June 14, 2025 • 41 mins
In this episode, we take a look at current cult news stories in the media, and how talking about coercive control should be a normal part of our day to day lives.
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Sources:
- Andrew Tate Arrested: A Timeline Of Everything That's Happened
- Glamour UK Andrew Tate to face ‘coercive control’ claim in UK civil trial
- A timeline of sexual assault allegations against Russell Brand | Russell Brand
- The Guardian A Complete Timeline of Chris Brown's Controversies, Arrests Timeline of events around Russell Brand allegations and the BBC review
- The Standard We Need To Talk About Jared Leto’s Alleged History Of Sexual Misconduct
- Diddy trial: 'Coercive control' is a banned term.
- Why that's important Sean 'Diddy' Combs' Sexual Misconduct Allegations: A Timeline
- Leaders of women's sexual wellness company OneTaste convicted of forced labor : NPR
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hello listeners, and welcome back to another episode of the
Cold Fault podcast, where we take a look at power,
manipulation and the celebrities who blur the line between influence
and control. Today, we're kicking off our new episode on
questionable celebrities and coercive control with one of the most
polarizing public figures of the past decade, and You Taate.
(00:52):
Whether you know him as a former kickboxer, reality TV dropout,
TikTok provocateur, or self declared top g the truth behind
Andrew Tate's empire is much darker than the flashy cars
and cigar smoke might suggest. So who is Andrew Tate?
Born in Washington, d C. In nineteen eighty six and
(01:13):
raised in the UK. Tate's early life was steeped in
rigid gender roles. He often talks about his father being
the disciplinarian and his mother being in charge of keeping
you alive, classic binary roles with a toxic twist. He
rose to fame in the kickboxing world, even winning a
British ISKA championship, but his big public moment came in
(01:34):
twenty sixteen when he was kicked off Big Brother after
a video surfaced of him beating a woman with a bolt.
Tate claimed it was consensual. The woman involved backed him up,
but Channel five didn't buy it and he was out
by day seven. From there, things took a turn. Tate
moved to Romania, launched a webcam business with his brother Tristan,
(01:55):
and bragged on nine about making six hundred thousand dollars
a month with over seventy five women working for him.
He openly called it webcam pimping and described how women
were emotionally manipulated into performing and lying to clients. Sound familiar,
because that's textbook coercive control, grooming, isolation, economic abuse. In
(02:18):
twenty twenty two, Romanian authorities arrested the Tate brothers. They
were charged with rape, human trafficking and forming an organized
crime group. British authorities later added multiple charges, including ten
counts of rape for Andrew and eleven for Tristan. The
accusations are horrifying, choking, psychological intimidation, forcing women into sex
(02:41):
work under threats, and manipulation. And here's where things get
even more disturbing. While all of this was happening, Tate
was exploding on TikTok, influencing impressionable young boys, on misogyny
and hate speech. His videos, often degrading women or ranting
about how men should dominate, were being reposted by his
(03:01):
followers in the tens of thousands. His program, Hustler's University,
was set up like a modern day pyramid scheme. Pay
a monthly fee, learn how to make money online, and
he's the kicker. Recruit others by sharing taps most controversial clips.
The more clicks, the more recruits, the more money. It
was a machine, and it worked. This isn't just a
(03:24):
story about one man being awful. It's about how systems
of course of control can look slick, attractive, and successful,
especially when dressed up as masculine empowerment. Andrew Tate built
a cult like following. By weaponizing vulnerability, especially in young men.
He sold the idea that control over women equals success,
(03:44):
that emotional detachment is power, that if you're not dominating,
you're losing. And while take awaits trial, his content still circulates,
his fan base still grows. The damage is ongoing. Let
me be blunt when I I say coercive control isn't
always as obvious as lock stores or physical violence. It's
(04:06):
about manipulation, surveillance, financial domination, emotional blackmail. What Andrew Tate
is accused of mirror's patterns we've seen in abusive relationships
and yes, even in so called therapeutic programs. The rise
of Andrew Tate shows how dangerous it can be when charisma,
misogyny and control get platformed without accountability, and it raises
(04:29):
the question are we witnessing influence or indoctrination? And just
when you thought the legal saga around Andrew Tate couldn't
get more complex, a landmark civil trial is now moving
forward in the UK. This case it's not just about
what happened, it's about how it happened and why it matters.
(04:50):
Four women assuing Andrew Tate in a UK high court
for sexual abuse and emotional manipulation. They say they worked
in his webcam business. The other two say they were
pulled into in relationships that quickly became exploitative. But here's
the legal game changer. This is believed to be the
first SIBIL case in the UK where coercive control is
being argued as the central mechanism of harm and stud
(05:14):
A barrister representing the women described coercive control as a
relatively recently identified form of violence, one that slowly erodes
a victim's ability to recognize, resist or escape, even when
the abuse isn't physical. It's grooming, its manipulation, and for
many victims, it's invisible until it's too late. The trial
(05:35):
will include testimony from Professor Tim Dohlglish, a clinical psychologist
at Cambridge, who's expected to explain why victims of sexual
violence don't always come forward right away, something takes legal
team try to use against the women by arguing the
claims are too old. But here's the truth. Delayed reporting
is common in coercive situations because the abuse is designed
(05:58):
to distort reality and destroy self trust. This isn't just
about Andrew Tate anymore. It's about setting legal precedent, about
making space for the courts to recognize psychological abuse and
courcive control not just as private suffering, but as intentional
infliction of harm. Tate's team, of course, denies everything. They've
(06:18):
called the accusations a pack of lies and objected to
expert testimony, but the High Court disagreed, and this case
is moving forward with a sixteen day trial scheduled for
twenty seventeen. So here's the big takeaway. When a civil corps,
not just the tabloids or TikTok, start using coercive controlled
as a legal lens to examine abuse, that's a shift.
(06:42):
That's society catching up to something survivors have been saying
for decades. Not all violence is visible, and not all
harm leaves bruises. Andrew Tate is a symbol of how
easily influenced can be used as armour, of how a
culture that glamorizes domination can gaslight victims into silence. But
this case, it could be a crack in that armor.
(07:25):
When we talk about coercive control, people often think of
locked rooms and raised voices, But sometimes it looks like
a joke, a compliment, a charming celebrity with a mic
in one hand and a victim in the other, and
that could be how some people look at Russell Brand.
Once praised for his eccentric genius and unapologetic promiscuity, Brand's
(07:48):
public image was crafted around rebellion, wit and a kind
of manic sexual charisma. But beneath the swagger, survivors describe
something else. Grooming, manipulation, and abuse discuss as relationships. Between
two thousand and six and twenty thirteen, the height of
his fame, Brand is accused by at least four women
of rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse. Let's start with
(08:12):
the earliest report. In two thousand and six, Russell Brown
was thirty, a rising star on radio and TV. That year,
he allegedly began a relationship with a sixteen year old schoolgirl, legal, yes, ethical,
absolutely not. According to her account, he was controlling from
the start. He critiqued her clothes in the middle of
(08:32):
Leicester Square, sent to car to pick her up from school,
asked her to save his number as Carly so her
parents wouldn't know, and disturbingly gave her script for how
to lie about their relationship. She said she felt isolated, groomed.
She called him emotionally and sexually abusive. Another woman, Jordan Martin,
says he assaulted her in a hotel in two thousand
(08:54):
and seven after finding out she spoke to an ex.
She says he ripped her phone apart without consent and
was emotionally volatile throughout their relationship. She wrote about it
in a book in twenty fourteen. Russell Brand never sued.
In twenty twelve, a woman claims he raped her against
a wall after she refused to have sex with one
(09:14):
of his friends. She went to a rape treatment center
that same day. Five months of therapy, contemplated go on
public but didn't, but he did text her after calling
his behavior crazy and selfish. And then in two thousand
and thirteen, another woman, She says she met Brand through
Alcoholics Anonymous. After starting work together, She claims he pinned
(09:37):
her down, tried to undress her, and fired her when
she resisted. She later learned someone outside the house heard
her screaming and admitted, we were all scared of him.
Let that sink in. Russell Brand had denied all allegations
in a video he posted just before the investigation went
public in twenty twenty three. He says his relationships were
(09:57):
always consensual and accused the media launching a coordinated attack.
