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Sometimes, we forget that nobody's perfect. We hear an album that speaks to our heart, so we decide to learn more about the artist who made it, and three days of binge-watching their interviews later, we set the picture as our phone screen, convinced they can do no wrong. But there's a reason they say you need to separate the person from the craft. Actually, a bunch of reasons. And they're listed on this Reddit thread where disappointed fans reveal how they learned about their idols' dark side.
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#1
**Elon Musk**
Not so much "idolized" as "admired" and thought was a positive force for progress and advancing the right kinds of sciences.
Then it became obvious that he was actually a pretty horrible person.
RELATED:
#2
Tough to match Bill Cosby
America has never loved anyone as unanimously as Bill Cosby. The Cosby Show was the #1 show in the country.
Hippopotamuses 1 month ago
Not just America. He was admired in many other English speaking countries as well.
#3
I’m old, so crushing on Sean Connery and later hearing him explain how you sometimes need to hit a woman to get her to fall in line.
#4
Unfortunately, in my early 20s, I for some reason idolized **Donald Trump**. At the time, I bought the full season of The Apprentice DVD set and would watch it often. I thought those business people were so smart and wanted to be like that. I didn't have much money, so I would sometimes buy old business textbooks and those corny 1990s businessey self-help kind of books and read them.
25 years later, I'm in my mid-40s and hard cringe at the guy I used to be. So happy I never pursued business, and moved out of being in a big city. Enjoying a simpler life now, appreciating nature, camping and fine arts. I'm also Canadian, so not sure why I was obsessed with American businessmen. I can now sympathize with young men today, and recall feeling lost, unimportant, not included in society, and looking for male role models. We need to do better.
#5
Not gonna lie I was pretty heartbroken to hear how awful Walt Disney was. Especially toward the Jews that man gave me Mickey Mouse and movies that made my childhood great. Not to mention he underpays staff and Disney meanwhile makes billions.
Michael Largey 1 month ago
When his workers tried to organize, he reported them to the FBI as communist spies.
#6
My favorite author from about 12-18 was Orson Scott Card, he wrote Enders Game. Turns out he is a super racist who called Obama an animal. He writes sci fi and how humans and alien races can coexist…but then hates black people. What a terrible thing to find out man.
liam newton-harding 1 month ago (edited)
Raging homophobe...who writes homoerotic scenes between teens, and tweens in his books...can't possibly be over-compensating like all those priests, politicians, and average joes down at the bar who talk nightly about how much they HATE "the gays" while talking about...in great detail..all the "disgusting" things they must get up to.
#7
My ex boyfriend took me in when my family disowned me for being gay, after I was anonymously outed. Thought he was my hero and an angel of a person. Later found out he was the one who outed me to them.
Kali Chaos 1 month ago
There's a special place down under that handles placement in the afterlife. What an unfortunate person, sounds like some super bananas gaslighting to me. It is never okay for someone else to out you without express permission. That occurred over several prior conversations.
#8
Idolized my father as a kid. Then I met his two previous kids, the ones he abandoned and refused to pay child support for, even while his ex wife had cancer. Not cause he was poor and couldn't afford it, but because he wanted to "climb the ladder of success."
Joke was on him, he hid his assets from his first wife by putting his house fully in the name of his second wife, who got to keep the whole house after his divorce.
#9
As an 80s kid, Hulk Hogan. Lucky for him social media did not exist. I am sure he was the same guy then as the one he was later in life.
Hippopotamuses 1 month ago
I'm still impressed with the homo-erotic shot of him tearing his tee shirt off at a pro-Trump rally
#10
I remember a time where Will and Jada Pinkett Smith was held up as one of the few examples of a strong celebrity marriage.
#11
Russell Brand
Used to be humble yet hilarious, witty beyond belief in his old radio shows and his British Ponderland show.
I met my hero in an airport, he was kind and charming and genuinely empathetic to me. They say never meet your heroes, but I was so happy I met mine.
Turned out to be a disgusting sycophant who kisses the rings of the worst people on the planet
What a disappointment.
