On May 17, BuzzFeed News published a year-long investigation into famous self-help guru Tony Robbins in which former female fans and employees accused him of inappropriate sexual advances.
BuzzFeed spoke to two former followers-turned-employees who signed statements swearing under oath that they felt he had sexually harassed them by repeatedly pursuing them after they made clear they weren’t interested. In addition, two other women who worked as his assistants said Robbins expected them to work alone with him when he was naked in his hotel room or in the shower. Another woman said she was fired after having a consensual sexual relationship with Robbins. The women's allegations reportedly stem from incidents in the '90s and early '00s.
The report also including accusations that Robbins berated victims of abuse during self-help sessions and was based on leaked recordings, internal documents, and dozens of interviews. “She’s fucking using all this stuff to try and control men,” he reportedly said after one woman said she had been raped. In 2018, another woman said her husband was physically violent and emotionally abusive. BuzzFeed reports that Robbins then accused her of “lying” and asked, “Does he put up with you when you’ve been a crazy bitch?”
His Response:
Robbins published an open letter on Medium to address the allegations saying that the BuzzFeed investigation was "intended to disparage me personally, my family, my life’s work, and the efforts of the millions of individuals around the globe who have taken this journey with me over the last 40-plus years."
"Let me be clear, while my open-classroom therapeutic methods are not for everyone, and while I am on my best day still only an imperfect human being, I have never behaved in the reckless, irresponsible, or malicious manner intimated by false, unfounded, and incendiary allegations suggested by BuzzFeed story-tellers," he continued. "Several individuals have contacted us to let us know that you attempted to manipulate their testimony and, in some cases, even ignored their legal counsel when they pointed out inaccuracies and mischaracterizations of their client’s personal accounts at the hands of your reporters. Why didn’t you listen to what these individuals had to say and instead choose to proceed with inverted truths as your central narrative?"
BuzzFeed denies Robbins' claims about their reporting. In a statement to NBC News they said it was “based on records of Mr. Robbins berating victims of rape and domestic violence, and the testimony of former staffers and followers who accused him of inappropriate sexual advances.”
“It does not appear that Mr. Robbins read the story itself before he published his open letter, which contains a number of demonstrably false and defamatory claims about both our reporting and the resulting article,” the statement said.
The fallout:
How these allegations will affect Robbins' global self-help business are, as yet, unknown.