But let's be clear, this isn't about sex. It's about power.
Cohesive control often hides in relationships that look consensual on
the surface, but behind the scenes there's manipulation, grooming, and intimidation.
What striking in these accounts is not just the abuse itself,
(10:19):
but the pattern isolation from friends and family, fear of
speaking out, emotional volatility, threats of legal action to silence survivors.
It's not unlike Occult of personality, where charisma becomes camouflage,
and even the industry was complicit. Allegations were raised to
Brand's talent agency as early as twenty twenty. They later
(10:42):
said that they were horribly misled and cut ties. But
how many others have turned a blind eye before that?
And how many women were afraid to speak because he
was too rich, too famous, too allowed to hear over.
Brand's case is still under investigation. No convictions have been made,
but the testimonies paint a picture not just of an individual,
(11:02):
but of a system, One that lets Fain rewrite the
rules of consent, one that confuses charm for safety, one
where she didn't say no is treated like a hall
pass for harm. I always find it interesting when celebrities
or people in positions of power are under scrutiny and
they suddenly find religion. That's another piece of armor they
(11:24):
will put on themselves to protect themselves from further scrutiny.
When we talk about coercive control, let's remember it's not
about what you see on the surface. It's about the
space between yes and safety, between truth and power, and
how easily that space can be filled with fear. Russell
Brand always described himself as the naughty boy, the wild one,
(11:46):
the provocateur, but by twenty twenty three the jokes had
worn thin, because what once passed for eccentricity was now
being investigated as something much darker sexual assault, grooming, emotional abuse,
coercive control. In September twenty twenty three, a joint investigation
by The Times, Sunday Times and Channel four Dispatches revealed
(12:08):
allegations from four women spanning two thousand and six to
twenty thirteen. The BBC's own January twenty twenty five report
was damning. It found that staff had felt unable to
raise complaints about Brand's behavior during his tenure a toxic
mix of fear, hierarchy, and celebrity power. The nie Jay's
(12:28):
review echoed the same. Informal concerns were ignored and troubling
behavior when unreported or unaddressed by Brand's time working on
shows like Big Brother's Big Mouth and Kings of Comedy.
In response, the BBC wrote its guidelines in mid twenty
twenty four, with one line hitting especially hard. Using celebrity
(12:49):
status to influence people to make a decision in your
favor is an abuse of power. It is because what
we're seeing again and again is how fame doesn't just
protect predators, it enables them. Think about it. Sixteen year
old girl groomed hidden behind code names and scripts to
lie to her parents. A woman allegedly raped after refusing
(13:10):
to participate in sex with Brand's friend. An extra on
a movie set in twenty ten who says she was
sexually assaulted and later silenced. Years pass power accumulates, careers
get protected, and women once again disappear behind headlines that
focus more on him than on them, or worse, blame
the victims, and Brand feels more untouchable than ever. Brand
(13:35):
says these allegations are very, very hurtful that this is
all media hysteria. But here's what hurts more, staff being
too afraid to report, survivors still waiting for justice, and
a cultural industry that enables predatory behavior, calling it edgy.
Right now, prosecutors are considering formal charges and police continue
to investigate, but the most uncomfortable truth might already be
(13:57):
out in the open. Russell Brand wasn't just enabled by
his fate, he was insulated by it. There's a lesson here,
not just one about the harm one man can do,
but about what happens when systems fail to hold powerful
people accountable, when charisma overrides concern, when laughter silence is reporting,
when institutions choose profit over protection. Because the damage isn't
(14:21):
just done by the abuser, It's done by every gatekeeper
who decided not to look. For some people, the question
isn't did they do it? It's how are they still
getting away from it? So let's talk about Chris Brown.
(14:53):
For over fifteen years, Brown has been the center of
a dizzying number of abuse allegations. He's been accused of domes, violence, rape, intimidation,
and violent outbursts, and yet his still headlining stadiums, trending
on TikTok and topping the charts. Why Because Chris Brown
is the perfect case study in cultural tolerance for harm,
(15:14):
especially when it's packaged with talent, a few apologies, and
a good beat. Let's start where the public outrage began.
In two thousand and nine. Brown was just nineteen when
he'd beat then girlfriend Rhianna so badly she was hospitalized.
Photos of her bruised face were leaked. He pled guilty,
he apologized, he went to Core ordered therapy. Media pieces
(15:36):
also released articles saying Rihanna had also hurt Chris Brown.
And then there were discussions of mutual abuse, and let's
not get carried away with that term. Toxic relationships are
difficult to discuss. Mutual abuse doesn't exist. One person will
(15:56):
react in response to feeling threatened for the abuse they
are experiencing at the hands of the perpetrator. It is
not mutual abuse. Somehow, the public seemed to forgive him
faster than she did. Since then, the pattern has never
really stopped, It just evolved. In twenty thirteen, Chris Brown
(16:19):
was charged with assault in DC after punching a man
outside a hotel. In twenty seventeen, a woman's sued Brown
after allegations that she was sexually assaulted at a party
at his house, where, according to the suit, women were
intimidated using guns and drugs. Another woman says she was
raped by Chris Brown on P Diddy's yacht in Miami.
(16:40):
She sues him for twenty million dollars. The case is dismissed,
but not because she was disproven. It was dropped after
Brown's teen presented text suggesting ongoing communication. And now in
twenty twenty five, Brown recently sat in a Manchester jail
denied bail after allegedly smashing a man in the head
with a tequila bottle in a London nightclub, then stomping
(17:01):
on him while he lay unconscious. The victim producer abe
d or the damage grievous, bodily harm, the pattern predictable.
So let's be clear again, these aren't isolated moments. This
is a portfolio of violence, the kind that could destroy
most people's careers. But Brown's. He keeps touring, keeps collaborating,
(17:22):
keeps collecting Grammys, and.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
He knows it.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
He's said it outright that they always try to pull
some bullshit when I'm dropping music. It's not paranoia, it's
calculated dismissal, the idea that anyone who questions him is
trying to sabotage him rather than hold him accountable. The
sense of untouchability is not born out of ego alone.
It's cultivated by fans who chan't free breezy, by industry
(17:46):
executives who stay quiet, and by a media machine it
keeps calling these incidents troubles instead of trauma. In twenty
twenty four, ID released Chris Brown A History of Violence,
a documentary that laid out decades of allegations from women
and former associates. Within months, Brown sued Warner Brothers for
five hundred million dollars, calling it defamation. He says he
(18:07):
was being painted as a serial rapist, a term he
says doesn't fit. But here's the question. If the pattern's there,
does the label even matter anymore? Here's what is clear.
Brown's behavior shows signs of coercive control, not just physical violence,
but emotional manipulation, intimidation, and calculated erasure of autonomy. In
(18:28):
at least one case, a survivor claimed Brown gave her
a drink, after which her memory started to get weird.
That story echoes countless ones we've heard this season, stories
where consent gets rewritten, where power masks as charm, and
yet he's still selling out shows he's still protected, he's
still powerful. When we keep excusing the abuser because we
(18:49):
like the artist, we are part of the harm. When
we treat rape allegations as pr storms, not life altering violations,
we are part of the harm. And when we keep
saying that was so long ago, while victims are still
trying to piece themselves back together, we are part of
the harm. Chris Brown may be facing legal action today,
but he's been free to cause damage for years because
(19:11):
we let him, because we looked away, because we cared
more about a comeback than a cost. The question now
isn't just will he be held accountable?
Speaker 3 (19:20):
It's what took so long? The moment that stops you.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
A photo, a headline, a glance that feels off for
many people. It happened at the twenty twenty two Grammys.
Olivia Rodrigo, eighteen years old, smiling in conversation with Jared Leto,
then fifty and Twitter exploded. Olivia, run stay away from her, Jared.
But this wasn't just an awkward red carpet photo. It
(20:03):
was about years of allegations, a whisper network that's been
growing louder for nearly two decades and still hasn't pierced
Hollywood's protective bubble. It's time we talk again about Jared Leto.
Leto isn't just an Oscar winning actor or fontman of
thirty Seconds to Mars. He's also a method actor known
for crossing the lines in the name of the craft.
