An '80s pop icon handcuffs a man to his wall. A former A-lister exposes multiple
partners to HIV. Terrible things deserve an apology, right? Not according to these stars.
In 1984, Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil was partying with Finnish band Hanoi Rocks when
he suggested that he and the group's drummer, Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley,
buy some more beer. Neil, who was driving, lost control of the vehicle and crashed into
another car. Dingley was killed. In addition to Dingley's untimely death at the age of 24,
two teenage passengers in the other vehicle were paralyzed.
Neil has never apologized for the fatal accident. Hanoi Rocks guitarist Andy McCoy
told Artists on Record Starring ADIKA Live!:
"[I've] never even got as much as an apology
from that motherf---er. You know who I'm talking about. [...] Every time I see him,
he runs away. Because he knows what I'd do."
McCoy told Metal Express Radio that he was angry
when Mötley Crüe later released an album titled Music to Crash Your Car to: Vol. 1.
Although Neil expressed regret about the tragedy when speaking to Blender Magazine in 2005,
he did not apologize, blaming his behavior on being a reckless young
rockstar. According to Contact Music, he said,
"I wrote a $2.5 million cheque for vehicular
manslaughter when Razzle died. I should have gone to prison. [...] But you're 20
years old and you've got a million dollars in your pocket and drugs and drink and women
and fame and there are lawyers to protect you. We just thought we could do anything."
In 2015, Sheen revealed that he is HIV positive.
"I'm here to admit that I am, in fact, HIV positive."
A year later he admitted to having sex with 25 people without informing them of his diagnosis.
"I could be dead right now. I could literally be dead right now because he didn't tell me that."
The actor insisted his actions were justified since he wore condoms.
As reported by Radar, Sheen said, "No one has been infected by me.
No one. They claim the sorrow and the pity, or whatever. But that's on them, I know the truth."
Knowingly exposing a sexual partner to HIV remains a crime in California. And in 2015 and 2017,
Sheen was sued by two former partners for having done so. One plaintiff alleged that Sheen assured
her he had no sexually transmitted diseases before they had both protected and unprotected sex. She
also alleged that he pressured her not to take antiretroviral drugs to treat her HIV exposure.
The lawsuit quotes him as telling her, "This is more about... not if,
but when you do come down with this [HIV], that we're together and at
least we have each other."
The suit was settled in 2022.
In 2007, Boy George began chatting to Norwegian model and sex worker Audun Carlsen online. After
inviting Carlsen back to his London home, the pair had a sexual encounter and George
took erotic photos of his guest. But the '80s hitmaker — who admitted to using cocaine at the
time — became paranoid after he supposedly saw Carlsen attempting to retrieve the photographs
from his laptop. So the singer handcuffed Carlsen to a wall and held him captive. When
he broke free, George beat him.
Carlsen told The Sun,
"My life was ruined by that attack. I spent eight years in therapy. [...] He has never
once apologized or shown any hint of remorse." George served four months in jail. He claims he
dissociated during the crime due to drug intoxication and has never apologized.
"I'm an addict. I can't do one of anything."
George told Piers Morgan,
"I don't think it would make
any difference. All of it was the drugs. There is no way on God's earth this would
happen if I had not been on drugs. [...] I kind of took responsibility but in my way."
In 1998, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee was sentenced to six months in jail for beating
his wife, Baywatch star Pamela Anderson. The judge made a statement at sentencing, saying:
"What I see here is a very clear — very disturbing, in my judgment — pattern of
conduct in which otherwise resolvable matters are handled by violence."
In 2002, Anderson accused her ex-husband of knowingly infecting her with hepatitis
C. Lee denied the allegation. Meanwhile, court documents revealed that she also
considered Lee a threat to her children.
Lee has failed to apologize for the abuse.
Instead, he has consistently denigrated his ex for turning their sons against him.
According to Entertainment Tonight, Lee claimed,
"The boys have been poisoned against me
sadly. Because I was on tour working; making money to pay for their private schools and their cars,
and their future, so they spent more time with their mother. She became the hero."
In 1982, while directing a segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie, John Landis violated child
labor laws by forcing minors Renee Shinn Chen and Myca Dinh Le to work long into the night.
Pyrotechnics failed and a helicopter crashed during shooting, killing both children along
with actor Vic Morrow, who was decapitated.
Landis was charged with involuntary manslaughter
but was acquitted. In court, the parents of the dead children testified that they heard the
director ordering the helicopter to fly lower. The director has never apologized to the families.
"I'm sorry. I think it's inappropriate for me, at this time, to say anything."
Instead, he’s remained focused on the damage the tragedy caused him. He told The Herald Scotland,
"The tragedy, which I think about every day, had an enormous impact on my career,
from which it may possibly never recover."
Nicki Minaj has come under fire for her support of her brother and her husband,
both of whom have been convicted of sexual misconduct. Not only has the rapper failed
to apologize for her defense of alleged abusers, but she's been unwavering in her support of them.
