Covering up crimes and repulsive behavior of famous people is a practice that has happened for decades. Many people who have died and wronged others are still treated like saints despite hearing about despicable things they have done. The following is a list of people who don’t deserve the accolades they get for their acting or activism.
Kobe Bryant
Bryant was a basketball all-star in the NBA and led his team to many championships. He was known as a ‘girl dad,’ with four daughters and a dedicated husband. That was until a woman came forward accusing him of rape. She was a concierge at a Spa and he asked for a private tour of the property. He raped her in his room and insisted it was consensual. However, hospital records revealed that she had a bruise on her neck and tears in her vaginal wall. Both her underwear and Bryant’s shirt were bloody. They eventually settled out of court, and he gave a statement acknowledging her perspective of the encounter.
“Gonna get down voted, but Kobe raped a woman, and basically flat our admitted it, after, and only after, he bought her silence.”
“And bought his wife the humongous apology ring! I feel like each time she flashed a new bauble it was because he did it again.”
Dr. Seuss
It’s hard to imagine that one of the most world renowned children’s book authors had abandoned his sick wife for a mistress and then drove her to suicide. Yes, the man who invented the most vibrant and fun-loving characters that helped children learn to read and inspire creativity was actually an abusive husband. She left behind a suicide note that became public, yet he is still often viewed as an incredible man.
“Had an affair for years while his wife battled cancer. Drove her to suicide. Married the woman he’d been having the affair with a couple months later.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa was a Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity. She is remembered for taking in terminally ill, dying and unwanted people and treating them. However, many say that although she received millions of dollars in donations over the years, she instead funnelled that money to the Catholic church and refused to treat her patients with modern medicine. But when she required medical treatment herself, she happily took any medication that was provided to her.
“It’s wild how many people still to this day just think of Mother Teresa as a nice old lady. She was a publicity tool of the Catholic church at best and a fanatical fraudulent sadist at worst.”
“She wouldn’t help orphans unless they converted to Christianity. Like that was the deal. I will feed you of and only if you promise to be a Christian.”
“She had offers from doctors around the world to work with her to provide medical care, and she had more than enough money to make it happen. Money donated for that purpose. She could have saved lives and lessened pain. She refused and sent the money to the Vatican instead.”
Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin was a British comic and rose to fame during the era of silent films as an actor and filmmaker. He is considered a pioneer in the film industry and anyone sporting his style of moustache and hat are instantly recognizable even generations later. Although he played beloved characters, Chaplin himself wasn’t such a great person. He had inappropriate relations with underage girls, even younger than 13 years old when he was much older.
“His first wife was 16 when she got pregnant with his first child. His second wife, Lita Grey, was 15 when she thought she was pregnant, so they both went down to Mexico to get married to avoid Chaplin going to jail for having sexual relations with a minor. He was 35 when he started having an affair with 15 year old Lita Grey. Chaplin and Grey first met when Lita was 8, and then Lita was in “The Kid” when she was 12.“
“The guy pretty much started the whole Hollywood casting couch scene that has let to the rise of horrible men like Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein.”
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley was an American singer and actor and often referred to as the “King of Rock and Roll.” He was an international superstar and adored by millions of female fans, but he eventually settled with Priscilla who he met when he was 24 and she was 14. He cheated on Priscilla with many different women while denying there was anyone but her.
“He groomed and abused his wife for years and was a cheater/drug addict.”
“In a press conference on the day he arrived back at Graceland, Elvis played down his relationship with ‘the girl he left behind’. But in truth, though he was dating Anita Wood and several actresses, he seemed to have reserved a special place in his heart for ‘Cilla’. For the time being, Elvis went along with Colonel Parker’s belief that an all-consuming relationship would hurt his image and be bad for his career. Priscilla patiently waited for their reunion.”
John Lennon
John Lennon was an English singer, songwriter and musician best known as one of the Beatles. He was also supposedly a peace activist. But the man famous for his song “Imagine” about a world full of peace actually wreaked havoc in the lives of women.
“John Lennon was a drug addict, a pathological liar, a woman beater, and he abandoned his family. He did all this while singing about peace and love, which makes him a hypocrite to boot.”
“Guy sang about peace and love and acted like he was a Saint and some holier than thou person. Dude abused his first wife and abandoned his son and had a smug personality, but he was in the Beatles and to some people that excuses any wrongdoing.”
Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock was an English film director and producer. He’s considered one of the most influential people in cinema as he made several blockbuster films over decades. However he was known to make unwanted passes and sexually abuse women. Actress Tippi Hedren discussed his inappropriate behavior that eventually led her to beg his wife for help and then quit the film she was working on all together.
