Dark Secrets The Voice Judges Tried To Hide

The following article includes allegations of sexual assault.

Despite not pumping out any true superstars like its competition "American Idol," "The Voice" has become a television staple since it made its debut in 2011. The show is so popular with viewers — many of whom rarely watch live TV anymore (the results show of "The Voice" is live) — that NBC has run two seasons of it each year since 2012. Host Carson Daly has remained in place for all of the (soon-to-be) 25 seasons, but there has been a revolving door of coaches on the singing competition series. Some of them have stayed for consecutive seasons, while others only appeared in one season or have an on/off relationship with the coach's chair. There have been nearly 20 coaches who have sat in those spinning red chairs. Throw in all of the international editions of the show, and you have a plethora of stars who have served as coaches.

Most globally known coaches appear on either the American, British, or Australian versions of "The Voice," a show that got its starts in the Netherlands, where it has the title "The Voice of Holland." Across the dozens of famous faces who have coaches on one of those three editions, there are plenty of dark secrets and surprising scandals. There have been plenty of those on other global editions — most notably, the big sex scandal involving a band leader and a coach, amongst others, in the show's origin country — but here we focused on celebrities we all know and (some of) love. Here are some of the dark secrets that "The Voice" judges tried to hide, often unsuccessfully.

In 2023, singer Jason Derulo jumped onboard the mentor train and signed on as a coach for Season 12 of the Australian version of "The Voice." Derulo is not the first American to pop up in the Land Down Under, as the show has always had a mixture of Australian and foreign coaches. Past Americans who have been on "The Voice" in Australia include Joel and Benji Madden (of Good Charlotte), will.I.am, Kelly Rowland, and Joe Jonas. So, Derulo's casting was not an odd choice in the slightest, and the "Want to Want Me" singer did well in his role as a mentor. However, just as the season was ending, news emerged that Derulo was being sued for quid pro quo sexual harassment — in addition to intimidation and breach of contract — by a female singer he once mentored.

The complaint was brought by Emaza Gibson, who Derulo signed to his label Future History in August 2021. Once they started their working relationship that November, Gibson claims that Derulo pressured her to socialize with him and more than once asked for sex in exchange for her success in music. There are many other claims in the lawsuit, including Derulo plying Gibson with drinks, yelling at her, and refusing to record with her before eventually terminating her contract in September 2022. "I have anxiety; I'm traumatized. I've dealt with inhumane work situations ... I'm at this point where I'm back to zero and I have nothing," she told NBC News. Derulo has denied all of the allegations against him.

Shakira is a huge name in music, so it is no surprise that the power-that-be chose her to be a coach on Season 4 of "The Voice." She worked out well enough that they brought her back two seasons later, but Season 6 was the star's final stab at coaching a winner contestant. She was not the best mentor — notably, none of her contestants made the finale on either of her seasons — but Shakira was an entertaining presence on the show, if only for her facial expressions during the Blind Audition round. They were just one more thing to love about the singer, who it is hard to imagine anyone hating. Anyone besides the Spanish government, that is. Years after leaving "The Voice" in 2014, we learned that during her time as a coach, Shakira had not been paying her proper taxes.

Shakira's secret came to light when the Spanish government charged her with six counts of tax fraud for not paying taxes between 2012 and 2014. It was argued that Shakira was required to pay taxes to Spain since she had spent more than half of her time there in those years (which she did because she was at the time in a relationship with Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué, father of her two sons). Shakira maintained her innocence for five years — claiming her official residence was in the Bahamas, where taxes are much lower — but struck a deal on the first day of her trial to avoid possibly getting locked up for eight years.

While Christina Aguilera has not been a coach on "The Voice" for more than a dozen seasons, she will forever be remembered for her contributions in making the show a success. After all, Aguilera was one of the original four coaches (and the only female one) and stayed with the show despite its clumsy early format. She left the series after Season 3, but returned three more times — for Seasons 5, 8, and 10. Aguilera was a solid coach who took the win in Season 10 when "Curly Sue" star Alisan Porter walked away with the title. Given how long it has been, It does not seem like Aguilera is ever coming back, but she certainly went out on a high note.

Aguilera is a fantastic performer and a powerhouse singer, but she is known to be a little bit shady at times. This was particularly true when the star was younger, as she feuded with everyone from Kelly Osborne to the guys of The Wanted. While people generally remember the reports of diva-like behavior and snooty encounters with other stars, one incident that people often forget is Aguilera's 2011 arrest. The singer was arrested for public intoxication, while her then-boyfriend was booked for DUI. Aguilera was never criminally charged, since she was arrested for her own welfare and not because she was violent or belligerent. "She was not capable of taking care of herself," Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the L.A. County Sheriff's Office, told Page Six.

