A Breakdown of Armie Hammer's Cannibalism and Abuse Controversy (2024)

This article was originally published in November 2021.

Armie Hammer found himselfin the midst of somemajor controversyafter a woman who says she had an intimate relationship with him created an account on Instagram to share gruesome details of the bizarre sexual interactions she says they used to have. The woman has also shared screenshots of explicit conversations that allegedly occurred between Hammerand multiple women via Instagram DMs. While most people wouldn’t be surprised at the nature of dirty talk or sexting in 2021, the alleged conversations included talk of rape fantasies, the desire to inflict pain on his partners, and one in which the actor reportedly said he was “100% a cannibal.”

Everyone has their own preferences behind closed doors, sure, but these allegations that surfaced on the anonymous @houseofeffie Instagram account show a dark side to the Call Me By Your Name star that fans might not have known about. While the direct messageshave yet to be verified as being sent from Hammer’s account, an ex-girlfriend of his spoke to Page Six recently, backing some of the claims made against the actor. She discussed what their sexual relationship was like, his controlling nature, and the emotional abuse she says she endured while dating him.

While a lot of the focus and reactions from the public have been centered on his sexual fetishes, from BDSM to “drinking blood,” “cutting toes,” and his alleged “cannibalism,” the real focus here should be on the women who say they were abused and violated by him. Some of the allegations point toward abuse, a blatant violation of boundaries, and disregard for consent. While it’s difficult to verify the validity of the screenshots, other women who have been romantically involved with him have also come out on the record and said the texts aren’t at all surprising to them. The actor’s lawyer has denied the allegations made by the women, and Hammer has referred to them as “bullsh*t claims.” A woman came forward in March 2021 accusing Hammer of rape, which he also quickly denied through his lawyer.

The actor checked into a treatment facility thatMay and reportedly stayed through December. He broke his silence in February 2023 for the first time and talked openly about the accusations made against him.Here's a deep dive into Armie Hammer's recent controversy.

This story will be updated periodically.

Date: January2021

The Instagram page @houseofeffieshared dozens of screenshots of messages that were said to have been sent from Armie Hammer’s account to various women. Some of the messages involved fantasies of rape, BDSM, and cannibalism. We won’t share all of the screenshots here because they are disturbing, but one of them said: "You just live to obey and be my slave. If I wanted to cut off one of your toes and keep it with me in my pocket so I always had a piece of you in my possession?"

The unnamed person behind the account saysshe had an affair with Hammer for four years, and that she found five other women who all say they wereinvolved with the actor. The account creator says she and Hammer have been talking since October 2016, while he was married to Elizabeth Chambers. (The couple decided to end their marriage after 10 years and Chambers filed for divorce in July 2020, citing irreconcilable differences.) Many other women then started to come forward with their own claims about dealing with the actor and in some conversations that were shared, he reportedly tells them he wants to "bite pieces off of" them and told one woman he wanted to eat her heart.

"Women approached me with their affair stories as we talked overwhelmed with grief for days and nights without sleeping or eating, with some ending up in the ER," the person who runs the account wrote in a statement on her Instagram Story. "We collectively decided we have to speak out after how we were treated and seeing how the women in 2020 were being treated by him. We cannot allow more women to endure what we are going through in the future." When the validity of the messages was brought into question, the operator of House of Effie shared unseen photos she had allegedly received from the actor, with one that included a photo of a hand that showed a tattoo on the ring finger that resembles one the actor has on his finger.

The allegations affected him professionally

Date: January 2021

Other women who have been involved with Hammer romantically began to speak out. Writer Jessica Ciencin Henriquez was spotted on a lunch date with Hammer in September, just months after his split from his wife. Their brief romance apparently went south a month later, and she posted a screenshot showing that she blocked him on Instagram. Earlier this month, she also tweeted her support to the woman running the House of Effie account: “If you are still questioning whether or not those Armie Hammer DMs are real (and they are) maybe you should start questioning why we live in a culture willing to give abusers the benefit of the doubt instead of victims. TW// sexual violence.” She also reportedly tweeted the definition of abuse: “Because some of you made it to adulthood without knowing what this is. Abuse: cruel and violent treatment of a person or animal.”

Date: January 2021

Some people are still standing behind the actor, despite the allegations.Along with other fans, former Disney Channel star Bella Thornecame to the actor’s defense when the allegations surfaced online. She took to her Instagram Stories and shared a post, writing: “I honestly can’t believe this…people are crazy to fake this kinda sh*t this poor guy and his kids like leave him and his family alone. No way he’s a freaking CANNIBAL.” She added: “Also, there’s a million fake screenshots going around.” Some have shared disturbing memes and jokes of wanting to get closer to the actor now that they know what his sexual fantasies are. Others are sliding in his DMs, trying to get his attention despite the serious allegations.