(20:26):
But behind the scenes, the stories are there not just
about strange behavior, but about grooming, coercion, and alleged sexual assault,
and the pattern It starts young. As far back as
two thousand and five, sources told The New York Post
that Letter was constantly texting underage girls sixteen and seventeen
years old, calling him a serial texter. In twenty eighteen,
(20:48):
actor Dylan Sprouse called him out on X, asking, now
that you've slid into the dms of every single female
model aged eighteen to twenty five, what would you say
your success rate is, to which director James Gunn replied
saying he starts at eighteen. On the internet, that wasn't
a joke, it was a warning. Multiple women have come
(21:09):
forward online anonymousy to describe encounters with Leto that they
say crossed into abuse, especially when they were teenagers. One
woman says she met him on a film set in
New York when she was seventeen, he was thirty four.
She alleges that he pressured her into sexual acts she
wasn't ready for. Then he coerced her. He was rough
(21:30):
that the relationship wasn't romantic, it was predatory. He allegedly
asked her to say she was fourteen or fifteen during sex. Again,
Let's let that sink in. And this wasn't a one
time event. She says. The alleged abuse continued until she
was twenty one, and some people will say, well, why
did she carry on? Why didn't she walk away? And
(21:50):
we need to look at the power and balances. We
need to look at the fear and the intimidation that
comes with coercive control. Another woman wrote that she believed
he got pleasure of hurting her, that she didn't realize
at the time what was happening because she was too
young to understand coercion. And oftentimes that may be a
reason why somebody continues to be abused. It is not
(22:12):
the victim's fault. It's all the blame lies on the perpetrator.
This is what sexual coercion looks like. It's not always
physical force, but power imbalances, emotional pressure, grooming, manipulation, repeatedly asking,
never listening, making someone feel like saying no isn't an option.
So how can sex ever be consensual? How can sexual
(22:34):
act ever be consensual? That's without looking at the coercive control.
That's just with looking at the power imbalance. And Jared
Leto he's had that power for decades. He's a rock star,
a movie star, a millionaire, a man who's turned questionable
behavior into quirky headlines. Is it method acting.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Gone too far?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
He allegedly gave condoms to his suicide squad, Code Stars,
and when he was asked about it, he said it
was a joke, just like the thirty seconds to Mar's cult,
which he also laughed off, saying yes, this is a cult,
and then later made out it was a joke, even
though fans were literally flown to a private island to
dress in white robes and follow him around. But here's
(23:15):
the thing. When everything becomes a joke, nothing gets taken seriously,
including the survivors Jared Letto has never been formally charged.
These allegations remain uninvestigated, untried, unaddressed in any real way,
but they keep coming up, whispered in forums, mentioned in tweets,
and raised from message boards, because that's how this works.
(23:36):
A woman speaks up, the story disappears, and the man
keeps walking red carpets. We're not here to try, Jared Letto.
We're here to ask why no one else has how
many rumors does it take, how many women need to
say they were groomed her or silence before we stop
calling it controversial and start calling it what it is,
a pattern of abuse enabled by silence. Jared Letto still
(23:58):
headlines festivals, still walks into rooms where no one asks questions,
still speaks to eighteen year old pop stars on red
carpets without consequence, because in Hollywood, if you're talented enough,
rich enough, strange enough, people just won't look away. They'll
call it art. There's something deeply seductive about the idea
of transformation, about belonging, about following someone who seems to
(24:22):
hold the keys to something bigger than you. And I
think Jared Letto knows that he's not just an actor
or a rock star, he's a brand, a guru, a
so called spiritual figure, especially to his most loyal fans.
But in twenty twenty five, it's no longer about method
acting or eccentric fashion. It's what air Mail is now
calling the cult of Leto. Let's rewind to Mars Island
(24:44):
twenty nineteen, a private resort of the coast of Croatia.
Fans mostly young women, paid more than six four hundred
and ninety nine dollars to wear flowing kaftans, chant, meditate,
and follow Jared Letto through pine forests in near silence.
Photos from the retreat show him a white robes and
mirrored sunglasses, arms stretched wide as followers mimic his pose below.
(25:07):
It was sold as a spiritual retreat, but to others
it looked like a cult. One of the band's own tweets,
yes this is a cult hashtag Mars Island, and now
with nine women accusing Letto of sexual misconduct, that cult
aesthetic isn't just a gimmick. It's part of a broader pattern,
one where power, charisma and trust are leveraged for control.
(25:29):
According to survivors, Hto allegedly sought out young impressionable girls
on the island, some underage, using his celebrity to build
instant authority. He didn't just pursue them, he groomed them
and pushed boundaries and normalized coercion. He didn't need to
be violent. He was idolized. And that's what makes it
dangerous because cults don't need temples or robes. Sometimes they
(25:50):
look like fandoms, like retreats, like concerts, like community. Experts
in cult behavior and coercive control have pointed out that
what Leto built through thirty Seconds to Mars, through Mars Island,
through his image as an untouchable artist, mirrors the tactics
of high control groups. Isolation from the outside world, deification
(26:11):
of a single leader, financial exploitation, emotional dependency, sexual access
framed as spiritual closeness. None of this has happened in
a vacuum. Alligations span over twenty years, and now nine
brave women have come forward to accuse Jared Letto of
sexual misconduct. Finally, people will take a look at this
(26:32):
man and question whether it is fame and eccentricity or
whether it is abuse. So what are we looking at here?
We're looking at as celebrity as cult leadership. We're looking
at coercion in the language of connection, and we're looking
at abuse disguised as transformation. And we have to ask,
if this is a cult, how many people got hurt
(26:53):
while they were calling it marketing. It's not always men. Statistically,
(27:19):
coercive control is a gendered crime where men will perpetrate
against women. But occasionally some women will pose as women's
rights advocates, as pro women activists. But what happens when
empowerment becomes obedient, When a spiritual practice meant to heal
the body becomes a weapon us to control it. And
(27:40):
that's where I want to talk about One Taste. This week,
in a landmark decision, two executives from the so called
Orgasmic Meditation Company were convicted of forced labor conspiracy, including
its founder, Nicole Day. Done behind the flowy language and
sensual branding was a dark truth. One Taste wasn't just
a wellness company. According to federal prosecutors, it was a
(28:02):
sexually exploitive cults built on coercion, surveillance, and psychological manipulation.
From two thousand and six to twenty eighteen, One Taste
taught thousands the orgasmic meditation, a fifteen minute practice involving
the stimulation of a woman's clitorus, could unlock spiritual enlightenment,
financial freedom, and even trauma healing. But in court, prosecutors
(28:26):
described a system where the same practice was used to
recruit vulnerable women, often with histories of sexual trauma, coerce
them into performing acts, including on investors and clients, force
employees into communal living, constant surveillance and unpaid labour, and
intimidate them into financial ruin through high cost retreats and courses.
(28:46):
This was not about women or women's liberation. This was
about control. Let's call it what it is, industrialized coercion
dressed in mindfulness marketing. And there is so much of
this around at the moment. This is testified that employees
were manipulated into servicing men sexually as part of company duties.
They worked long hours for little or no pay. They
(29:09):
were assigned beds, told when and how to eat, indoctrinated,
pressured to ignore their instincts, told their troual was a
gateway to transformation. One employer was told her rape history
made her a perfect candidate for orgasmic meditation. Another testified
she was shamed for not performing world during a sexual act,
as if she had failed her boss spiritually. This is
(29:30):
coercive control in its most insidious form, when abuse is
framed as awakening, as recovery, as supportive, when women had
taught that the price of empowerment is silent submission and
sex on command. And it's not a new story. We've
seen it with Nexium, with bitram, yoga, with Synanon, and
now again with One Taste. Nicole Daydom once gave a
(29:51):
tedex talk about liberating women through orgasm. That video has
over two point three million views. In it, she tells
a story of a man stimulating her at a party
uninvited and how it changed her life. The whole idea
of One Taste in that case was built on sexual
violence and sexual abuse. Now she faces up to twenty
(30:13):
years in prison for turning that story into a system
of exploitation. Even now, the rebranded One Taste, called the
Institute of On Foundation, is still operating, still marketing, still
featuring Daytien on its website. Their pr rep says the
conviction is an attack on freedom of speech, that it
criminalizes belief that this is just unconventional spirituality Again, believe
(30:38):
isn't the problem coercion is. This isn't about kink, this
isn't about non traditional healing. It's about using power to
eraise choice. And in the end, that's what every story
in this series is about. How coercive control thrives when
it's wrapped in charisma or cloviedn ideology or justified by
a higher purpose. So when we hear consciousness or surrender
(31:02):
or expansion, let's ask who profits, who's in control, and
who gets hurt when no one is allowed to say no.
