Kevin Spacey

On October 13, 2017, former television news anchor Heather Unruh tweeted that Kevin Spacey had “assaulted'' one of her “loved [ones].” The original tweet has since been deleted.

At a press conference held on November 8, 2017, Unruh accused Spacey of sexually assaulting her then-18-year-old son Will Little at a bar in Nantucket, Mass. in July of 2016. She alleged that Spacey had bought her son alcohol—despite the legal drinking age in the U.S. being 21 years—and had gotten him drunk before Spacey "stuck his hand inside [her] son's pants and grabbed his genitals." Spacey allegedly invited Little to a party, but Little ran from the bar once Spacey went to the bathroom.

In the press conference, Unruh confirmed that a criminal investigation was underway. The investigation culminated in a civil lawsuit filed at the Nantucket Superior Court in June 2019 by Will Little’s family. The case fell apart when it was revealed that Heather Unruh had deleted texts from Will Little’s phone chronicling the time frame in which he was allegedly assaulted. When the court demanded that Will Little produce the phone as evidence, he was unable to do so and pleaded the fifth, invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination. 

Little’s family dropped the civil lawsuit shortly afterwards. The criminal case, in which Spacey was charged with indecent assault and battery against Will Little, was subsequently dropped by Attorney Michael O'Keefe "due to the unavailability of the complaining witness." 

On October 29, 2017, actor Anthony Rapp released an interview with Buzzfeed News in which he accused Kevin Spacey of making sexual advances toward him at a 1986 party at Spacey’s apartment, when Rapp was just 14 years old. 

According to Rapp’s testimony, he was the only child at the party and got bored, so he retired to Spacey’s bedroom to watch TV. Sometime after midnight, Spacey appeared in the doorway, swaying, and Rapp had the impression that Spacey was drunk. Said Rapp: “[Spacey] picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold. But I don't, like, squirm away initially, because I'm like, 'What's going on?' And then he lays down on top of me. He was trying to seduce me. I don't know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.”

Although Spacey continued to press his body against Rapp, Rapp managed to squirm away after a short period. Rapp locked himself in the bathroom briefly to collect himself, and then left the apartment. Rapp stated that his 2017 Buzzfeed News interview was the first time that he publicly acknowledged the incident. 

In response to Rapp’s October 2017 Buzzfeed interview, in which Rapp accused Spacey of making sexual advances towards him when he was 14 years old, Spacey tweeted a statement: “I honestly do not remember the encounter,” but went on to say that “if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.” 

In response to his statement tweeted on October 29, critics slammed Spacey on social media for his lack of ownership.

In the same statement tweeted October 29, 2017, Spacey acknowledged that “I now choose to live as a gay man.” This was the first time that Spacey had publicly addressed his sexuality, and many members of the LGBTQ+ community criticized the timing of his announcement, with some arguing that it perpetuated the myth that homosexuals are pedophiles.

Multiple celebrities took to Twitter and slammed Spacey’s response to Rapp’s allegations.

Actor Zachary Quinto tweeted his response to Spacey’s coming out, criticizing Spacey for using it “as a calculated manipulation to deflect attention from the very serious accusation that he attempted to molest [a kid] … May Anthony Rapp’s voice be the one which is amplified here.”

Actress and talk show host Rosie O’Donnell tweeted her response to Spacey’s original statement, rejecting his apology and confirming that, “like Harvey [Weinstein], we all knew about [you].”

Actress Sue Perkins tweeted her critique of Spacey’s original statement, pointing out how Spacey “[stays] silent on [his] sexuality until the time comes when [he] can conflate it with an alleged sexual assault on a minor.”

Netflix and “House of Cards” producer Media Rights Capital released a joint statement on October 30, 2017, in response to the allegations made by Rapp against Spacey:

“Media Rights Capital and Netflix are deeply troubled by last night’s news concerning Kevin Spacey. In response to last night’s revelations, executives from both of our companies arrived in Baltimore this afternoon to meet with our cast and crew to ensure that they continue to feel safe and supported. As previously scheduled, Kevin Spacey is not working on set at this time.”

In a Facebook update posted on October 30, 2017, Mexican actor Roberto Cavazos recounted "a couple of nasty encounters" with Spacey that were “on the verge of being called harassment" while working at The Old Vic theatre in London. He also stated that such encounters with Spacey were so common among Old Vic employees that it became a running joke, albeit “in very poor taste.”

In an interview with The Sun released on October 31, 2017, British bartender Daniel Beal alleged that Spacey had purposefully exposed himself to Beal in 2010. 

Beal had been working at the Goodwood Park Hotel in West Sussex, where Spacey was a customer. Beal claimed that “every time I tried to give him a drink he’d touch my hand in a weird way.” That same evening, while Beal was taking a smoke break on a bench near the hotel, Spacey allegedly approached Beal and exposed his genitals, saying, “It’s big, isn’t it?” Said Beal: “He leaned over and tried to pull my hand towards it. I went back inside.”

Beal claims that Spacey followed him back into the hotel and gifted him an IWC Portofino watch, which Beal later sold for £3,200.

On October 31, 2017, The Old Vic—a theatre in London where Spacey served as Artistic Director between 2004–2015—released a statement in response to Rapp’s allegations against Spacey. Leadership stated that they were “deeply dismayed” at the allegations and confirmed that “inappropriate behaviour by anyone working at The Old Vic is completely unacceptable.” The statement concluded by providing an email address through which they would address any employee’s “complaint[s] that you were unable to raise [at the time].” 

In a follow-up statement released by The Old Vic on November 16, 2017, it was confirmed that the theatre’s investigation into Spacey’s tenure as Artistic Director had resulted in 20 personal testimonies of “alleged inappropriate behaviour” by Spacey between 1995–2013; the theatre stated that no correspondents were minors at the time the incidents reportedly took place. Three employees who gave testimony against Spacey confirmed that they had also gone to the police.