“Alfred Hitchcock was really really terrible.”
Pablo Picasso
Picasso was a Spanish artist known for his painting, sculptures and more. He is one of the most influential artists of the first half of the 20th century. Although his brilliance shines through his art, he also had a very dark side. He had many relationships in his life and his granddaughter wrote a book admitting he would dispose of women after using and abusing them.
“Pablo Picasso was an abusive raging narcissist who sucked the life out of people around him. His ‘muses’ were generally young women he’d domineer and destroy.”
From Wikipedia: “Picasso has been commonly characterised as a womaniser and a misogynist, being quoted as having said to one of his mistresses, Françoise Gilot, “Women are machines for suffering.” He later told her, “For me there are only two kinds of women: goddesses and doormats.”
Wikipedia continues to detail the tragedies that took place to others in his life at his hands.
“Of the several important women in his life, two, Marie-Thèrése Walter, a mistress, and Jacqueline Roque, his second wife, committed suicide. Others, notably his first wife Olga Khokhlova, and his mistress Dora Maar, succumbed to nervous breakdowns. His son, Paulo, developed a fatal alcoholism due to depression. His grandson, Pablito, also committed suicide when he was barred by Jacqueline Roque from attending the artist’s funeral.”
Prince
A celebrated artist and award-winning musician, Prince was an international superstar and considered one of the greatest of his generation. He looked demure and soft-spoken, but he was a raging monster on the inside. He is said to have been extremely violent to several women in his life. He met his ex-wife when she was 16 years-old and controlled the food she ate and docked her pay when he found whipped cream and cookies at her makeup station.
“In 1990, 16-year-old Mayte Garcia met Prince backstage in Barcelona after he saw a tape of her dancing. After she graduated high school in Germany at the age of 17, Prince became her legal guardian.”
Sinead O’Connor who was most famous for her hit single “Nothing Compares 2U” that was written by Prince, detailed an extremely violent and scary assault on her by Prince when she went to visit him.
“I’ve worked for prince and it’s a not so hidden secret he was absolutely awful to work with. There used to be a saying “you’re nobody in this industry until you’ve been fired by prince” He’s a legend for sure but was awful to those who put the show on, and his ego was out of control. And when it came down to it, he died from an OD, so for someone who was so quick to fire anyone over a simple mistake and he so critical of weakness, it turns out he had some hidden weaknesses of his own.”
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison is best known as the inventor of the incandescent light bulb although he had several other inventions such as the phonograph and motion picture camera. Although he held over 1,000 patents, it’s said that many inventions were discovered by his employees which he took credit for.
“Stole patents, stomped out competitors with physical force and violence, electrocuted an elephant to mislead the public his inferior power grid was less dangerous than Nikola Tesla’s, and a lot more.”
“He had an army of lawyers helping him file patents, but the amount of interference files from him are astounding. Not only did he steal and file patents, he would sue the crap out of the original patent filers if they tried to fight him.”
Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer and activist. He used nonviolent resistance to champion for India’s independence from British rule. He led large protests and fought anti-Indian legislation in courts. However he is criticized for being racist, mistreating women and not addressing or caring to dismantle the caste system in India.
“Gandhi’s wife had some type of Pneumonia which required penicillin to treat. He denied her this because he was against Western Medicine. However, he contracted Malaria 3 weeks after her death and took Quinine to treat it.”
“Apparently, there was a movement to get rid of (or at least lighten up) the caste system in India and they asked for Gandhi’s help. He refused, saying that the caste system is part of Hinduism and he believes it puts everyone in their rightful place.”
Franklin Lloyd Wright
Wright designed more than 1,000 structures over 70 years. Some of his most iconic buildings include the Robie House in Chicago, Guggenheim Museum in New York, and Hollyhock House in Los Angeles. But illustrious career shouldn’t overshadow the horrible things he has done in his personal life.
“He is seen as a visionary in architecture but he was a horrible person IRL. Raging narcissist, abandoned his wife and kids to run off with the wife of one of his clients, nailed down his selected furniture in a client’s home because he didn’t like what the client wanted, etc.”
“Abandoned his wife and children to take a mistress, who was herself already married. He drove his butler insane, and the guy ended up killing Wright’s mistress and her kids, burned down his studio, and committed suicide by drinking acid. (Wright wasn’t there at the time.) Wright’s response to this was to rebuild the studio exactly as it was before, supposedly “to honor his mistress and their children”, but it was pretty obvious to people at the time that he just wanted to protect his legacy as an architect, as many of his most famous innovations were showcased in the design. Sure enough, it became the museum to his work and is still visited today.”
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