Sentencing for this case will take place in September, and
until then, I do have some interviews lined up with
One Taste survivors, and several already available on the Cult
War podcast if you'd like to learn more about One
(31:22):
Taste and the journey of recovery the survivors have been.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
On for decades.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Sean Diddy Cones was seen as an architect of hip
hop culture, a mogul, a visionary, even a role model.
But behind the ground, behind the beats, behind the billboard hits,
another story was unfolding, one of unchecked power, systemic violence,
and silence brought on with fear in twenty twenty three,
(32:07):
a single lawsuit cracked the damp. Cassie Ventura, Cones's ex
partner filed a bombshell complaint accusing him of a decade
of abuse, including rape, trafficking, and physical violence. That lawsuit
was settled in under twenty four hours, but the floodgates
were open. Since then, more than thirty civil suits have
been filed. Federal agents raided his homes. Prosecutors have unsealed
(32:31):
a racketeering indictment that reads like a blueprint for a
criminal enterprise built not on drugs or weapons, but on coercion, trafficking,
and sexual control. The details are harrowing. Allegations of drugging
and raping underage girls and boys. Claims that he filmed
assaults and distributed footage across the industry, a lawsuit accusing
(32:52):
him of dangling a woman over a sixteenth floor balcony,
Another from a male escort who says Combs assaulted and
threatened him. Multiples of fis say they were trafficked, blackmailed,
and filmed without consent. Combs has denied all allegations. He's
pleaded not guilty. He's called it a witch hunt. His
lawyers argue that this is a trial by media, not
(33:12):
due process. But here's what the public can't ignore. The
stories keep coming. This isn't just about one man again,
It's about the system the industry that let him operate
like this for years. But why because he had money,
or because he had lawyers, or because he had a brand,
because he had people believing that the power was proof
(33:35):
of innocence, or because he had so much blackmailing material
and collateral on those involved with him in the industry,
or because the music industry, like many others, has a
long history of looking away when women or queer people,
or other vulnerable individuals such as children are harmed by
its stars. And let's talk about that video in twenty
(33:58):
twenty four, cnmbish security footage from twenty sixteen showing did
He assaulting Cassie in a hotel hallway, dragging her, kicking her,
throwing objects, the same incident she had described in chilling
detail in her lawsuit. He apologized on camera two days later,
calling it his darkest time, claimed he'd been in therapy
(34:19):
and that he was disgusted by himself. But here's the thing.
Accountability isn't a performance. It's not a seventy second Instagram reel.
It's not finding Jesus and claiming to be reborn and
hiding behind that as your scapegoat. And it doesn't start
when you get caught. You shouldn't just apologize because you've
been caught. As of today did he is in federal custody.
(34:42):
He's been denied bail multiple times. His trial for sex
trafficking and racketeering is underway, and prosecutors alleged that for
twenty years he ran a criminal enterprise where sexual violence
was a tool of control and people, often vulnerable, often young,
were used, discarded and siled. And it wasn't just him.
The law suit names assistance, bodyguards, producers. It was an
(35:05):
open secret and it was a culture. One attorney claims
that they've been contacted by over three thousand people who
describe similar patterns of abuse. So where do we go
from here? We honest survivors by listening not just to
the high profiled cases, but to the patterns beneath them.
We interrogate the systems that protected men like Combs and
(35:28):
ask what we're still protecting today? Who were still protecting today?
And we remind ourselves that this is not just about celebrity.
It's about power, how it's wielded, how it's worshiped, and
how when left up checked, it becomes a weapon. As
the criminal trial of Sean Didlly Combs begins in New York,
juras have heard about racketeering, trafficking, and abuse, but one
(35:50):
term they won't hear is coercive control. And that's not
an accident. Judge Aaron Sabramanian ruled in pretrial motions that
expert witnesses can't use that phrase in court, and why
because in New York, unlike in only seven other states
in the United States of America, coercive control is not
legally defined as a form of domestic abuse. What Diddy
(36:13):
is accused of, the surveillance, the threats, the financial control,
the psychological manipulation, is coercive control. The term was coined
by forensic social worker Evan Stark, who compared its tactics
used to those on prisoners of war, isolation, humiliation, force, dependency,
and control of every facet of life. Of course, we
understand that's what happens in cults, but it's happening in
(36:36):
other systems too. It's abuse with our bruises, and it's
often harder to prosecute, but no less damaging. In Diddy's case,
prosecutors alleged that he used his wealth, influence, and celebrity
to exert this kind of control over his alleged victims.
These weren't just isolated incidents of violence. There was a pattern,
a system of domination, and yet legally it's invisible. That
(37:01):
invisibility is powerful and dangerous because when we can't name
what's happening, we start to ask the wrong questions. Why
didn't they leave, why did they go back? Why didn't
they say anything sooner? The answers, survivors and trauma specialists
will tell you often lying coercive control, the psychological bonds,
the trauma bonds, the financial threat, the fear that's saying
(37:23):
no will get you punished or destroyed. As clinical social
worker Christine Cocchiola puts it, the brain itself becomes trauma
bonded to the abuser. You no longer recognize what's healthy
or even what's real. Doctor Lisa Fontez, author of Invisible Chains,
says it simply people can lose their perspective when they
are under the thumb of an abusive person, and in
(37:45):
this case, that person was one of the most powerful
men in entertainment, someone with private jets, armed security NDAs,
and a media empire at his disposal. So while the
jury may not hear the phrase coercive control, you can
be sure its presence will echo throughout this trial, and
hopefully it will nudge the State of New York into
(38:06):
implementing some coercive control laws. Through stories of manipulation, masked's mentorship,
(38:30):
or luxury offered as leverage, or fear disguised as love.
The legal system might not have caught up with this
kind of abuse, but we can. We can stop asking
why survivors stayed and start asking who made it impossible
to leave. If you or someone you know is experiencing
coercive control or abuse, you are not alone. Visit thehotline
(38:51):
dot org or call eight seven nine nine Safe for
confidential help in the USA, or visit Safe Lives or
Women's Aid in the UK. Their websites have a ton
of resources that could be helpful across every story we've
explored today, from the orgasmic meditation empire of One Taste,
to the celebrity sanctuaries of Russell Brand to the ongoing
(39:13):
trial of Sean Diddycomb's one thread connects them all power
and the quiet violence of how it's used. We've heard
about coercive environments disguised as wellness, retreats, about grooming, psychological manipulation,
and consent blurred by fame, age and fear. About men
who built entire systems to protect themselves from coltish fan
(39:36):
bases to billion dollar media empires while silencing those they harmed.
The legal term coercive control may not always appear in
courtrooms or headlines, but in the testimonies of survivors, it's everywhere.
It's in the producer who promised protection and delivered isolation,
in the artists who used status to seduce, humiliate, and dominate,
(39:57):
in the group that turned intimacy into indoctrinate. Coercive control
is not about individuals, It's about systems. It thrives in
cultures that reward charisma over accountability. It persists in industries
where the powerful are rarely questioned and the harmed are
often disbelieved unless they bleed. And that's why we have
(40:18):
to name it, because when we don't, survivors are left
asking themselves, was that abuse? If he never hit me?
Was I crazy for staying. Did I say no loud enough?
Speaker 3 (40:29):
We need new.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Language to understand how abuse reyworks, not just through broken bones,
but through boken boundaries, not just with fists, but with fear,
financial ruin, and forced silence. Until we name coercive control,
we remain complicit in it. If this episode has resonated
with you, if it's challenged you on what you thought
abuse looked like, I encourage you to share that. Share
(40:53):
it with me, Share it up with your friends and family,
Share it with your neighbors. These stories can be so
hard to tell, but hard is still is the silence
that surrounds them. Thank you so much for listening. I
know that the majority of my listeners will already know
all of this stuff, and I'm so thankful for you
always tuning in. My name is Casey and I'm the
host of the Cult Fold podcast, where we uncover the
(41:16):
hidden systems of power, control and survival. So until next time,
stay safe, stay critical, and stay connected.
