The Wildest Celebrity Lie Detector Moments
The results of lie detector tests are often inadmissible in trial proceedings, but this hasn't prevented polygraph machines from making regular appearances on television. Watching criminal suspects sweat while a quivering needle reflects their anxiety might be a great way to build suspense, but polygraph tests aren't administered as often as police procedural shows would have you think.
We can also thank "The Maury Povich Show" for popularizing the use of polygraph exams for entertainment purposes. While it's possible to fool a lie detector machine, many viewers didn't question the veracity of its results every time Povich told accused cheaters, "The lie detector determined ... that was a lie!" When Nicki Minaj was feuding with Cardi B in 2018, Povich even stepped in and offered to help them prove who was telling the truth about the various accusations that they made about each other following their infamous New York Fashion Week fight. On Twitter, Minaj said she would foot the bill if Cardi B would agree to take a polygraph test, to which Povich hilariously replied, "Why pay for a Lie Detector Test ... when mine is FREE! I'll get to the bottom of this!"
In response to Povich's offer, Minaj tweeted, "Maury I'm ready!" She and Cardi B seemed to squash their beef soon afterward. While we didn't get to see the rappers face off over an oscillating needle, we've witnessed a surprising number of wild celebrity lie-detector moments.
Stormy Daniels spilled about a future president
Sources told AP that Donald Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, warned InTouch not to publish its interview with adult film star Stormy Daniels, conducted seven years earlier. Even though the star underwent a polygraph test to corroborate her claims that she had a sexual encounter with Trump, the magazine's publisher acquiesced. But then Trump became president. The Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen had paid Daniels $130,000 in hush money, and InTouch decided to finally print its extremely newsworthy interview in 2018.
Daniels claimed that she and Trump had sex once after meeting at a golf tournament. They kept in touch afterward, and she later hung out with him again at the Beverly Hills Hotel. "He was watching Shark Week," Daniels told InTouch. "He is obsessed with sharks. Terrified of sharks."
In her memoir, "Full Disclosure," Daniels revealed that she also told an InTouch editor about something she didn't mention during her actual interview: spanking Trump with a copy of a magazine that featured his likeness on the cover. After their initial phone conversation, the editor told Daniels that her story was so unbelievable that she'd have to take a lie detector test. At the time, Daniels recalled thinking, "What seemed so far-fetched? Was it the spanking? Shark Week? That I had a brain?" CNN later obtained a copy of her polygraph report, which stated, "In the opinion of this examiner [Daniels] is truthful about having unprotected vaginal intercourse with Donald Trump in July 2006."
Lisa Vanderpump's PuppyGate denial
Before they were riveted by Scandoval, Bravo fans were obsessed with PuppyGate. Ahead of the Season 9 premiere of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," Radar reported that Dorit Kemsley had decided that she no longer wanted a puppy she had adopted from Vanderpump Dogs. Kemsley gave the dog, Lucy Lucy Apple Juice, away to someone else, but they, in turn, dropped her off at a shelter, per People. Lucy's microchip was linked to Vanderpump Dogs, and Lisa Vanderpump wasn't happy about how bad it looked that one of her organization's animals ended up at a shelter.
Vanderpump's "RHOBH" castmates concluded that she had leaked Lucy's sad tale to Radar in an effort to shame Kemsley. However, Radar denied this. PuppyGate became a huge Season 9 plotline, with Vanderpump being accused of using it to manipulate her fellow housewives. Denise Richards suggested that one of the Vanderpuppetmasters' goals was to cause drama between Kemsley and Teddi Mellencamp – all while keeping her own image pristine.
Vanderpump decided to take a polygraph exam in regards to the Radar accusation (via The Daily Dish), and it found that she was telling the truth when she denied leaking the story to the webloid. But she also used the test to take a swipe at Kemsley by including the question, "Do you think Dorit's face has changed as much in the last year as her accent?" Vanderpump laughed at her devious addition before responding, "She's had a head transplant."