His ex Courtney Vucekovich said he wanted to ‘barbecue and eat’ her

Date: January 2021

Courtney Vucekovich opened up toPage Six saying that she dated the actor briefly in 2020, from June to October. She said that being with him was like dating Hannibal Lecter—claiming that “he likes the idea of skin in his teeth”—and she also alleges that he was emotionally abusive. “He said to me he wants to break my rib and barbecue and eat it,” Vucekovich told the tabloid. “‘f*ck, that was weird,’ but you never think about it again. He says, ‘I want to take a bite out of you.’ If I had a little cut on my hand, he’d, like, suck it or lick it. That’s about as weird as we got.”

The woman said the actor “sucks out all the goodness you have left” and then walks away. “He enters your life in such a big way. He’s such a captivating person. He has such a presence and he’s aware of that and he uses it in such a way that most women would think, ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing,’ but especially young women, that’s kind of the scary part—how good he is at active manipulation and making you feel like he’s never felt this way about anybody,” she shared. “He quickly grooms you in the relationship. He’s grooming you for these things that are darker and heavier and consuming. When I say consuming, I mean mentally, physically, emotionally, financially, just everything.”

“He did some things with me that I wasn’t comfortable with,” she continued. “For God knows what reason, he convinced me that these things were OK and he put me in some dangerous situations where I was not OK, where he was heavily drinking, and I wasn’t drinking that way and it scared me. I didn’t feel comfortable.”

She added: “You end up doing things that are very out of character for you, including sex acts.”

Model Paige Lorenze said he was “100 percent serious” about her removing her ribs for his consumption

Date: January 2021

The model says she dated the Hollywood star from August to December of last year and during that time, he carved his initialsinto her skin. She told Star magazine that the actor carved his initial, a letter "A," on the skin above her pubic bone with a knife. "You can still see it. It was extremely painful and traumatizing. He told me that he bragged about it to his friends," she said. She also says that Hammerwas "100 percent serious" about getting a doctor to remove her bottom ribs so that he could "eat” them. "He was telling me you can remove the bottom ribs so he could smoke them, cook them and eat them. He kept saying, 'You don't need them,'" she told the magazine. She says those interactions often left her feeling "anxious and confused," even if she laughed it off at the time. "It was just icky and my stomach was constantly in a knot. I knew I had to get out," she said.

His past talk show appearances are now being dissected

He once casually told a story about eating a raw steak

While promoting Call Me By Your Name in 2017 on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the actor shared an anecdote about their time shooting the film in Italy. He said he attempted to order a steak in Italian during dinner but fumbled it so badly that the restaurant served him a fully raw steak that he said looked like it had “never seen a heat source.” Instead of sending it back, he claimed he was so ashamed that he ended up eating an “entire raw steak.” He shared a photo of it at the time on Instagram and captioned it: “My Italian is obviously a little rusty because they just brought me a raw steak...definitely gonna eat it.”

His bizarre social media behavior is being brought to the forefront

There are a few posts on Hammer's Instagram that have raised some eyebrows since the allegations. The Social Network star has photos of huge chunks of raw meat, a pig’s head, and a huge knife that he captioned with a hashtag that read, “Give me something to carve.” In another post, he bragged about his love for red meat and disregarded the dangers that come with consuming it frequently. “So you're gonna sit here and try to tell me there's a disease you can get from eating too much red meat and I haven't gotten it yet....? Wtf. #recklesslydeterminedtogetGout,” he captioned the post. Sure, there are plenty of steak enthusiasts out there who would never dare turn down a meal at Keens, but the actor’s obsession runs so deep that he’s willing to get gout from it, and that is where the enthusiasm becomes a bit strange. Another video that his ex-wife posted to her Instagram Stories of Hammerwith his son is also sort of strange. In the clip, the young kid can be seen putting his father’s toes in his mouth, while the actor just watches and laughs. Elizabeth seemed to make light of it, and captioned it: “#FootFetishonFleek.”

Date: January 2021

It’s pretty smart for celebrities to have “finstas” so they can post freely, so long as they are cautious of who follows them so that their content doesn’t leak. Since the scandal, videos and photos from the actor'sreported private Instagram account have surfaced, in which he talks about his divorce, drug use, and the women he is sleeping with. The private account called el_destructo_86 posted a video of a lingerie-clad woman on his bed in December. The caption read: “Well… my ex (for a very good reason) wife is refusing to come back to America with my children. So I have to go back to Cayman… which sucks. Except there are a few silver linings. Like f*cking Ms. Cayman again while I’m down there.”