Nominated as one of the best British true crime podcasts,
Murdermile is hailed as a masterpiece of compelling storytelling research
using the original police files. Over three hundred episodes, Murder
Mile has covered hundreds of crimes you won't hear anywhere else,
as well as solving cold cases, unerthing new evidence, and
even discovering a serial killer no one even knew existed.
(00:25):
For a truly original podcast, subscribe to Murdermle.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hello listeners, and welcome back to another episode of the
Cold Fault podcast, where we take a look at power,
manipulation and the celebrities who blur the line between influence
and control. Today, we're kicking off our new episode on
questionable celebrities and coercive control with one of the most
polarizing public figures of the past decade, and You Taate.
(00:52):
Whether you know him as a former kickboxer, reality TV dropout,
TikTok provocateur, or self declared top g the truth behind
Andrew Tate's empire is much darker than the flashy cars
and cigar smoke might suggest. So who is Andrew Tate?
Born in Washington, d C. In nineteen eighty six and
(01:13):
raised in the UK. Tate's early life was steeped in
rigid gender roles. He often talks about his father being
the disciplinarian and his mother being in charge of keeping
you alive, classic binary roles with a toxic twist. He
rose to fame in the kickboxing world, even winning a
British ISKA championship, but his big public moment came in
(01:34):
twenty sixteen when he was kicked off Big Brother after
a video surfaced of him beating a woman with a bolt.
Tate claimed it was consensual. The woman involved backed him up,
but Channel five didn't buy it and he was out
by day seven. From there, things took a turn. Tate
moved to Romania, launched a webcam business with his brother Tristan,
(01:55):
and bragged on nine about making six hundred thousand dollars
a month with over seventy five women working for him.
He openly called it webcam pimping and described how women
were emotionally manipulated into performing and lying to clients. Sound familiar,
because that's textbook coercive control, grooming, isolation, economic abuse. In
(02:18):
twenty twenty two, Romanian authorities arrested the Tate brothers. They
were charged with rape, human trafficking and forming an organized
crime group. British authorities later added multiple charges, including ten
counts of rape for Andrew and eleven for Tristan. The
accusations are horrifying, choking, psychological intimidation, forcing women into sex
(02:41):
work under threats, and manipulation. And here's where things get
even more disturbing. While all of this was happening, Tate
was exploding on TikTok, influencing impressionable young boys, on misogyny
and hate speech. His videos, often degrading women or ranting
about how men should dominate, were being reposted by his
(03:01):
followers in the tens of thousands. His program, Hustler's University,
was set up like a modern day pyramid scheme. Pay
a monthly fee, learn how to make money online, and
he's the kicker. Recruit others by sharing taps most controversial clips.
The more clicks, the more recruits, the more money. It
was a machine, and it worked. This isn't just a
(03:24):
story about one man being awful. It's about how systems
of course of control can look slick, attractive, and successful,
especially when dressed up as masculine empowerment. Andrew Tate built
a cult like following. By weaponizing vulnerability, especially in young men.
He sold the idea that control over women equals success,
(03:44):
that emotional detachment is power, that if you're not dominating,
you're losing. And while take awaits trial, his content still circulates,
his fan base still grows. The damage is ongoing. Let
me be blunt when I I say coercive control isn't
always as obvious as lock stores or physical violence. It's
(04:06):
about manipulation, surveillance, financial domination, emotional blackmail. What Andrew Tate
is accused of mirror's patterns we've seen in abusive relationships
and yes, even in so called therapeutic programs. The rise
of Andrew Tate shows how dangerous it can be when charisma,
misogyny and control get platformed without accountability, and it raises
(04:29):
the question are we witnessing influence or indoctrination? And just
when you thought the legal saga around Andrew Tate couldn't
get more complex, a landmark civil trial is now moving
forward in the UK. This case it's not just about
what happened, it's about how it happened and why it matters.
(04:50):
Four women assuing Andrew Tate in a UK high court
for sexual abuse and emotional manipulation. They say they worked
in his webcam business. The other two say they were
pulled into in relationships that quickly became exploitative. But here's
the legal game changer. This is believed to be the
first SIBIL case in the UK where coercive control is
being argued as the central mechanism of harm and stud
(05:14):
A barrister representing the women described coercive control as a
relatively recently identified form of violence, one that slowly erodes
a victim's ability to recognize, resist or escape, even when
the abuse isn't physical. It's grooming, its manipulation, and for
many victims, it's invisible until it's too late. The trial
(05:35):
will include testimony from Professor Tim Dohlglish, a clinical psychologist
at Cambridge, who's expected to explain why victims of sexual
violence don't always come forward right away, something takes legal
team try to use against the women by arguing the
claims are too old. But here's the truth. Delayed reporting
is common in coercive situations because the abuse is designed
(05:58):
to distort reality and destroy self trust. This isn't just
about Andrew Tate anymore. It's about setting legal precedent, about
making space for the courts to recognize psychological abuse and
courcive control not just as private suffering, but as intentional
infliction of harm. Tate's team, of course, denies everything. They've
(06:18):
called the accusations a pack of lies and objected to
expert testimony, but the High Court disagreed, and this case
is moving forward with a sixteen day trial scheduled for
twenty seventeen. So here's the big takeaway. When a civil corps,
not just the tabloids or TikTok, start using coercive controlled
as a legal lens to examine abuse, that's a shift.
(06:42):
That's society catching up to something survivors have been saying
for decades. Not all violence is visible, and not all
harm leaves bruises. Andrew Tate is a symbol of how
easily influenced can be used as armour, of how a
culture that glamorizes domination can gaslight victims into silence. But
this case, it could be a crack in that armor.
(07:25):
When we talk about coercive control, people often think of
locked rooms and raised voices, But sometimes it looks like
a joke, a compliment, a charming celebrity with a mic
in one hand and a victim in the other, and
that could be how some people look at Russell Brand.
Once praised for his eccentric genius and unapologetic promiscuity, Brand's
(07:48):
public image was crafted around rebellion, wit and a kind
of manic sexual charisma. But beneath the swagger, survivors describe
something else. Grooming, manipulation, and abuse discuss as relationships. Between
two thousand and six and twenty thirteen, the height of
his fame, Brand is accused by at least four women
of rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse. Let's start with
(08:12):
the earliest report. In two thousand and six, Russell Brown
was thirty, a rising star on radio and TV. That year,
he allegedly began a relationship with a sixteen year old schoolgirl, legal, yes, ethical,
absolutely not. According to her account, he was controlling from
the start. He critiqued her clothes in the middle of
(08:32):
Leicester Square, sent to car to pick her up from school,
asked her to save his number as Carly so her
parents wouldn't know, and disturbingly gave her script for how
to lie about their relationship. She said she felt isolated, groomed.
She called him emotionally and sexually abusive. Another woman, Jordan Martin,
says he assaulted her in a hotel in two thousand
(08:54):
and seven after finding out she spoke to an ex.
She says he ripped her phone apart without consent and
was emotionally volatile throughout their relationship. She wrote about it
in a book in twenty fourteen. Russell Brand never sued.
In twenty twelve, a woman claims he raped her against
a wall after she refused to have sex with one
(09:14):
of his friends. She went to a rape treatment center
that same day. Five months of therapy, contemplated go on
public but didn't, but he did text her after calling
his behavior crazy and selfish. And then in two thousand
and thirteen, another woman, She says she met Brand through
Alcoholics Anonymous. After starting work together, She claims he pinned
(09:37):
her down, tried to undress her, and fired her when
she resisted. She later learned someone outside the house heard
her screaming and admitted, we were all scared of him.
Let that sink in. Russell Brand had denied all allegations
in a video he posted just before the investigation went
public in twenty twenty three. He says his relationships were
(09:57):
always consensual and accused the media launching a coordinated attack.
But let's be clear, this isn't about sex. It's about power.
Cohesive control often hides in relationships that look consensual on
the surface, but behind the scenes there's manipulation, grooming, and intimidation.