Johnny Knoxville got honest about Jessica Simpson
In 2005, "The Dukes of Hazzard" movie brought together the pop star who mistook tuna for chicken and the man willing to get pulverized by bulls for the sake of entertainment. It was difficult to determine whether Jessica Simpson and Johnny Knoxville seemed like an unlikely pair or kindred spirits, but one thing was for certain: they were both married when they started working together. This fact didn't stave off the gossip that there might be something romantic going on between the two, and Howard Stern challenged Knoxville to address the rumors head-on when the human crash test dummy appeared on "The Howard Stern Show" in 2005.
Knoxville was hooked up to a lie detector machine as he was asked a series of questions about Simpson. It confirmed that he was being truthful when he said that he didn't have sex with Simpson (via Contact Music). However, the polygraph examiner determined that he was possibly lying when he said that he never kissed his co-star, and when he was asked if he thought the singer was "an idiot," his denial was apparently deemed a lie (via Oh No They Didn't!). "I don't put any faith in that test," Knoxville said of the results.
In her memoir "Open Book," Simpson revealed that she felt guilty about her feelings for Knoxville at the time, claiming that they had "an emotional affair" (via People). She also wrote, "He actually liked that I was smart." Awkward!
Omarosa's lie detector tantrum
In 2004, Omarosa Manigault Newman made a name for herself by easily making enemies during the first season of Donald Trump's reality series, "The Apprentice." In an appearance on "The View," Omarosa claimed that one of her fellow contestants didn't just hate her but had attacked her with a hateful slur. While Omarosa didn't reveal the name of the person she accused of using the racial pejorative, she hinted that it was Ereka Vetrini, per the New York Post. After Vetrini denied this during her own interview on "The View," Omarosa argued that Vetrini hadn't just outed herself as the accused but had also admitted guilt by agreeing to appear on the show to defend herself.
To prove her innocence, Vetrini took a polygraph test on "The Howard Stern Show" — it found that she was telling the truth when she denied using the slur against her nemesis.
Omarosa was scheduled to appear on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" after Ventrini was seemingly vindicated, and that same night, Jimmy Kimmel had coincidentally decided to film a skit that involved hooking his Uncle Frank up to a fake polygraph machine. Omarosa saw the rig and assumed that Kimmel planned on trying to interrogate her without prior warning. "She stormed out of there and the show was live, so we had no guest," Kimmel claimed to the Daily Beast. "She was very angry." However, the talk host also admitted that he was relieved he didn't have to interview her.
Todd Chrisley's TMI confessions about his sex life
Before Todd Chrisley got sent to prison, he was essentially living a lie, according to the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Virginia. While he led viewers to believe that he'd obtained his lavish lifestyle through honest means, the former "Chrisley Knows Best" star was actually defrauding banks and bilking the IRS. More of his deception was exposed when he was hooked up to a polygraph machine for a 2016 episode of his USA Network reality show, but he conveniently wasn't asked about his finances.
A few of the questions Todd responded to were sexual in nature. His son, Chase Chrisley, asked him, "Did you really have sex with a girl on Nanny's recliner and break it because you 'hit it' too hard?" Todd apparently saw no reason to try to get away with lying about that particular incident, and his affirmative answer was deemed truthful.
Todd's daughter, Savannah Chrisley, wanted to know if he's ever had a sexually transmitted disease, and the polygraph examiner revealed that his "No" was a lie. In a confessional, the "Chrisley Confessions" host later admitted, "I got crabs when I was 16 years old from the football coach's daughter, and I had to go to the Revco nine miles away so the pharmacist would not know us." But for many fans, perhaps the most surprising revelation was that Savannah isn't actually Todd's favorite kid. "That's heartbreaking," she said upon learning the truth.
Millie Bobby Brown got real about an on-screen kiss
For "Stranger Things" star Millie Bobby Brown, her first kiss was a "strange" experience (yes, she actually used that word to describe it.) Speaking to Interview in 2016, she revealed that she'd never kissed a boy before she was required to do so while in character as Eleven. She was just 11 years old when she kissed her co-star, Finn Wolfhard, with cameras filming them. "It was kind of weird," she said of the experience. "Finn reacted quite well and I didn't." While she had no other kisses to compare it to at the time, the topic came up again in 2022 when Brown was taking the Vanity Fair lie detector test and she was asked, "Is Finn just a lousy kisser?" After she answered, "He is," Brown was asked if Wolfhard's kissing skills have improved since their first on-screen liplock. "Not with me, no," she said. Her responses were determined to be truthful.