The Cayman Compass reported that the woman in lingerie has no affiliation to the country’s pageants. The actor released an apology to the newspaper about the post, writing: “I would like to clarify that the person in my video, which was stolen from my private Instagram, is not Miss Cayman. I am genuinely sorry for any confusion my foolish attempt at humor may have caused.”

The Miss Cayman Islands Universe Committee responded to the news with a statement. "The Committee is very disturbed by the video and would like to confirm that the woman is not the reigning Miss Cayman Islands and has no affiliation to the Miss Cayman Islands Universe pageant," it read. "The depiction of the woman in the video goes against all that our organization stands for and the committee is consequently requesting that Mr. Hammer immediately remove all reference to Miss Cayman from his social mediachannels."

He revealed a lot about his sex life to 'Playboy' in 2013

The actor opened up to the magazine in 2013 about some personal details of his life, including his obsession with McDonald's and his bedroom habits before marriage, and the article resurfaced amid the allegations. While describing his love for the fast-food chain, he quipped that he didn’t mind if there were certain body parts in the meat. "I have the most guilty, abusive relationship with McDonald's. Left to my own devices I'd probably eat four Big Macs a week,” he shared at the time. “My wife, Elizabeth, says, 'You can't fill your body with that crap — they put eyeballs in it!' And I go, 'Sounds good!' "

He also opened up about his sexual preferences in detail during the Playboy interview, saying that he is a "dominant lover" but couldn’t act out his kinks with his wife out of the “respect” he has for her. “Well, if you’re married to a feminist, as I am, then it’s…. I don’t know how much we can put here without my parents being embarrassed, but I used to like to be a dominant lover. I liked the grabbing of the neck and the hair and all that. But then you get married and your sexual appetites change,” he said. “And I mean that for the better—it’s not like I’m suffering in any way. But you can’t really pull your wife’s hair. It gets to a point where you say, 'I respect you too much to do these things that I kind of want to do.' The two of us will literally break out laughing in the middle of it, finish up and be like, 'Well, that was oddly fun!' So it becomes a new kind of thing that’s less about 'I want to dominate you' and more about both of us having a really good time. It’s just a different style.”

He later blamed alcohol for oversharing details of his personal life. “Let’s just say hindsight is 20/20,” the actor later told E! News. “Don’t drink during an interview.” Although his Playboy interview caused some controversy at the time, it didn’t stop the actor from talking to Elle magazine about dating women who were "bad, bad news," and a weird sexual incident with an ex-girlfriend. "I'd grown up in a household of so much love and so much good, everything just felt wholesome. Once I was on my own, I was like, 'Let's see how hot this candle can burn,'" he said. "One chick tried to stab me when we were having sex. I should so not be telling this story. She was like, 'True love leaves scars. You don't have any.' And then she tried to stab me with a butcher knife. Of course, I promptly broke up with her. Seven months later."

The authorities have gotten involved

Date: January 2021

Page Six confirmed that Grand Cayman policespoke to the actor about the inappropriate footage of the woman on his private account. The Royal Cayman Island Police Service took to Twitter on Jan. 20 to share a news update. “On January 15, 2021, the RCIPS received an allegation of misuse of ICT in relation to a suggestive video which had been posted on social media,” the police servicewrotein a statement. “Officers investigated the matter and spoke to the suspect, who was warned about his conduct, in accordance with the wishes of the complainant. The matter is now closed.”

The actorhas said he spent some of his childhood in the Cayman Islands, and that’s where he, his two kids, and his exhad been living since the start of the pandemic. Their divorce is still in process.

The actor’s lawyer released a statement denying the allegations

Date: January 2021

After sharing details of her relationship with the actor in an interview last week, the model is also saying that he is sending her private photos to other women. “AH sharing photos of me I didn’t even know existed with people online, without my permission or knowledge,” she tweeted. “Disgusting, violating, and quite frankly unacceptable.” She also shared a lengthy statement on Twitter. "Any man who is fantasizing about rape, crushing a [woman's] body, eating them, cutting them, is a danger to all women,” she said. “Consent is much more complicated than we would like to believe. Emotionally and psychologically, you can be as just as traumatized by consensual sex as anything else. It is also excruciating to face what someone did to you.Especially if you feel like you had a hand in it by 'consenting.’”

Hammer exits the Paramount+ project 'The Offer.'

Elizabeth Chambers released a statement addressing the situation

Date: February 2021

Chambers says she is "heartbroken" over the scandal. The TV personality and mom of Hammer's two kidsreleased a statement on Feb. 1 via Instagram addressing the allegations againsther ex, and urged people who have beenharmed to seek help.