What striking in these accounts is not just the abuse itself,
(10:19):
but the pattern isolation from friends and family, fear of
speaking out, emotional volatility, threats of legal action to silence survivors.
It's not unlike Occult of personality, where charisma becomes camouflage,
and even the industry was complicit. Allegations were raised to
Brand's talent agency as early as twenty twenty. They later
(10:42):
said that they were horribly misled and cut ties. But
how many others have turned a blind eye before that?
And how many women were afraid to speak because he
was too rich, too famous, too allowed to hear over.
Brand's case is still under investigation. No convictions have been made,
but the testimonies paint a picture not just of an individual,
(11:02):
but of a system, One that lets Fain rewrite the
rules of consent, one that confuses charm for safety, one
where she didn't say no is treated like a hall
pass for harm. I always find it interesting when celebrities
or people in positions of power are under scrutiny and
they suddenly find religion. That's another piece of armor they
(11:24):
will put on themselves to protect themselves from further scrutiny.
When we talk about coercive control, let's remember it's not
about what you see on the surface. It's about the
space between yes and safety, between truth and power, and
how easily that space can be filled with fear. Russell
Brand always described himself as the naughty boy, the wild one,
(11:46):
the provocateur, but by twenty twenty three the jokes had
worn thin, because what once passed for eccentricity was now
being investigated as something much darker sexual assault, grooming, emotional abuse,
coercive control. In September twenty twenty three, a joint investigation
by The Times, Sunday Times and Channel four Dispatches revealed
(12:08):
allegations from four women spanning two thousand and six to
twenty thirteen. The BBC's own January twenty twenty five report
was damning. It found that staff had felt unable to
raise complaints about Brand's behavior during his tenure a toxic
mix of fear, hierarchy, and celebrity power. The nie Jay's
(12:28):
review echoed the same. Informal concerns were ignored and troubling
behavior when unreported or unaddressed by Brand's time working on
shows like Big Brother's Big Mouth and Kings of Comedy.
In response, the BBC wrote its guidelines in mid twenty
twenty four, with one line hitting especially hard. Using celebrity
(12:49):
status to influence people to make a decision in your
favor is an abuse of power. It is because what
we're seeing again and again is how fame doesn't just
protect predators, it enables them. Think about it. Sixteen year
old girl groomed hidden behind code names and scripts to
lie to her parents. A woman allegedly raped after refusing
(13:10):
to participate in sex with Brand's friend. An extra on
a movie set in twenty ten who says she was
sexually assaulted and later silenced. Years pass power accumulates, careers
get protected, and women once again disappear behind headlines that
focus more on him than on them, or worse, blame
the victims, and Brand feels more untouchable than ever. Brand
(13:35):
says these allegations are very, very hurtful that this is
all media hysteria. But here's what hurts more, staff being
too afraid to report, survivors still waiting for justice, and
a cultural industry that enables predatory behavior, calling it edgy.
Right now, prosecutors are considering formal charges and police continue
to investigate, but the most uncomfortable truth might already be
(13:57):
out in the open. Russell Brand wasn't just enabled by
his fate, he was insulated by it. There's a lesson here,
not just one about the harm one man can do,
but about what happens when systems fail to hold powerful
people accountable, when charisma overrides concern, when laughter silence is reporting,
when institutions choose profit over protection. Because the damage isn't
(14:21):
just done by the abuser, It's done by every gatekeeper
who decided not to look. For some people, the question
isn't did they do it? It's how are they still
getting away from it? So let's talk about Chris Brown.
(14:53):
For over fifteen years, Brown has been the center of
a dizzying number of abuse allegations. He's been accused of domes, violence, rape, intimidation,
and violent outbursts, and yet his still headlining stadiums, trending
on TikTok and topping the charts. Why Because Chris Brown
is the perfect case study in cultural tolerance for harm,
(15:14):
especially when it's packaged with talent, a few apologies, and
a good beat. Let's start where the public outrage began.
In two thousand and nine. Brown was just nineteen when
he'd beat then girlfriend Rhianna so badly she was hospitalized.
Photos of her bruised face were leaked. He pled guilty,
he apologized, he went to Core ordered therapy. Media pieces
(15:36):
also released articles saying Rihanna had also hurt Chris Brown.
And then there were discussions of mutual abuse, and let's
not get carried away with that term. Toxic relationships are
difficult to discuss. Mutual abuse doesn't exist. One person will
(15:56):
react in response to feeling threatened for the abuse they
are experiencing at the hands of the perpetrator. It is
not mutual abuse. Somehow, the public seemed to forgive him
faster than she did. Since then, the pattern has never
really stopped, It just evolved. In twenty thirteen, Chris Brown
(16:19):
was charged with assault in DC after punching a man
outside a hotel. In twenty seventeen, a woman's sued Brown
after allegations that she was sexually assaulted at a party
at his house, where, according to the suit, women were
intimidated using guns and drugs. Another woman says she was
raped by Chris Brown on P Diddy's yacht in Miami.
(16:40):
She sues him for twenty million dollars. The case is dismissed,
but not because she was disproven. It was dropped after
Brown's teen presented text suggesting ongoing communication. And now in
twenty twenty five, Brown recently sat in a Manchester jail
denied bail after allegedly smashing a man in the head
with a tequila bottle in a London nightclub, then stomping
(17:01):
on him while he lay unconscious. The victim producer abe
d or the damage grievous, bodily harm, the pattern predictable.
So let's be clear again, these aren't isolated moments. This
is a portfolio of violence, the kind that could destroy
most people's careers. But Brown's. He keeps touring, keeps collaborating,
(17:22):
keeps collecting Grammys, and.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
He knows it.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
He's said it outright that they always try to pull
some bullshit when I'm dropping music. It's not paranoia, it's
calculated dismissal, the idea that anyone who questions him is
trying to sabotage him rather than hold him accountable. The
sense of untouchability is not born out of ego alone.
It's cultivated by fans who chan't free breezy, by industry
(17:46):
executives who stay quiet, and by a media machine it
keeps calling these incidents troubles instead of trauma. In twenty
twenty four, ID released Chris Brown A History of Violence,
a documentary that laid out decades of allegations from women
and former associates. Within months, Brown sued Warner Brothers for
five hundred million dollars, calling it defamation. He says he
(18:07):
was being painted as a serial rapist, a term he
says doesn't fit. But here's the question. If the pattern's there,
does the label even matter anymore? Here's what is clear.
Brown's behavior shows signs of coercive control, not just physical violence,
but emotional manipulation, intimidation, and calculated erasure of autonomy. In
(18:28):
at least one case, a survivor claimed Brown gave her
a drink, after which her memory started to get weird.
That story echoes countless ones we've heard this season, stories
where consent gets rewritten, where power masks as charm, and
yet he's still selling out shows he's still protected, he's
still powerful. When we keep excusing the abuser because we
(18:49):
like the artist, we are part of the harm. When
we treat rape allegations as pr storms, not life altering violations,
we are part of the harm. And when we keep
saying that was so long ago, while victims are still
trying to piece themselves back together, we are part of
the harm. Chris Brown may be facing legal action today,
but he's been free to cause damage for years because
(19:11):
we let him, because we looked away, because we cared
more about a comeback than a cost. The question now
isn't just will he be held accountable?
Speaker 3 (19:20):
It's what took so long? The moment that stops you.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
A photo, a headline, a glance that feels off for
many people. It happened at the twenty twenty two Grammys.
Olivia Rodrigo, eighteen years old, smiling in conversation with Jared Leto,
then fifty and Twitter exploded. Olivia, run stay away from her, Jared.
But this wasn't just an awkward red carpet photo. It
(20:03):
was about years of allegations, a whisper network that's been
growing louder for nearly two decades and still hasn't pierced
Hollywood's protective bubble. It's time we talk again about Jared Leto.
Leto isn't just an Oscar winning actor or fontman of
thirty Seconds to Mars. He's also a method actor known
for crossing the lines in the name of the craft.