#12
My high school best friend. We were inseparable and unstoppable, super super liberal and free, anti-authoritarian, iconoclastic, irreverent, and very rebellious. He was the kind of guy that would wear a dress to make a point, or make up.
He's now a Trump voting MAGAt who will unabashedly tell you that he is proud to vote against people's rights.
#13
I was very disappointed when it was revealed that Lance Armstrong had been doping for most of his career. And had forced others to do it.
I had believed his book when he wrote about his natural attributes to make him a great cyclist.
I threw out all my LiveStrong stuff and his book.
Hippopotamuses 1 month ago
Despite not being American, I was really surprised about his doping. The guy was a hero. Especially after fighting off testicular cancer.
#14
I used to be big on Sylvester Stallone watcher until he recently said the current president was the "modern day Washington". Gross.
#15
In my early 20s, I made this friend. He was really cool, with an exciting job. He was super kind to me when I was going through a hard time. We messaged every day. He would even send me presents and not let me pay him back.
When we'd been friends for about 3 years, he suddenly cut off a lot of friends, including me. He later told me he was having a mental breakdown. It was hard to accept, because I thought he and I had been uniquely special to each other, and I was a little bit in love with him. I assumed because I was autistic and had depression, I wasn't cool enough for him, and he had dropped me from his life because he was sick of pitying me or whatever.
Years later, he added me back on social media. We got talking and he was complimenting me a lot; we were having a lot of really good conversation, back to being really good friends. We arranged to meet.
It was like love at first sight. We became a couple right away. It was magical. We had this sense of "Life has led me to you." He introduced me to his parents a couple of weeks later. He told me I was the best girlfriend he'd ever had and he wanted to be with me forever. He was the best partner I'd ever had.
For three months.
One day I didn’t want to be intimate, I was just depressed that day. And he Kicked. Off.
After that he was cold with me. The loving messages throughout the day stopped. Sometimes he'd just disappear and not explain it. He started flirting with waitresses in front of me, even calling them by the pet name he called me. He would buy me little presents like a fridge magnet (without me asking) then complain about how much money he spent. He told me his parents had said I was cold and arrogant, and when I asked his parents if I'd done anything wrong, they said they loved me.
He was obsessed with the idea that I thought I was too good for him. He had full on delusions that I had said he was ugly and mocked his career - things that categorically didn't happen, or even resemble anything that happened. He became obsessed with telling me I was a horrible person. When we were out together, he would walk meters out in front of me. I am 99% certain he was still talking to his ex, even though he told me she was stupid and boring and he was embarrassed to be seen with her. Our last weekend together, I was staying with him, and I had a bad migraine and had to mostly stay in bed. He gave me the silent treatment all day. I had done nothing to anger him, but he didn't speak to me, didn't let me get food from the kitchen, etc. Because of the migraine I couldn't leave and drive home.
I broke up with him after a month of seeing how bad he was after the lovebombing ended. He didn't try to win me back, but he checked my social media obsessively until I blocked him. Then he made up fake accounts to harrass me. Within three weeks of me breaking up with him, he got back with his ex and messaged me a picture of them together. That lasted for about a week.
When I think about what a wonderful friend he was for years, I feel in shock. How can they be the same person? It's chilling that most people who meet him still think he is one of the nicest people in the entire world.
GlitterPanda 1 month ago
sadly this happens more often that a lot of people realize. Bad people can mask very well in social situations but then eventually show their true colors in private.
#16
I aspired to be as cool as Hyde in That 70s Show at one point... he's in prison now.
#17
Pixar was THE storytelling studio from 1995-2010, and John Lasseter was one of the main people behind that. He revitalized Disney after that, and turned it into a juggernaut. His storytelling instincts were second to none. I used to listen to EVERYTHING I could find where he talked about story telling in order to be a better writer.
When it came out that he was a creep, it was very hard on me. I guess he was “just” a creep, compared to so many other people who were cancelled, he just edged into “making people uncomfortable” territory. Still, it ruined my perception of him.
Similarly, Kevin Spacey WAS my favorite actor….