Brown confessed that she hadn't shared her opinions about Wolfhard's kissing capabilities with him. It was pointed out to her that he was about to learn the painful truth, and she replied, "That's okay." In a January 2023 appearance on "The Drew Barrymore Show," Wolfhard responded to his co-star's remarks, saying, "You know what? I was fine with it." He admitted that he really didn't know what he was doing at the time, recalling, "I just, almost like, head-butted her." But he pointed out, "I was 12, so ..."
Shawn Mendes' hilarious lie about Taylor Swift's ex
When Shawn Mendes took the Vanity Fair lie detector test in 2021, he admitted that he has lied to his girlfriend, Camila Cabello, but didn't elaborate on what he was dishonest about. He also admitted to being friend-zoned by her before. Still, the polygraph examiner determined that Mendes was telling the truth when he said that everything was fine between him and Cabello at that time.
Mendes was also asked about another couple who would later split: Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn. He revealed that he hadn't yet met Alwyn, but while looking at a photo of the actor, Mendes said, "He looks like a sweet guy." The lie detector determined ... that was a lie. Getting caught telling a mistruth got Mendes a bit flustered, but he did his best to explain why he didn't really believe what he'd just said. "He's kinda got a little bit of a villain look about him," Mendes said.
He tried to conflate his conflicting comments by saying that Alwyn doesn't always look villainous, he just seems capable of becoming a rogue whenever he wishes. "He's got really blue eyes, and I struggle with eyes that blue," Mendes further explained. "You know? Like, I find it easier to trust brown eyes." The singer then observed, "I just talked way too much about him." Mendes also confessed something about one of Swift's other exes: It bothered him that Harry Styles didn't follow him back on Instagram.
Tori Spelling's 90210 hookups
In 2015, Tori Spelling put herself in the hot seat for an hour-long Lifetime television event titled "Tori Spelling: Celebrity Lie Detector." While strapped into a polygraph machine, she was asked whether she'd hooked up with any of her "Beverly Hills, 90210" castmates. She first fessed up to falling in love with Brian Austin Green, who had a strange way of flirting with her. "He would come up and pull on my peach fuzz, and he'd be like, 'Oh my gosh. You're like a little lamb chop. You're like my Chewbacca," she recalled. Spelling also claimed that she hooked up with Jason Priestley, stating, "It was off-set. It was our version of a summer romance" (via Us Weekly).
While the polygraph machine showed Spelling's answers to be honest, Priestley refused to corroborate its findings. "I'm not getting into this ... It's nobody's business ... Either way," he tweeted. As for Green, he downplayed the seriousness of his relationship with Spelling in a 2019 appearance on "Watch What Happens Live." The actor admitted, "We hooked up. We did. But we were young ... that's what young people do."
The following year, Spelling told the "Women on Top" podcast that she was trying to reminisce with Green about their romance, and she learned that their recollections about it differed. She remembered the two of them declaring their love for one another, but Green did not. "He was like, 'No, we hooked up. We were only friends," she recalled. Ouch.
Kate Hudson's kiss diss
When Kate Hudson took the Vanity Fair lie detector test in 2022, her "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" castmate Janelle Monáe administered the questions, and she wanted her co-star to dish the dirt on some of her on-screen kisses. Hudson had high praise for her "Almost Famous" co-star Billy Cudrup. When she was asked to compare their liplock to her experiences kissing Matthew McConaughey in "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" and "Fool's Gold," she admitted, "I think Billy is a gentler kisser." While elaborating on the difference between the two, she stated, "It's a more sophisticated version of a kiss. It's like theater; it's like Stanislavski — and like longhorns." We're guessing she had some bad flashbacks every time she saw McConaughey lock eyes with a longhorn bull in that Lincoln ad.