"For weeks, I’ve been trying to process everything that has transpired. I am shocked, heartbroken, and devastated. Heartbreak aside, I am listening and will continue to listen and educate myself on these delicate matters. I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know," Chambers wrote. "I support any victim of assault or abuse and urge anyone who has experienced this pain to seek the help she or he needs to heal. At this time, I will not be commenting further on this matter. My sole focus and attention will continue to be on our children, on my work, and on healing during this incredibly difficult time. Thank you for all of the love and support, and thank you in advance for your continued kindness, respect, and consideration for our children and me as we find ways to move forward. 🤍 EC."

A rope-bound mannequin torso was left behind by Hammer’s movers

Date: March 2021

The actor quietly moved out of the home he used to share with his estranged wife in the middle of the night in the beginning of March. Hammer reportedly hired movers and asource told Page Six that they worked “well after midnight” using flashlights.Afemale mannequin torso that was covered in rope was left in the trash.

A woman named Effie accuses Hammer of rape

Hammer's attorney denied the claims

Armie Hammer entered an in-patient treatment program.

Hammer is reportedly "thriving" in treatment center

Date: Oct. 16

Sources closeto the actor gave an update on his progress nearly six months after he checked into a treatment center. TMZ reported that Hammeris“thriving” in a Florida facility after he checked into rehab earlier this yearfordrug, alcohol, and sex addiction treatment. The sources said that “there’s still no exact timeline for when he’ll complete treatment, but he’s willing to do whatever it takes.” His loved ones can allegedly hear he isimprovingthrough his voice, and he has kept in contact with his children via FaceTime.

Hammer checks himself out of treatment center

Hammer is reportedly unlikely to face charges

Date: Dec. 8

It was reported in December that Hammer might not face any charges for thesexual assault allegations. TMZ reported that the LAPD completed its investigation into the rape allegations against the actor and that thecase wassent to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The outlet’s sources said that Hammer might not be hit with any charges. The LAPD opened the investigation earlier this yearand according to TMZ, that have determined that either the witnesses lack credibility, or there isn’t enough evidence to back the allegations, and now it isup to the DA’s office to determine whether or not to proceed with the case.Hammer has denied theaccusations after a woman named Effie claimed that he sexually assaulted her in 2017.

Hammer appears in the 'Death on the Nile' movie trailer

Hammer resurfaces on social media

Date: March 2022

After a long hiatus from social media, the actor started to make appearances on Instagram. Since leaving rehab, Hammer has been spotted on several occasions, including a selfie a fan shared where the actor’s sporting a new haircut. His fans also spotted that his profile picture on Instagram changed in late March, although his account remains private.He split with girlfriend Lisa Perejma in February and there were reports that he andhis wife, Elizabeth Chambers, were calling off their divorce andreportedly giving their marriage a second try. “Elizabeth’s priority has always been her children and their well-being. The past year hasn’t been easy, but she and Armie have always had love for each other,’ a source told People magazine. “They’re slowly figuring things out as a couple, but being parents to their two kids will always come first.”In March, Chambers shared a photo on Instagram of Hammer playing outside with their kids.

Discovery+ and ID announce true crime special about hammer and his family

Date:May 2022

Hammer’s family, life, and scandals are set to be the focus of a new true-crime special.ID and Discovery+ announced in May 2022 that the actorand his family will be the subjects of a docudrama with the tentative title House of Hammer. A press release from the network said the docwill look into five generations of the Hammer familyand is looking to expose “a dysfunctional dynasty with its male characters exhibiting all the devastating consequences of privilege gone wild.” by using“a trove of archive and interviews from survivors and family members”

Hammer’s scandals are not the sole focus of the doc. It will also focus onhis great grandfather Armand Hammer and the rest of hiscontroversialoil tycoon family/“Debauchery. Deceit. Abuse. Addiction. Corruption. Over the course of five generations, the men in the Hammer family have more secrets and scandals than any vault can contain,” the network shared in their release. “Armie Hammer’s alleged crimes are only the tip of the iceberg.”

Rumors swirl that the actor was working at a Cayman Islands hotel

Celebrities react to Hammer's situation

Armie Hammer breaks his silence for the first time since the allegations

Date: April 2023

CNN reported in April that the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office was reviewing claims of sexual assault made against the actor Armie Hammer. “I can confirm that the LAPD has presented a case regarding Armie Hammer to the LADA. The matter is currently under review,” the office’s communications director Tiffiny Blacknell told the news outlet.The district attorney’s spokesperson did not share details regardingthe identity of the complainant or complainants. As previously covered, Hammer has been under investigation by the LAPD since February 2021, after a woman accused him of a sexual assault that took place in 2017.