Gebidozo 1 month ago
Many, many artists, directors, actors, musicians, writers, and so on, are “creeps” or worse in real life. This doesn’t diminish their artistic genius, it’s just a testimony of the fact that genius doesn’t in the least equal moral integrity. On the contrary, the God complex of great artists takes its toll on their ethics. Lasseter’s inappropriate behavior is nothing compared to the monstrous acts of, say, Roman Polanski or Miles Davis or many other people of art. We need to learn to separate the artist from the person if we want to enjoy any art at all.
#18
I haven't been able to fully accept the Neil Gaiman accusations yet, probably because of how influential he was on teenage me.
Jrog 1 month ago
Must be noted that those allegations are dubious at best, being made on a podcast specifically trying to attack Gaiman, and none have been followed by formal complaints or criminal charges except one, in New Zealand, where the Police may be still in the process of instructing a case but 2 years have passed and the process has likely been closed without enough proof for prosecutions. Among the statements from the accusers there were major contradictions (some of them let it slip that the encounters were consensual) and the evidence provided in the form of texts was not really proving anything. At the time being, no criminal charges have been filed against Neil Gaiman, and the only part of the New Zealand case that went in front of a judge in civil court has already been dismissed.
#19
My older brother. He was always the coolest guy I knew. Had his life together. It always seemed like everything went his way. Was good at sports, school, had lots of friends, dated pretty girls. We grew up and both had families of our own and remained close. I always felt like I struggled to keep it all together, yet he owned his own successful business. Had a huge house. A wife he was devoted to. Great kids.
A couple of summers ago he went through a divorce. A few months after the divorce he and I went on a trip to Vegas. It was the 2 of us, and one of his friends and one of my friends. He and his friend would go to Vegas together a couple of times a year, for about a decade. Our first night there after a 10 hour drive, we gambled for a bit, and headed to his condo around 1 AM. I was ready for bed and he and his friend were going back out. He didn't really say why, but his friend blurted it out. There was a massage parlor that they would frequent that was also a brothel. His friend added "we've been going here for years!".
That's when I realized the guy who i looked up to the most had been cheating on his wife for years. At that moment he understood that by his friend saying this out loud, that I knew he was a cheater.
I still love my brother. But I've never looked at him the same way.
#20
My father than met a girl named Ella.
She was fun, energetic, kind, a teacher…
She seemed to really like me. Got really close to me. After a month she said that she could be my new mom and that she loved me.
I wasn’t doing well at all at this time.
I got quite attached to Ella. I was basically infatuated. I thought she was this amazing person who really cared about me.
Fast forward a couple months, it didn’t work out between my father and Ella. Likes crash and burn situation.
The day she decided to leave.
I was crying hysterically, asking her to stay and that I needed her.
She told me that I was a mosquito and sucked the life out of her, just like my father.
She apologized a day later, but that just did something with me. I kind of never recovered.
I am now 27 and always think people don’t actually like or care about me. I can’t help but ask if “everything is okay” or “if I did something wrong.”
I can’t seem to just shake that belief.
Am I really this horrible mosquito?
I try to forgive Ella, but think what she did to me was not okay.
megabeth 1 month ago
I don't have enough information, but it could be as simple as "hurt people hurt people". No excuse for being so cruel to a child. I'm only bringing up the perspective to give you something to think about. Do not internalize other people's s**t. It's simply that. S**t. Not yours to master.
#21
I thought I was in love with Jared Leto. I came very, very close to getting a 30 Seconds to Mars tattoo. Ick.
#22
Pretty much every old rockstar. John Lennon and Jim Morrison were people I looked up to when I was in highschool. Eventually I learned about who they really were and it sucked. Jim Morrison in particular.
#23
James Watson (of Watson and Crick). When I was studying to be a molecular biologist I thought he was all that.
I met him a few years into my career. A complete heel, jerk, and sleaze.
I am John 1 month ago (edited)
I was giving a talk at a conference in Cold Spring Harbor, there was a huge portrait of him in a green jacket, on one side of the theatre, with a special leather chair under it. He came in halfway through, wearing the green jacket, walked slowly in front of me, sat on his chair, and made loud comments for the rest of the talk. Humble guy...