(20:26):
But behind the scenes, the stories are there not just
about strange behavior, but about grooming, coercion, and alleged sexual assault,
and the pattern It starts young. As far back as
two thousand and five, sources told The New York Post
that Letter was constantly texting underage girls sixteen and seventeen
years old, calling him a serial texter. In twenty eighteen,
(20:48):
actor Dylan Sprouse called him out on X, asking, now
that you've slid into the dms of every single female
model aged eighteen to twenty five, what would you say
your success rate is, to which director James Gunn replied
saying he starts at eighteen. On the internet, that wasn't
a joke, it was a warning. Multiple women have come
(21:09):
forward online anonymousy to describe encounters with Leto that they
say crossed into abuse, especially when they were teenagers. One
woman says she met him on a film set in
New York when she was seventeen, he was thirty four.
She alleges that he pressured her into sexual acts she
wasn't ready for. Then he coerced her. He was rough
(21:30):
that the relationship wasn't romantic, it was predatory. He allegedly
asked her to say she was fourteen or fifteen during sex. Again,
Let's let that sink in. And this wasn't a one
time event. She says. The alleged abuse continued until she
was twenty one, and some people will say, well, why
did she carry on? Why didn't she walk away? And
(21:50):
we need to look at the power and balances. We
need to look at the fear and the intimidation that
comes with coercive control. Another woman wrote that she believed
he got pleasure of hurting her, that she didn't realize
at the time what was happening because she was too
young to understand coercion. And oftentimes that may be a
reason why somebody continues to be abused. It is not
(22:12):
the victim's fault. It's all the blame lies on the perpetrator.
This is what sexual coercion looks like. It's not always
physical force, but power imbalances, emotional pressure, grooming, manipulation, repeatedly asking,
never listening, making someone feel like saying no isn't an option.
So how can sex ever be consensual? How can sexual
(22:34):
act ever be consensual? That's without looking at the coercive control.
That's just with looking at the power imbalance. And Jared
Leto he's had that power for decades. He's a rock star,
a movie star, a millionaire, a man who's turned questionable
behavior into quirky headlines. Is it method acting.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Gone too far?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
He allegedly gave condoms to his suicide squad, Code Stars,
and when he was asked about it, he said it
was a joke, just like the thirty seconds to Mar's cult,
which he also laughed off, saying yes, this is a cult,
and then later made out it was a joke, even
though fans were literally flown to a private island to
dress in white robes and follow him around. But here's
(23:15):
the thing. When everything becomes a joke, nothing gets taken seriously,
including the survivors Jared Letto has never been formally charged.
These allegations remain uninvestigated, untried, unaddressed in any real way,
but they keep coming up, whispered in forums, mentioned in tweets,
and raised from message boards, because that's how this works.
(23:36):
A woman speaks up, the story disappears, and the man
keeps walking red carpets. We're not here to try, Jared Letto.
We're here to ask why no one else has how
many rumors does it take, how many women need to
say they were groomed her or silence before we stop
calling it controversial and start calling it what it is,
a pattern of abuse enabled by silence. Jared Letto still
(23:58):
headlines festivals, still walks into rooms where no one asks questions,
still speaks to eighteen year old pop stars on red
carpets without consequence, because in Hollywood, if you're talented enough,
rich enough, strange enough, people just won't look away. They'll
call it art. There's something deeply seductive about the idea
of transformation, about belonging, about following someone who seems to
(24:22):
hold the keys to something bigger than you. And I
think Jared Letto knows that he's not just an actor
or a rock star, he's a brand, a guru, a
so called spiritual figure, especially to his most loyal fans.
But in twenty twenty five, it's no longer about method
acting or eccentric fashion. It's what air Mail is now
calling the cult of Leto. Let's rewind to Mars Island
(24:44):
twenty nineteen, a private resort of the coast of Croatia.
Fans mostly young women, paid more than six four hundred
and ninety nine dollars to wear flowing kaftans, chant, meditate,
and follow Jared Letto through pine forests in near silence.
Photos from the retreat show him a white robes and
mirrored sunglasses, arms stretched wide as followers mimic his pose below.
(25:07):
It was sold as a spiritual retreat, but to others
it looked like a cult. One of the band's own tweets,
yes this is a cult hashtag Mars Island, and now
with nine women accusing Letto of sexual misconduct, that cult
aesthetic isn't just a gimmick. It's part of a broader pattern,
one where power, charisma and trust are leveraged for control.
(25:29):
According to survivors, Hto allegedly sought out young impressionable girls
on the island, some underage, using his celebrity to build
instant authority. He didn't just pursue them, he groomed them
and pushed boundaries and normalized coercion. He didn't need to
be violent. He was idolized. And that's what makes it
dangerous because cults don't need temples or robes. Sometimes they
(25:50):
look like fandoms, like retreats, like concerts, like community. Experts
in cult behavior and coercive control have pointed out that
what Leto built through thirty Seconds to Mars, through Mars Island,
through his image as an untouchable artist, mirrors the tactics
of high control groups. Isolation from the outside world, deification
(26:11):
of a single leader, financial exploitation, emotional dependency, sexual access
framed as spiritual closeness. None of this has happened in
a vacuum. Alligations span over twenty years, and now nine
brave women have come forward to accuse Jared Letto of
sexual misconduct. Finally, people will take a look at this
(26:32):
man and question whether it is fame and eccentricity or
whether it is abuse. So what are we looking at here?
We're looking at as celebrity as cult leadership. We're looking
at coercion in the language of connection, and we're looking
at abuse disguised as transformation. And we have to ask,
if this is a cult, how many people got hurt
(26:53):
while they were calling it marketing. It's not always men. Statistically,
(27:19):
coercive control is a gendered crime where men will perpetrate
against women. But occasionally some women will pose as women's
rights advocates, as pro women activists. But what happens when
empowerment becomes obedient, When a spiritual practice meant to heal
the body becomes a weapon us to control it. And
(27:40):
that's where I want to talk about One Taste. This week,
in a landmark decision, two executives from the so called
Orgasmic Meditation Company were convicted of forced labor conspiracy, including
its founder, Nicole Day. Done behind the flowy language and
sensual branding was a dark truth. One Taste wasn't just
a wellness company. According to federal prosecutors, it was a
(28:02):
sexually exploitive cults built on coercion, surveillance, and psychological manipulation.
From two thousand and six to twenty eighteen, One Taste
taught thousands the orgasmic meditation, a fifteen minute practice involving
the stimulation of a woman's clitorus, could unlock spiritual enlightenment,
financial freedom, and even trauma healing. But in court, prosecutors
(28:26):
described a system where the same practice was used to
recruit vulnerable women, often with histories of sexual trauma, coerce
them into performing acts, including on investors and clients, force
employees into communal living, constant surveillance and unpaid labour, and
intimidate them into financial ruin through high cost retreats and courses.
(28:46):
This was not about women or women's liberation. This was
about control. Let's call it what it is, industrialized coercion
dressed in mindfulness marketing. And there is so much of
this around at the moment. This is testified that employees
were manipulated into servicing men sexually as part of company duties.
They worked long hours for little or no pay. They
(29:09):
were assigned beds, told when and how to eat, indoctrinated,
pressured to ignore their instincts, told their troual was a
gateway to transformation. One employer was told her rape history
made her a perfect candidate for orgasmic meditation. Another testified
she was shamed for not performing world during a sexual act,
as if she had failed her boss spiritually. This is
(29:30):
coercive control in its most insidious form, when abuse is
framed as awakening, as recovery, as supportive, when women had
taught that the price of empowerment is silent submission and
sex on command. And it's not a new story. We've
seen it with Nexium, with bitram, yoga, with Synanon, and
now again with One Taste. Nicole Daydom once gave a
(29:51):
tedex talk about liberating women through orgasm. That video has
over two point three million views. In it, she tells
a story of a man stimulating her at a party
uninvited and how it changed her life. The whole idea
of One Taste in that case was built on sexual
violence and sexual abuse. Now she faces up to twenty
(30:13):
years in prison for turning that story into a system
of exploitation. Even now, the rebranded One Taste, called the
Institute of On Foundation, is still operating, still marketing, still
featuring Daytien on its website. Their pr rep says the
conviction is an attack on freedom of speech, that it
criminalizes belief that this is just unconventional spirituality Again, believe
(30:38):
isn't the problem coercion is. This isn't about kink, this
isn't about non traditional healing. It's about using power to
eraise choice. And in the end, that's what every story
in this series is about. How coercive control thrives when
it's wrapped in charisma or cloviedn ideology or justified by
a higher purpose. So when we hear consciousness or surrender
(31:02):
or expansion, let's ask who profits, who's in control, and
who gets hurt when no one is allowed to say no.