Hudson later had to confront McConaughey when they filmed an Instagram Live together to mark the 20th anniversary of "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days." Instead of critiquing him again by evoking snotty snouts, she suggested that McConaughey's own kissing capabilities often weren't the issue when a scene called for the actors to lock lips. "We're always in weird environments," she said. McConaughey agreed, pointing out that the conditions they were expected to kiss in while shooting "Fool's Gold" were less than ideal. In one scene, they were in the ocean and had just swum up to the surface, which explains why his face was wet like a longhorn's nose.
The Jo Bro who would date Pete Davidson
For the 2021 special "Jonas Brothers Family Roast," Netflix brought out the big guns to roast the Jo Bros, including "Saturday Night Live" star Pete Davidson. The comedian made some NSFW jokes about Joe Jonas and "Game of Thrones" star Sophie Turner's love life, one of which involved the Stark family's motto on "GoT": "Winter is coming." Turner also got in on the fun by joking about the Jo Bros' purity rings and Davidson's womanizing reputation. "Joe, don't wait up — Pete Davidson slipped me his phone number," she quipped (via Us Weekly).
Joe could have tried to exact revenge on Davidson when the "King of Staten Island" star's name came up during his Vanity Fair lie detector test, but he did not. He'd just admitted to believing that he's the Kim Kardashian of his fam when he was asked if he would follow in her footsteps by dating Davidson. "Yes," he replied. But when he was asked if he would date her ex-husband, Kanye West, Joe said, "No, definitely not."
He confessed to being a fan of the Kardashians and even said that their former reality series, "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," was better than his brother Kevin Jonas' E! show, "Married to Jonas." Joe also admitted to using the Raya dating app and sliding into the DMs of around 10 women, including Turner (his success rate was around 50-50.) Oh, and he tossed his purity ring in the trash.
Jennifer Lawrence's sinister subway confession
Jennifer Lawrence has a reputation for being endearingly goofy during interviews, like when she kept it real with "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" star Kim Kardashian by joking about the phallic shape of one of her KKW Beauty makeup brushes on "Jimmy Kimmel Live." Or when she snuck up on Taylor Swift while the singer was in the middle of a 2014 Golden Globes interview and told her, "I was going to come in and push you down the stairs. I was like, she'll crack up" (via E! News). Apparently, Lawrence thinks about shoving people a lot.
During her 2018 Vanity Fair lie detector test interview, Lawrence's confessions took a dark turn when she was presented with a hypothetical situation: If she pushed a single person in front of a train, it would save the lives of multiple others. When asked if she would do it, she replied, "I mean, that would be psychotic not to. In fact, every time I'm in the subway, I always think about pushing people on the tracks ... I don't get tempted to do it, but it crosses my mind." After the polygraph examiner revealed that she was being truthful, Lawrence joked, "I'm so happy that it was confirmed with a polygraph that I'm a psychopath." She then again assured viewers, "I don't want to do it." But just to be on the safe side — please, Taylor Swift, we're begging you, never ride the subway with the "Passengers" star.
Niall Horan's One Direction prediction
When Niall Horan joined James Corden for a "Carpool Karaoke" segment on "The Late Late Show" in 2020, the singer also took a polygraph exam in the car. The first question was, "Do you actually think One Direction will get back together?" Corden's audience cheered when Horan answered in the affirmative and his response turned out to be true.
A few of Horan's former bandmates would later give Directioners more hope of the band reuniting for the first time since their 2015 breakup. A few months after Horan's lie detector admission, Liam Payne appeared on Capital FM and said of 1D, "I'm hoping we've got a lot more to come from us." Louis Tomlinson echoed these sentiments when he was asked about the possibility of a reunion during a 2022 "Lorraine" interview (via E! News). "It would be a shame if we didn't. I hope so," he said. As for Harry Styles, he discussed the topic on the "Spout" podcast in 2022, where he mused, "I think if there's a moment for us to do in the right way, I think it would be great."