#24
Man, I was super into Jordan Peterson circa 2017 as a young black woman.
Like super annoying, flying to lectures, trying to get multiple ppl to read 12 rules.
It helped me so much I wanted other people to feel empowered.
His might be the biggest let down because before he fell into the right wing grift I know for a fact his psychology lectures could have really helped a lot of people learn to understand themselves and pay attention to their behavior in the world.
#25
Well, I didn't idolize him but definitely looked up to him, guy I went to College with and we're still in the same friend group many years later, kind of. We knew he wasn't the greatest guy in the world and then: Served in Congress and while in DC he cheated on his wife (the mother of his 3 young children) often, she found out when her Gyno told her she had an STD; He became Governor of my state and early in his 3rd term had to accept a plea deal with the feds, resign, go to federal prison; He learned nothing, basically told the feds "Catch me if you can", they did, he went back to federal prison again.
#26
A mangaka from Japan came over to Honolulu and opened a manga workshop for potential students. I signed up, and was one of the eight or nine. Since the mangaka was Japanese and didn’t speak any English, and I was the only one who spoke Japanese (my mom’s Japanese), I was made the interpreter/representative despite being the youngest of the group, and I hadn’t even graduated then.
At first, I agreed to the task, but here’s the thing; I didn’t know all these jargons and terms used by mangaka (that’s one of the reasons why I signed up to the class in the first place), and I was new to digital drawing (I didn’t have a tablet back then), so I wasn’t doing a good job at it, and he’d chew me out for “making (his) lessons not go smoothly”. Just to be clear, I wasn’t being paid for it.
He also made me translate documents and such for other things, and I helped out, but over time, I came to the realization that he was just using me. He even tried to make me get a job as a tutor at the place where he held his classes, and tried to take my pay, but since I wanted to focus on my studies, I declined, which he wasn’t too pleased about.
I later confronted him, and when I told him that I’m not his servant, he snapped back at me, saying that he wasn’t being paid to teach us at all. Ultimately, I just dipped from that group and went no contact.
#27
I loooOOOOOooved Michael Jordan as a kid , he was marketed as this almost superhero .
Michael Jordan as an adult? Ugh what a disappointment. By all accounts hes a miserable SOB.
NoRestfortheQWERTY 1 month ago
Greatness comes with a price. Sometimes it's being petty and hyper-focused. What other people see as greatness might just be score-settling or the plain old desire to beat somebody at something, right now. So much so that you're the only person on the planet who cares about Joe Dumars who isn't named "Mrs. Dumars."
#28
I defended Sia's movie on Instagram before it came out, assuming that surely it wouldn't be that bad, until denial faded, I saw the movie, and now I look back and cringe.
#29
Had a huge crush on James Franco. He was kind of my first celebrity crush. Well, he turned out to be yet another creep. Absolutely loathe that my younger self was all full of butterflies watching him in Spider Man.
#30
Way back in the early era of Youtube when all the classic big names like Markiplier and Pewdiepie were just getting their start, there was another big Lets Player who went by Cryaotic and would often hang out with them and do videos together. Cry's style of Lets Play was a lot more chill and relaxed and he had a cute voice and funny sense of humor, so I actually liked his videos the most out of the three. His upload schedule slowed down after a while and he didn't seem to transition into the streamer era as well as other creators did.
Then in 2019 he admitted to grooming several teenage girls behind his fiance's back.
EmbersAreOut 1 month ago
Oh lord this brought back memories. So many YouTubers have been accused of gr00ming/ped0 and it honestly hurts when someone you watched as a kid turned out to be awful
#31
Never exactly idolized him but my dad. As a kid I knew he had “quirks” but I still thought he was a regular, okay dad like everyone else. Took my adolescence and 20s to realize he’s just not a good person.
He was never a good husband and father per se, but he really checked out on life when his mom passed away (when I was around 17). I’m 26 now, and I’m nearing the stage of cutting contact with him and calling it.