In an interview released November 4, 2017 through Buzzfeed News, actor Harry Dreyfuss, son of actor Richard Dreyfuss, claimed that Spacey had groped him in 2008 when Harry was 18 years old, while Harry and his father were visiting Spacey’s apartment for a script-reading. Harry concluded, “Now, having had nine years to process it, it finally is clear to me how wrong Kevin’s behavior was … I did a lot of mental gymnastics to normalize my experience.”

On November 4, 2017, The Sun reported an anonymous testimony from an actor who claims that he passed out while smoking cannabis with Spacey in 2008. The victim woke up to find Spacey performing oral sex on him; he told Spacey to stop and immediately fled the scene. In the same article, The Sun reported that the victim had brought the matter to the London police.

According to the BBC, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that they were investigating an alleged assault on a man from 2008, but they did not specify whether or not the allegation had been made against Kevin Spacey. 

As of September 2021, this investigation is still ongoing. 

In an interview published by The Sun on November 5, 2017, bartender Kris Nixon accused Spacey of multiple unwanted sexual advances. At a 2007 party, Nixon claims that Spacey sat next to him on a couch, looked at him “for a weirdly uncomfortable length of time” and “then grabbed [Nixon’s] dick over [his] trousers” while telling him, “I could blow you better than [your girlfriend] could.” Nixon immediately left the party with his girlfriend. 

Spacey allegedly approached Nixon again while he was bartending, but Nixon barged past him. Minutes later, when Spacey tried to order a drink, Nixon told him to “fuck off.”

In an interview with ABC’s “Nightline” on November 9, 2017, filmmaker Tony Montana claimed that Spacey had groped him at a Los Angeles bar in 2003. Allegedly, Spacey had sat down next to Montana and put his hand under the bar where he grabbed Montana’s genitals. "I had never been groped before,” Montana recalled. “And [Spacey] looked at me and he said … ‘This designates ownership.’”

Tony Montana fully supported Rapp’s testimony about Spacey’s unwanted sexual advances and stated that “I would not have come forward had Anthony [Rapp] not come forward. My reaction was, ‘This happened to somebody else.’”

On November 22, 2017, Scotland Yard confirmed that it was investigating a new allegation against Spacey, this time for an incident of sexual assault that allegedly took place with a man in South London in 2005. 

On December 13, 2017, Scotland Yard began investigating a third claim, in which a man alleged that he was assaulted by Spacey in Westminster, London, also in 2005. Although Scotland Yard did not name Spacey as the accused, they did confirm that “the alleged perpetrator is the same person who was the subject of two earlier complaints.”

As of September 2021, both investigations are still ongoing.

In a radio interview with Norwegian radio station P4 on December 8, 2017, Ari Behn, the former son-in-law of Norway’s King Harald V, stated that Spacey had groped him after a Nobel Peace Prize concert in 2007. 

In the original interview, which was translated from the Norwegian, Behn stated: “[Spacey and I] had a great talk, he sat right beside me. After five minutes he said, 'Hey, let's go out and have a cigarette,’ then he puts his hand under the table and grabs me by the balls." In an effort to put off Spacey, Behn responded, “Er, maybe later.” 

Summing up the experience, Behn concluded, “I am a generous person, but this was a bit more than I had in mind."

In December 2017, Los Angeles police began investigating an alleged 1992 incident involving Spacey and a man in West Hollywood. The investigation was widely reported by the BBC in April 2018, although the exact nature of the incident was not specified.

Almost a year later, in September of 2018, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office confirmed that they were unable to prosecute Spacey, as the alleged incident had passed outside California's statute of limitations.

Kevin Spacey released a YouTube video on April 4, 2020—just ten days after most U.S. states activated their shelter-in-place mandatein which he compared his own insecurity resulting from the fallout of multiple sexual harassment allegations in 2017 to the anxiety that many were feeling in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the comments, many fans thanked Spacey and praised him for his honesty.

Critics, however, slammed Spacey for lack of self-awareness.

On September 28, 2018, a massage therapist—who initially wished to remain anonymous—filed a lawsuit against Spacey for sexual battery, battery, assault and false imprisonment, accusing Spacey of grabbing his genitals during a massage session and repeatedly demanding the right to give him a blowjob. 

On September 18, 2019, a court filing revealed that the massage therapist had died, although the circumstances and date were not disclosed. On December 30, 2019, the accuser’s estate voluntarily dismissed the case with prejudice.

On September 9, 2020, Rapp and an anonymous man, referred to in court as “C.D.,” filed a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan against Spacey for sexual assault. No criminal charges were filed in association with the case. 

Rapp had previously given testimony in his 2017 interview with Buzzfeed News that Spacey had allegedly made sexual advances towards him when Rapp was 14 years old. C.D. added his own testimony that in the 1980s, when he was still a teenager, Spacey had invited him to his apartment on multiple occasions and “engaged in sexual acts” with him, with their final encounter ending with sexual assault after C.D. had resisted Spacey and said “no.” 

The plaintiffs’ attorney Peter Saghir confirmed that the lawsuit was being brought under the Child Victims Act, which allows victims of childhood sex abuse to press charges as late as age 55.

On June 17, 2021, C.D.’s claim was dismissed, after C.D. refused to openly use his name in court proceedings. Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that “the threat of significant media attention—however exacerbated by the modern era—alone does not entitle a plaintiff to the exceptional remedy of anonymity … Accordingly, C.D.’s privacy interest—despite the publicity this case may generate—does not outweigh the prejudice to Spacey and the presumption of open judicial proceedings.”

As of September 2021, Rapp’s legal case is still ongoing.