In 2015, Minaj's brother, Jelani Maraj, was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting
a 12-year-old child. Minaj paid her brother's $100,000 bail. An inside source told Page Six,
"She was prepared to do anything for her brother."
Despite his famous sister's support, Maraj was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in jail.
When it was disclosed that Minaj's husband, Kenneth Petty, had been convicted of attempted
rape in 1995, she stood by him. Jennifer Hough, Petty's victim, was 16 at the time of the assault.
"It was wrong, and I don't want to be afraid anymore. So the only
way not to be afraid is to continue to speak up."
She filed a harassment lawsuit against Minaj on the grounds that,
when the rapper tweeted false information about the attempted rape,
it triggered painful memories. During an appearance on The Real, Hough said,
"It hurt coming from another woman." Hough also alleged that Minaj ordered
her associates to harass her in 2020 in an attempt to force her to recant the allegations.
"She offered to fly me and my family to L.A. [...] I turned it down and I told her woman
to woman, this really happened."
In 2022, the lawsuit was dropped.
Jon Hamm In 1991, while at the University of Texas,
Mad Men actor Jon Hamm was arrested for a hazing ritual that turned into a horror show.
"Sorry about Mr. Campbell here. He left his manners back at the fraternity house."
Mark Allen Sanders alleged that he was tortured during a frat stunt at the school. In the police
report, he claimed that Hamm was one of the instigators of the assault, which was apparently
kicked off by Hamm's anger when Sanders forgot his nickname: "MC Hammer." The star was accused of
beating Sanders in the kidneys with a paddle, then giving him a violent wedgie — all with the help of
his frat brothers. Sanders claimed that Hamm then set his pants on fire and mutilated his genitals
with a hammer. He sustained injuries including "nerve damage to his ribs, kidney spasms,
and a lineal spinal fracture."
Hamm was charged with hazing,
for which he received probation. In lieu of an apology, the actor instead claimed
the reports were inaccurate. He told Esquire,
"Everything about that is sensationalized. [...] I
wasn't convicted of anything. I was [...] a stupid kid in a stupid situation."
In 2012, Chevy Chase left the beloved cult sitcom Community. According to Deadline,
the actor's exit occurred a month after he'd used a racial slur during an on-set
rant. Six years later, showrunner Dan Harmon and star Donald Glover accused
Chase of targeting the Atlanta star with racist jokes on set.
"How's it going with the others?"
"Well, you know, I don't know, really. I don't pay much attention to them."
According to The New Yorker, Chase was said to have told Glover,
"People think you're funnier because you're Black."
"Probably like the least racist guy."
"To a fault. To the fault where you'll say 'Let's go get some Chinese food,'
and he'll just walk into a Burger King."
Harmon theorized that Chase's acrimony may
have been born of envy, telling The New Yorker,
"Chevy was the first to realize how immensely
gifted Donald was, and the way he expressed his jealousy was to try
to throw Donald off. I remember apologizing to Donald after a particularly rough night
of Chevy's non-P.C. verbiage, and Donald said, 'I don't even worry about it.'"
Glover told The New Yorker that Chase was grappling with the irrelevancy that
often looms over aging comics but insisted that his former co-star is not a monster.
While Glover has been gracious when discussing his behavior,
Chase has been anything but. In an interview with The Washington Post,
he was asked to address Glover's accusations and didn't deny making racist remarks. Given
the chance to apologize, Chase instead doubled down on the racist slurs. Recalling a run-in with
Glover after the fallout, he quipped,
"I never saw a guy turn white so fast."
Many rock stars of the '60s and '70s have been accused of grooming minors,
but Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman actually married his underage
girlfriend. Wyman met Mandy Smith when she was a 13-year-old schoolgirl. He,
on the other hand, was 47. In Wyman's autobiography, Stone Alone, he wrote,
"She took my breath away. [...] She was a woman at thirteen."
Smith admitted to the Daily Mail that she slept with Wyman when she was 14.
"I think you do things when you want to do them. [...] You do them when it's right.
I don't think people should tell you there's a right age and a wrong age."
The pair wed in 1989 when Smith was 18 and Wyman was 52. They divorced two years later.
The bassist has done a pretty good job of burying his past indiscretion,
but in 2006 The Guardian explicitly asked him to discuss the relationship. The
interview was the perfect opportunity for him to come clean and apologize,
as he was bluntly asked how he ended up with an underage girlfriend. His response was,
"I don't know, mate. [...] It's the magic of the moment, basically."
As for the disintegration of their marriage, which Wyman termed "a disaster," he laid the
blame squarely on Smith. Asked whether he thought he ever had
a future with such a young girl, he replied,
"In 1985-86, I did, yeah. Then she went off the
rails a bit. [...] Got really thin. Almost died."
The latter remark was in reference to Smith's
wasting disease. Unfortunately, an apology was simply not on the cards.