Divorced my mom last year and is already engaged to this woman who he was clearly seeing while he was still married. There’s no blatant horrible thing. Just a…bad person. He’s very selfish and a terrible communicator. He gave me anxiety as a kid and I’m now seeing all the turmoil he put my mom thru.
It’s just not worth it to pretend to have a relationship with him now. Figuring it out each day, but we’ll see ¯_(ツ)_/¯.
RomanceRadish 1 month ago
While many people grow up to emulate their parents (consciously or not), it's not inevitable. With self awareness and intentional choices, we can change for the next generation.
#32
Don’t know if I’d go so far as to say I “idolized” the guy, but I used to be a **HUGE** Conor McGregor fan. His star was rising at the same time that I was getting really into MMA, and my first experience sports betting was when he knocked out Jose Aldo. His fight style was massively entertaining, and his trash talk even more so.
Then he really revealed who he was. Yikes.
Bored Sailor 1 month ago
"and his trash talk even more so." His trash talk showed who he was from the beginning, at one point people enjoyed his relentless unapologetic attitude. He always was a bigot. People just finally were admitting out loud who he was.
#33
My husband left me nearly 5 weeks ago after 15 years. No warning, except he'd made especially close friends with my son's best friend's mother - who separated from her second husband at the beginning of the year.
They're now dating.
Thanos'Fingers 1 month ago
I can't tell if this axle f loser is a geriatric 89 slipping into the throes of dementia, or an edgy tween who got ahold of Mom's Samsung tablet password trying to stir the pot.
#34
My former executive chef. Dude was an amazing mentor and Chef, but twice now he has burned me at different restaurants, abandoning the project and leaving me to deal with it.
#35
My parents. It’s hard to call them “pieces of trash,” but the older I got, the more I really saw how awful they could be. How bad they messed up my brother and me. Thankfully my mom has changed a lot. She still randomly apologizes lol. My dad.. less so.
I remember stumbling on an old journal entry from when I was a teenager, idolizing my mom and wishing I could be like her. I cringed reading it lolol. Thank god that didn’t happen!
Brandi VanSteenwyk 1 month ago
I suppose the comment I added a couple posts up would better sit here... It took MANY years and her death for me to realize that my mother was a toxic person who really damaged my psyche so much that I still struggle with self-esteem and the like. But... I realized that I did learn ONE BIG THING from her: How NOT to raise my children. How NOT to treat them. How NOT to ignore even small accomplishments and only focus on the negatives. Really Mom, THANK YOU for being such a B**CH!!
#36
Chris Benoit.
Small guy in a big man's world who pushed himself constantly to try and make it. I felt the same was always the smallest dude out all the people around me and it always felt like they were ahead of me, he perseverance was something I wanted to copy. Those last moments of his life as well learning he was actually quite aggressive towards his wife make it impossible to look at him the same.
#37
I used to think Harry Potter was the height of fiction, the pinnacle but… I grew up. Now I see its flaws and what’s worse is the woman who wrote it has shown herself to be the enemy of all that I love.
Gebidozo 1 month ago
Oh, for the love of everything that is holy, not those JK Rowling haters again! “Enemy of all that I love”, are you f*****g serious? The woman voiced an opinion, controversial perhaps, yet in no way disparaging, actually reflecting legitimate concerns of many women, only to be threatened in a veritable witch hunt by a rabid mob that never actually bothered to hear or understand what she said.
#38
Ben Kissel from the Last Podcast on the Left.
Everyone knew he was an alcoholic but no one knew that he got physical with women while drunk.
I still keep up with some of his stuff but the dude has major issues that he needs to work through.
Nobody Special 1 month ago
Got physical with women. Is that the politically correct term for he's an abus*ve drunk?
#39
Not as prominent of those here, but Michael Phelps.
I was a competitive swimmer growing up through high school. Was lucky enough to be doing this in Michigan around the time of Phelps' then-historic gold medal wins in the Olympics. There was a special swim camp program hosted but University of Michigan that REALLY drilled you hard and taught advanced techniques. The US Olympic swimmers trained in the same facilities when we weren't using them. There was a point where you got to meet the Olympians too, and I'll never forget that Phelps' wouldn't smile when with these young teenagers who adored him.