Speaking of Styles, the tables were turned on Corden when he was hooked up to the polygraph machine and Horan got to interrogate him. Corden reluctantly (and truthfully) admitted that he prefers Styles' song "Sign of the Times" to Horan's single "Slow Hands." But he was also being honest when he revealed that Horan is his favorite member of the band.
What Justin Bieber really thinks of Kendall Jenner
For a 2018 episode of "Carpool Karaoke: The Series," besties Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner went for a ride and tried to tell no lies when a polygraph expert monitored their response to each other's questions. Jenner fessed up to creating a secret Instagram account for the sole purpose of keeping tabs on an ex, but, unfortunately, Hailey didn't ask her which guy she was stalking. When it was Hailey's turn in the hot seat, her fellow model asked her, "Does Justin [Bieber] think I'm cool?" Hailey replied, "Of course!" But the polygraph expert in the backseat wiped his brow and said, "That's a lie." This caused the two pals to laugh hysterically.
There was a time Jenner thought the Biebs was pretty cool. "Justin Bieber was like the pop star of my time," she told W magazine in 2016. "I feel like I must have had a 12-year-old crush on him. Not anymore though!" And when Jenner scored a Vogue cover that same year, Justin wrote on Instagram, "Congrats Ken you look beautiful."
Once upon a time, Jenner and Justin sparked dating rumors because they were hanging out together so often, but Jenner denied that they were anything more than friends during a 2014 "Nightline" interview (via E! News). And apparently, she's cool with Justin no longer thinking she's cool — Hailey, Justin, Jenner, and Bad Bunny were spied on what appeared to be a double date in February 2023, per E! News.
Dixie D'Amelio's awkward relationship revelations
In 2020, TikTok power couple Dixie D'Amelio and Noah Beck took a lie detector test together on "The Early Late Show With Dixie D'Amelio." But first, D'Amelio had a question for the polygraph expert, John — she wanted to know if a couple ever broke up while he was monitoring their responses. "That's what I'm hoping for this time," he deadpanned. Damn, John.
The illuminating exam took an awkward turn when Beck asked D'Amelio if she could picture the two of them getting married. He looked somewhat taken aback when she said "No," which actually turned out to be a lie. Before learning this, Beck asked, "Am I wasting my time?" D'Amelio insisted this wasn't the case but began getting a bit flustered. When she claimed that she'd never thought about dumping Beck, this was also found to be a fib. "It was one time," she confessed, reminding Beck that he already knew about it. And to be fair, he lied about the same thing. "I didn't know you wanted to break up with me!" D'Amelio told her beau. Beck also lied when he said that he didn't find D'Amelio intimidating but told the truth when he admitted that she annoyed him, much to her annoyance.
Shockingly, the couple couldn't quit bickering while learning the results of the exam. D'Amelio and Beck's relationship survived the lie detector test, but in November 2022, a rep for Beck told The New York Times that they had split.
Keke Palmer's iconic identification fail
When Keke Palmer took the Vanity Fair lie detector test in 2019, viewers learned that she's humble. It was confirmed that the "Nope" star has never thought of achieving EGOT status, despite being a triple threat. But when she was asked if she believed that her Nickelodeon character, True Jackson, would be a better vice president of the United States than former veep Dick Cheney, she was unable to answer the question. While looking at a photo of Cheney, she confessed, "I hate to say it, I hope I don't sound ridiculous; I don't know who this man is. I mean, he could be walking down the street, I wouldn't know a thing." She then uttered the words that launched thousands of memes, "Sorry to this man." The polygraph expert confirmed that Palmer wasn't lying about being totally clueless about George W. Bush's VP.
Palmer definitely knew who the veep was in 2022 when she spoke to Kamala Harris during the Essence Festival of Culture. Harris had also become a meme after calling President Joe Biden to say, "We did it, Joe!" in celebration of their electoral victory, and Palmer re-enacted the moment, much to Harris' delight. That same year, the actor told Vanity Fair that she never bothered looking up Cheney after hearing what others were saying about him. "I left him where he was at. I hate to say that," she said. "It seemed like he wasn't worth me doing the research on."