Sentencing for this case will take place in September, and
until then, I do have some interviews lined up with
One Taste survivors, and several already available on the Cult
War podcast if you'd like to learn more about One
(31:22):
Taste and the journey of recovery the survivors have been.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
On for decades.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Sean Diddy Cones was seen as an architect of hip
hop culture, a mogul, a visionary, even a role model.
But behind the ground, behind the beats, behind the billboard hits,
another story was unfolding, one of unchecked power, systemic violence,
and silence brought on with fear in twenty twenty three,
(32:07):
a single lawsuit cracked the damp. Cassie Ventura, Cones's ex
partner filed a bombshell complaint accusing him of a decade
of abuse, including rape, trafficking, and physical violence. That lawsuit
was settled in under twenty four hours, but the floodgates
were open. Since then, more than thirty civil suits have
been filed. Federal agents raided his homes. Prosecutors have unsealed
(32:31):
a racketeering indictment that reads like a blueprint for a
criminal enterprise built not on drugs or weapons, but on coercion, trafficking,
and sexual control. The details are harrowing. Allegations of drugging
and raping underage girls and boys. Claims that he filmed
assaults and distributed footage across the industry, a lawsuit accusing
(32:52):
him of dangling a woman over a sixteenth floor balcony,
Another from a male escort who says Combs assaulted and
threatened him. Multiples of fis say they were trafficked, blackmailed,
and filmed without consent. Combs has denied all allegations. He's
pleaded not guilty. He's called it a witch hunt. His
lawyers argue that this is a trial by media, not
(33:12):
due process. But here's what the public can't ignore. The
stories keep coming. This isn't just about one man again,
It's about the system the industry that let him operate
like this for years. But why because he had money,
or because he had lawyers, or because he had a brand,
because he had people believing that the power was proof
(33:35):
of innocence, or because he had so much blackmailing material
and collateral on those involved with him in the industry,
or because the music industry, like many others, has a
long history of looking away when women or queer people,
or other vulnerable individuals such as children are harmed by
its stars. And let's talk about that video in twenty
(33:58):
twenty four, cnmbish security footage from twenty sixteen showing did
He assaulting Cassie in a hotel hallway, dragging her, kicking her,
throwing objects, the same incident she had described in chilling
detail in her lawsuit. He apologized on camera two days later,
calling it his darkest time, claimed he'd been in therapy
(34:19):
and that he was disgusted by himself. But here's the thing.
Accountability isn't a performance. It's not a seventy second Instagram reel.
It's not finding Jesus and claiming to be reborn and
hiding behind that as your scapegoat. And it doesn't start
when you get caught. You shouldn't just apologize because you've
been caught. As of today did he is in federal custody.
(34:42):
He's been denied bail multiple times. His trial for sex
trafficking and racketeering is underway, and prosecutors alleged that for
twenty years he ran a criminal enterprise where sexual violence
was a tool of control and people, often vulnerable, often young,
were used, discarded and siled. And it wasn't just him.
The law suit names assistance, bodyguards, producers. It was an
(35:05):
open secret and it was a culture. One attorney claims
that they've been contacted by over three thousand people who
describe similar patterns of abuse. So where do we go
from here? We honest survivors by listening not just to
the high profiled cases, but to the patterns beneath them.
We interrogate the systems that protected men like Combs and
(35:28):
ask what we're still protecting today? Who were still protecting today?
And we remind ourselves that this is not just about celebrity.
It's about power, how it's wielded, how it's worshiped, and
how when left up checked, it becomes a weapon. As
the criminal trial of Sean Didlly Combs begins in New York,
juras have heard about racketeering, trafficking, and abuse, but one
(35:50):
term they won't hear is coercive control. And that's not
an accident. Judge Aaron Sabramanian ruled in pretrial motions that
expert witnesses can't use that phrase in court, and why
because in New York, unlike in only seven other states
in the United States of America, coercive control is not
legally defined as a form of domestic abuse. What Diddy
(36:13):
is accused of, the surveillance, the threats, the financial control,
the psychological manipulation, is coercive control. The term was coined
by forensic social worker Evan Stark, who compared its tactics
used to those on prisoners of war, isolation, humiliation, force, dependency,
and control of every facet of life. Of course, we
understand that's what happens in cults, but it's happening in
(36:36):
other systems too. It's abuse with our bruises, and it's
often harder to prosecute, but no less damaging. In Diddy's case,
prosecutors alleged that he used his wealth, influence, and celebrity
to exert this kind of control over his alleged victims.
These weren't just isolated incidents of violence. There was a pattern,
a system of domination, and yet legally it's invisible. That
(37:01):
invisibility is powerful and dangerous because when we can't name
what's happening, we start to ask the wrong questions. Why
didn't they leave, why did they go back? Why didn't
they say anything sooner? The answers, survivors and trauma specialists
will tell you often lying coercive control, the psychological bonds,
the trauma bonds, the financial threat, the fear that's saying
(37:23):
no will get you punished or destroyed. As clinical social
worker Christine Cocchiola puts it, the brain itself becomes trauma
bonded to the abuser. You no longer recognize what's healthy
or even what's real. Doctor Lisa Fontez, author of Invisible Chains,
says it simply people can lose their perspective when they
are under the thumb of an abusive person, and in
(37:45):
this case, that person was one of the most powerful
men in entertainment, someone with private jets, armed security NDAs,
and a media empire at his disposal. So while the
jury may not hear the phrase coercive control, you can
be sure its presence will echo throughout this trial, and
hopefully it will nudge the State of New York into
(38:06):
implementing some coercive control laws. Through stories of manipulation, masked's mentorship,
(38:30):
or luxury offered as leverage, or fear disguised as love.
The legal system might not have caught up with this
kind of abuse, but we can. We can stop asking
why survivors stayed and start asking who made it impossible
to leave. If you or someone you know is experiencing
coercive control or abuse, you are not alone. Visit thehotline
(38:51):
dot org or call eight seven nine nine Safe for
confidential help in the USA, or visit Safe Lives or
Women's Aid in the UK. Their websites have a ton
of resources that could be helpful across every story we've
explored today, from the orgasmic meditation empire of One Taste,
to the celebrity sanctuaries of Russell Brand to the ongoing
(39:13):
trial of Sean Diddycomb's one thread connects them all power
and the quiet violence of how it's used. We've heard
about coercive environments disguised as wellness, retreats, about grooming, psychological manipulation,
and consent blurred by fame, age and fear. About men
who built entire systems to protect themselves from coltish fan
(39:36):
bases to billion dollar media empires while silencing those they harmed.
The legal term coercive control may not always appear in
courtrooms or headlines, but in the testimonies of survivors, it's everywhere.
It's in the producer who promised protection and delivered isolation,
in the artists who used status to seduce, humiliate, and dominate,
(39:57):
in the group that turned intimacy into indoctrinate. Coercive control
is not about individuals, It's about systems. It thrives in
cultures that reward charisma over accountability. It persists in industries
where the powerful are rarely questioned and the harmed are
often disbelieved unless they bleed. And that's why we have
(40:18):
to name it, because when we don't, survivors are left
asking themselves, was that abuse? If he never hit me?
Was I crazy for staying. Did I say no loud enough?
Speaker 3 (40:29):
We need new.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Language to understand how abuse reyworks, not just through broken bones,
but through boken boundaries, not just with fists, but with fear,
financial ruin, and forced silence. Until we name coercive control,
we remain complicit in it. If this episode has resonated
with you, if it's challenged you on what you thought
abuse looked like, I encourage you to share that. Share
(40:53):
it with me, Share it up with your friends and family,
Share it with your neighbors. These stories can be so
hard to tell, but hard is still is the silence
that surrounds them. Thank you so much for listening. I
know that the majority of my listeners will already know
all of this stuff, and I'm so thankful for you
always tuning in. My name is Casey and I'm the
host of the Cult Fold podcast, where we uncover the
(41:16):
hidden systems of power, control and survival. So until next time,
stay safe, stay critical, and stay connected.
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