole sordid affair has shown the tragic consequences of when vulnerability
06:02collides with power.
06:03Kevin Spacey.
06:05This morning, actor Kevin Spacey is responding to a bombshell accusation of sexual harassment
06:09against a young boy.
06:10The Me Too movement brought about the downfall of many public figures, including Kevin Spacey.
06:16It began in October of 2017, when a man named Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of assaulting him
06:23back in the 1980s.
06:25Spacey issued a statement on Twitter apologizing to Rapp, but he also used the opportunity
06:30to come out as gay, a move that was widely criticized as an attempt at deflection.
06:35If only it ended there.
06:37The tears of a mother in Boston today, revealing what she claims happened to her son.
06:43In the following weeks, multiple people came forward with similar allegations, including
06:48many who worked on House of Cards, meaning his rash of inappropriate behavior was ongoing.
06:54And while Spacey has been acquitted in all criminal cases related to these allegations,
06:58he remains a controversial figure, and his career has struggled to regain traction.
07:03I think it was every single place you could imagine in our industry, every woman I've
07:08spoken to, female actor I've spoken to, has, can tell you a story.
07:11Bill Cosby.
07:13Do you still take grief for that?
07:16That grief?
07:16No, I've, uh...
07:18Well, now you're vindicated.
07:19While there were multiple warning signs, everyone ignored, even loved, Bill Cosby until October
07:262014, when comedian Hannibal Burress alluded to Cosby's sketchy history.
07:31These remarks allowed multiple women to come forward, and by the end of the year,
07:36more than a dozen had accused Cosby of sexual assault,
07:39with the pattern of abuse stretching back half a century to the 1960s.
07:44I never saw any drugs, but I would wake up completely confused, half-dressed.
07:52But things got even worse in 2015.
07:55We learned that Cosby tended to drug women with Quaaludes by spiking their drinks,
07:59and many more victims were discovered, eventually totaling over 60.
08:04America's dad eventually found himself in prison, and his case marked a major cultural
08:09shift in how accusations of abuse are perceived.
08:13In this deposition, Bill Cosby says a media outlet suppressed another woman's story
08:20at his request.
08:21Harvey Weinstein.
08:23For decades, rumors circulated in Hollywood regarding Harvey Weinstein's abusive behavior,
08:28but it wasn't until 2017 that the downfall truly began.
08:33I turned down intercourse with Harvey Weinstein on no less than three occasions out of five.
08:38In October of that year, The New York Times and The New Yorker published exposés detailing
08:44Weinstein's history of abuse.
08:46Dozens of women had accused the movie mogul of assault, and the problem had been persisting
08:51for decades.
08:52This is a very different day.
08:54What do you do if you have behaved badly for 30 years?
08:58But this was only the beginning.
09:00These exposés were the magic key, and it unlocked one of Hollywood's darkest secrets.
09:06Dozens more came forward following the publications, including some of the most prominent industry
09:11figures.
09:12In total, over 80 women eventually accused Weinstein of misconduct, sparking the Me Too
09:18movement and uncovering a deep pattern of systemic abuse.
09:22In New York, the former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 23
09:27years in prison.
09:28R. Kelly
09:29You could argue Chicago law enforcement has been hunting down R. Kelly for nearly 20
09:33years.
09:34In December of 2000, The Chicago Sun-Times made a startling report on R. Kelly, claiming
09:39that the R&B singer had engaged in inappropriate behavior with a minor.
09:44We had no idea just how far this story would go.
09:47The newspaper broke a similar scandal just 14 months earlier, leading to serious charges
09:52which tarnished the singer's reputation.
09:54But because the alleged victim refused to testify, Kelly was infamously acquitted.
10:10Luckily, justice eventually came for the singer in the 2010s and early 2020s, following even
10:17deeper and more disturbing revelations.
10:20Kelly was eventually nailed for many serious crimes, like producing illicit material, sexual
10:26exploitation, and racketeering, and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
10:50Diddy
10:56He says, quote, many powerful people, there are many dirty secrets.
11:01This is one of those stories where it seems like every day brings a new revelation.
11:06November 2023 was a bad month for Diddy, as three different people accused him of sexual
11:11assault, including his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura.
11:15He acknowledged his transgressions with a quick Instagram apology,
11:19hoping that that would bury the story for good.
11:22The evidence is very clear, and it was only a matter of time that this is an important
11:26step towards justice.
11:27Now, Sean Diddy comes, he's denied any wrongdoing in those civil lawsuits against him.
11:31But those allegations were only the tip of the iceberg.
11:35In October of 2024, the Washington Post reported that over 120 lawsuits against
11:41Diddy would be filed in the coming months.
11:44And attorney Andrew Van Arsdale even admitted that approximately 3,000 people have come
11:49forward with allegations of abuse.
11:523,000.
11:53Just when you think the story couldn't possibly get any worse, it does.
11:57It was this one of so many people talking.
11:59The disgraced music mogul facing federal racketeering, conspiracy, and sex trafficking
12:04charges.
12:04Can you think of any other examples?
12:07Let us know in the comments below.
12:09I would describe Savile as a predatory serial sex offender.
12:15Did you enjoy this video?
12:16Check out these other clips from WatchMojo.
12:18And be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.