While he may not have ever scored a Billboard #1 hit and has not won a Grammy since his first in 1966, it would be hard for anyone to argue that Tom Jones is anything short of a music legend. Jones has had a career spanning roughly six decades and some of his songs — "What's New Pussycat?" and "She's a Lady," in particular — have become classics. The Welsh superstar has tackled a number of different things outside of music, but none as notable as his stint on reality TV. In 2012, he became a judge for "The Voice UK" and remained in the seat for the show's first four seasons. After a one-season absence, Jones returned for Season 6 and has appeared on every season since. The octogenarian does not seem to have plans on retiring, basically ever.

A sex symbol, Jones once claimed to have slept with hundreds of groupies, despite having married his childhood sweetheart Melinda Trenchard at age 17. They were married from 1957 until Trenchard's death in 2016, but Jones' infidelity was well-known. Shockingly, the singer said they never directly talked about his many affairs (on "The Jonathan Ross Show"). This may be why Jones denied fathering Jonathan Berkery for decades, even though a court-ordered DNA test confirmed the kid was his. Jones sent money because he was required to by law but denied being the father until 2008. The singer has never established a relationship with Berkery because he feels he "was tricked" by the man's mother (via Wales Online).

Gwen Stefani has been a fantastic coach on "The Voice" in America, even winning the show in Season 19. The series is also where she met her husband Blake Shelton, although both Stefani and Shelton were married when they first met. Stefani split from her then-husband Gavin Rossdale the following year, in 2015, and started up with Shelton not that long after (he also got divorced). And not only are Stefani and her current hubby a part of "The Voice" family, but so too is her ex-husband. Rossdale appeared on Season 6 of "The Voice UK," and even though his contestant took first place, has thus far not made a return to the red chairs.

Years before they divorced, Rossdale and Stefani weathered a huge scandal when allegations that Rossdale was the father of model Daisy Lowe, born in 1989, came out. After a paternity test confirmed he was Lowe's dad, Rossdale and Stefani went on to have three children of their own. At the same time, Rossdale and Lowe — who had a previous relationship with him as her godfather — became estranged in the aftermath of the revelation. Though he still refuses to talk to her mother Pearl, Rossdale is now very close with Lowe after their six tough years. Lowe is also close to her half-siblings, and she added another human to the family when she gave birth to a son in September 2023. Rossdale has called his granddaughter "the most beautiful part of my legacy," per The Messenger.

Usher has been a massive star for so long and sold so many records that he is often referred to as the "King of R&B." Heck, his album "Confessions" alone sold more than 18 million copies in the United States and set the record for the best-selling album by a Black artist in the 21st century. And even though the crooner has not released a new album since 2016, he has been putting his performance skills on display in Las Vegas with a big residency and is bound to return to prominence when he releases a much-awaited album in February 2024, the same month he is set to headline the Super Bowl halftime show. Usher has a knack for doing the unexpected — he even co-owned the Cleveland Cavaliers at one point — so him signing on to coach "The Voice" contestants was not a huge shocker.

Usher was only a coach for two seasons of "The Voice" — Seasons 4 and 6 — but he has returned as an advisor for three subsequent seasons (8, 17, and 19), so he seems to be on great terms with the producers. His Season 19 appearance came not too long after Usher settled the last of a series of lawsuits related to him exposing three people to genital herpes. In 2017, the singer was sued by two women and one man who claimed he never told them he had the sexually transmitted infection, five years after settling a lawsuit of the same nature with another former sexual partner.

Even if you are not sure who Seal is, you are surely aware of his smash hit "Kiss from a Rose." The Grammy-winning song is the singer's most enduring hit, but Seal is no one-hit wonder. He is a four-time Grammy winner who has been nominated 15 times, and he has had 8 songs chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Like a lot of European and Australian singers, Seal has had way more hits abroad than he has had stateside, and so he is a pretty big name in his native England and select other countries. Despite being a Brit, it was on another international edition of "The Voice" that Seal appeared. He was a coach in Australia for the series' first and second seasons, and he returned for a third go at things in Season 6.

For years, Seal's main reason for being in the tabloids was his marriage to Heidi Klum. The singer probably wished things had remained that way after he became embroiled in controversy in 2011. That was the year he performed at the birthday party of Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya. Human Rights Watch called the singer out for being paid to perform for the leader of a country that violates human rights on the regular. Unlike Hilary Swank, who was also critiqued for being at the event, Seal refused to apologize for supporting a leader who engages in extrajudicial executions and other horrific abuses. He even defended performing in a post on Twitter.