The Reactions Of These Celebs Caught Lying Are Priceless
The following references sexual assault allegations.
It was "Seinfeld" character George Costanza who said, "It's not a lie if you believe it." Judging by these famous fibbers, that immortal line was taken to a whole different level. In a world where people revere the rich and famous, there's nothing more shocking than finding out that a celeb is actually a fraud.
Celebrities are only human, after all, and lying is something that even the best of us have resorted to at some point or another. Accordingly, there are numerous stars who are known to have been economical with the truth. For instance, Hilaria Baldwin was exposed for lying about her ethnicity, having led people to believe she's Hispanic for years. Likewise, decorated cyclist Lance Armstrong lied about his use of performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career. It's one thing to tell a lie that's gradually unraveled over time (in the case of the aforementioned celebs), but it's quite another to be caught red-handed on cam, the lie exposed for the entire world to see. That moment of ultimate humiliation is something that cannot be surpassed.
Subsequently, such revelations not only change that person's life, but our perception of who they really are. In addition to telling bold-faced lies, these public figures doubled down when confronted with the toe-curlingly awkward truth. We give them a grade of F for Fake. Get the cringe-o-meter ready, because when these celebrities were caught lying, their reactions were priceless.
Rachel Dolezal's unforgettable gotcha moment
Rachel Dolezal was famed for her activism, but now she's famous for something else entirely. The educator was president of Spokane NAACP and taught African-American Studies at Eastern Washington University, per Vox. But there is just one problem: she is white, but she deceived people into believing she was a Black woman for years.
Speculation about Dolezal's Black ancestry arose in 2015 after she posted a photo of an African-American man, purported to be her father. Subsequently, she was approached by local ABC affiliate KXLY4, who questioned whether the man in the pic was indeed her dad. Confronted with the reality that the jig was up, Dolezal was left speechless and stumbling over her words when asked the simple question, "Are you African-American?" Taken aback, she said, "I don't understand the question" and then walked off. The lie had finally been exposed. As it turned out, Dolezal was born a white, blond woman whose parents are, you guessed it, white, per The Guardian. Dolezal's blatant lies led to her becoming a punchline, with Maya Rudolph famously parodying her on "Late Night with Seth Meyers."
All barbs aside, Dolezal's behavior was inherently harmful to Black people. As argued by Denene Millner in an article for NPR, "It is the ultimate in white privilege, really, for a white woman to see that diamond... and pluck it for her own, like it's a gift from Tiffany's, with seemingly zero regard for the pressure, the heat, the pain it went through... to earn that shine."
America's Got Talent star Tim Poe's stolen valor
Everyone loves stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. So, when country music hopeful Tim Poe appeared on Season 7 of "America's Got Talent," the judges were understandably moved by tales of his experiences in Afghanistan. As Poe recounted on the show, he threw himself into the line of duty to save the lives of his comrades from a grenade. Injured in the blast, he supposedly developed brain trauma, which led to a stutter. The aspiring musician claimed that, prior to his accident, he had never sung before, but his injury propelled him to seek out his dreams.
But it didn't take long for people to spot the cracks in his story. Per The Wrap, one of Poe's former army colleagues was perturbed by what he saw on TV, revealing that not only was Poe not injured in a grenade attack, but he also lied about receiving the Purple Heart Medal. What's more, a snap supposedly showing Poe in the line of duty was actually a photo of a different soldier entirely.
Following these revelations, Poe was confronted by ABC News. When asked about the accusations of stolen valor, he burst into tears and said, "It's the truth that I know. It's the truth that I truly think is real." Poe was eliminated from the competition before the allegations bubbled up. He later apologized in an interview with The New York Post, stating, "It may not have happened exactly like I said it did."
Psychic Sylvia Browne's prediction fizzled
Psychic Sylvia Browne was a mainstay of "The Montel Williams Show," but when an audience member wanted answers about what happened to her boyfriend, she was left red-faced. A woman in the audience explained that her boyfriend died several years earlier and his body was never found. The medium claimed that the deceased cannot be found because his body is submerged in water, to which the woman explained that her partner was a firefighter in 9/11. "Is there any way he could have drowned in water?" Browne shamelessly asked. Now that the penny dropped, the woman looked incredulous as Browne sheepishly went on to say that her boyfriend was interacting with her from beyond the grave, claiming, "He says he couldn't breathe and he's filled with water."
As The Guardian noted, Browne was branded "a callous fraud" after several of her other "visions" also turned out to be false. For instance, in 2004 she told the mother of missing woman Amanda Berry, "She's not alive, honey," per Cleveland Plain Dealer. However, Berry was found alive in 2013, one of three young women kidnapped and imprisoned by Ariel Castro for a decade, per ABC News. Tragically, Berry's mother died believing her daughter was dead. According to the AP (via CBC), she was said to have "died of a broken heart."
Browne died in 2013, aged 77. Ironically, she had wrongly predicted her own death, having once told Larry King that she would live to 88.
For Prince Andrew, a picture is worth a thousand words
Ever since the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, Prince Andrew has been at the forefront of sexual misconduct allegations. The royal admitted to being pals with the convicted sex offender, but claimed he didn't know about the crimes his friend was committing.
Andrew's interview with the BBC, which was intended to tell his side of the story, turned into a farce. He insisted that he had never met Virginia Giuffre, the woman who accused him of sexually abusing her in 2001 when she was just 17. When journalist Emily Maitlis asked him how he could explain a photograph of himself and Giuffre, the prince replied, "I can't," before stumbling through his words. "From the investigations that we've done, you can't prove whether or not that photograph is faked or not because it is a photograph of a photograph of a photograph," he then claimed.
What's more, he also said that he couldn't sweat — a claim that has also been met with skepticism — and that on the day of the alleged assault he was in a pizza restaurant. As Maitlis argued, it was odd that he could remember the exact date he ate pizza two decades ago, but couldn't remember meeting Giuffre. "The only true thing Prince Andrew said the entire interview was that he never pays for the drinks," former diplomat Craig Murray told Vanity Fair. Andrew later settled with Giuffre out of court, but has been stripped of his military titles and entitlement to HRH, per BBC.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
Robert Durst's chilling confession
Real estate magnate Robert Durst had long been implicated in the 2000 murder of his friend Susan Berman. Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki conducted a series of interviews with Durst for his 2015 documentary "The Jinx." Throughout the documentary, Durst denied any involvement in Berman's murder. The main piece of evidence in the case was a letter sent to the police with Berman's address and the word "cadaver" written on it, per LA Mag. Shown the letter, Durst noted that "Beverly Hills" was misspelled. Later, Jarecki discovered a letter Durst had written to Berman; the handwriting was exactly the same and "Beverly" was again misspelled.
Durst was tangled in his own web of lies when presented with the two indistinguishable letters: one that he previously admitted to writing, and one that he had earlier said could only have been written by the killer. "Can you tell me which one you didn't write?" asked Jarecki. Clearly aware that he'd been caught, Durst simply said, "No" and gulped. Not realizing his mic was still on, he later appeared to confess to the murder in the restroom, eerily stating he "killed them all, of course."
In 2021, he was convicted of Berman's murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole, per The New York Times. Having died just months into his sentence, Durst has been implicated in other women's disappearances.