Many celebrities have gone to jail over the years, especially for minor offenses involving DUI charges or financial crimes, which resulted in short sentences. However, there are some celebrities whose criminal activities are on an entirely different level, resulting in several years in prison. In fact, some stars have received sentences so lengthy that they may spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
Regardless of how things will end for them, the legacies of these stars are forever linked to their poor choices. Read on to discover the famous figures who are currently in prison.
Sean Combs
Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has gone from a life of luxury to a federal jail in New York City. The rapper was arrested on September 16, 2024, on charges including trafficking and racketeering. He was sentenced to 50 months in prison and is serving his sentence at Fort Dix, a federal prison in New Jersey.
Elizabeth Holmes
In 2014, Elizabeth Holmes appeared to have revolutionized blood testing by developing methods that needed only very small volumes of blood. Forbes also named her the youngest and wealthiest self-made female billionaire in the US thanks to her blood-testing company, Theranos. However, it was all a fraud, and prosecutors alleged that Holmes made misleading statements about Theranos’s capabilities. In November 2022 she was sentenced to 11 years and three months in federal prison, which was later reduced to nine years.
Tory Lanez
The Canadian rapper was convicted in the Los Angeles County Superior Court of three felony charges related to shooting fellow musician Megan Thee Stallion in 2020. In 2023, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Kris Wu A former member of South Korean-Chinese boy band Exo, Wu was also active as a solo artist and actor in China. In 2021, after assault allegations emerged on Chinese social media, Wu was investigated by Chinese authorities. The following year, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison for sexually assaulting three intoxicated women.
Danny Masterson
Best known for playing Steven Hyde on ‘That ’70s Show,’ Danny Masterson later focused on his side career as a DJ and co-starred on the Netflix sitcom ‘The Ranch.’ In 2017, the Los Angeles Police Department began a sexual assault investigation into Masterson after three women came forward with allegations against him, relating to incidents between 2001 and 2003 at his Hollywood home. In September 2023, he was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.
Jared Fogle
A former spokesperson for Subway, Fogle first made headlines in 1999 when he lost 245 lb (111 kg) while exclusively eating at the sandwich franchise. However, things took a dark turn when Fogle faced allegations involving minors in 2007. In 2015, the FBI uncovered that he had received child exploitation images from an associate, and he was sentenced to 15 years and eight months in prison that same year.
Joe Exotic
Joe Exotic became famous thanks to the massively popular 2020 Netflix documentary series ‘Tiger King.’ In 2019, Exotic was convicted and sentenced to 22 years in prison on 17 federal charges of animal abuse and two counts of attempted murder for hire, related to a plot to kill big-cat activist Carole Baskin. The sentence was reduced to 21 years in 2022, after an appeals court ruled the two murder-for-hire convictions should have been treated as one at sentencing.
Josh Duggar
The oldest child of Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar, who became famous for their extremely large family of 19 children, Josh Duggar was featured on the TLC reality show ’19 Kids and Counting.’ In 2021, Duggar was arrested on charges of receiving and possessing child exploitation imagery. He was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison in 2022.
Harvey Weinstein
Cofounder of the movie company Miramax, Weinstein produced countless critically acclaimed hit films during the ’90s and ’00s. However, after years of rumors, the New York Times published an investigation featuring accounts from over a dozen women accusing the producer of harassment and abuse. In May 2018, the New York district attorney’s office charged Weinstein with several abuse charges involving two separate women. Weinstein was found guilty and sentenced to 23 years in jail. He was subsequently tried in Los Angeles for additional crimes and sentenced to 16 more years.
R. Kelly
Sometimes called the King of R&B, allegations of abuse had followed Kelly for most of his career, but for a long time he escaped accountability. In 2022, Kelly was found guilty of federal racketeering and trafficking charges involving abuse of minors and sentenced to 30 years in prison. In 2023, the singer received an additional 20-year sentence on child exploitation convictions in Chicago, with 19 years of that sentence to run concurrently with his New York sentence.
Mark Rogowski
Mainly prominent in the ’80s and early ’90s, the professional skateboarder’s career ended when he pled guilty to the assault and murder of Jessica Bergsten in 1991. For those crimes, Rogowski received a sentence of 31 years to life.
Suge Knight
Co-founder and former CEO of Death Row Records, Knight was a central figure in gangsta rap’s commercial success in the ’90s. He is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence for a hit-and-run in 2015.
Gary Glitter
Gary Glitter, or Paul Gadd, was a popular British glam rock star of the ’70s and ’80s. His career ended after he was convicted of downloading child exploitation imagery in 1999. He was sentenced to 16 years in jail. In February 2023, he was released after serving half his sentence, but was arrested again one month later after violating his release conditions.
Darren Sharper
Darren Sharper’s fall from grace was a shock to many football fans. In 2014, the former NFL player pleaded guilty to charges of drugging and assaulting women and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