Immediate loss of respect. Play the part, you are literally inspiring a generation of athletes behind you - be the role model they need you to be.
(The Vanderkay brothers though - now THEY were freaking cool. We were doing breathing and muscle relaxation/meditation training on the large patio outside the pool room. The Vanderkays came out shortly after we began and snuck around us to another sunny spot and began planking. Our exercise was 30 minutes long. We left - they were still planking, and just smiling and lightly chattering to each other. Huge respect).
#40
John Fetterman, when he was campaigning I was all in and voted for him. After he got elected, he switched to a hardcore republican and didn’t so anything he said he would do. I guess he had a stroke which may of caused the sudden switch, but it doesn’t excuse the fact that he’s nothing to me now.
David 1 month ago
lol, what crack is this person smoking? "Hardcore Republican"? Fetterman votes party line 92% of the time, that is 92% of the time, votes Democrat party line. He votes with the Republicans against the Democrats 2%, and the rest are with split votes. Just because he won't demonize Republicans, is willing to work across the isle, (when Trump won he was the first Democrat to meet with Trump, which is a good thing, bc politics is about working across the isle, not team politics), etc. He is a very much mainstream Democrat he just is rational and puts his personal politics aside to try and do the best he can for his state which is his job, he put the people of PA before partisan politics and I admire him for it. We need more people like Fetterman on both sides.
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Nova Rook 1 month ago
This one hurt. Huge Buffy fan. You can spot his toxicity in the way he wrote his avatar, Xander.
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Alex Martin 1 month ago
People who shape our world are not Gods. They can be weak, fallible, intolerable, and sometimes outright monsters. I've trained myself to separate the actor from role, the musician from the music, and the invention from the inventor. I'll enjoy the thing that was created because it's not the fault of the painting, or the performance, or the discovery that the vessel chosen to deliver the achievement is broken. Harry Potter is an example. JK Rowling of 25 years ago was a successful author who wrote a series of books that inspired a generation. They were made into tremendous movies that introduced us to so many great performances and art. Who she is now shouldn't be allowed to dim the achievement from more than a quarter century ago. I don't have to like 2025 JK Rowling nor support her causes but I'm not going to let her take away my joy of the series that I enjoyed as a young adult.
Smeghead Tribble Down Under 1 month ago
Not a fan, but I used to highly respect Bob Geldof for all his charity stuff. A few years ago he was in Australia. They gave him a medal, something important like the Order Of Australia medal (or something like that; I can't be bothered looking it up) He acted like he'd been handed a paper cup someone had pis.sed in and proceeded to bash Australians for ''not donating enough''. JFC mate! We're a very generous bunch, actually. Respect for him immediately evaporated like water into sand.
Nova Rook 1 month ago
This one hurt. Huge Buffy fan. You can spot his toxicity in the way he wrote his avatar, Xander.
Load More Replies... Alex Martin 1 month ago
People who shape our world are not Gods. They can be weak, fallible, intolerable, and sometimes outright monsters. I've trained myself to separate the actor from role, the musician from the music, and the invention from the inventor. I'll enjoy the thing that was created because it's not the fault of the painting, or the performance, or the discovery that the vessel chosen to deliver the achievement is broken. Harry Potter is an example. JK Rowling of 25 years ago was a successful author who wrote a series of books that inspired a generation. They were made into tremendous movies that introduced us to so many great performances and art. Who she is now shouldn't be allowed to dim the achievement from more than a quarter century ago. I don't have to like 2025 JK Rowling nor support her causes but I'm not going to let her take away my joy of the series that I enjoyed as a young adult.
Smeghead Tribble Down Under 1 month ago
Not a fan, but I used to highly respect Bob Geldof for all his charity stuff. A few years ago he was in Australia. They gave him a medal, something important like the Order Of Australia medal (or something like that; I can't be bothered looking it up) He acted like he'd been handed a paper cup someone had pis.sed in and proceeded to bash Australians for ''not donating enough''. JFC mate! We're a very generous bunch, actually. Respect for him immediately evaporated like water into sand.
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