Photo: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for BFI
A year and a half after Armie Hammer was first accused of sexual misconduct (and possible cannibalism), the disgraced actor is once again making headlines for reportedly losing his wealthy family’s financial support, switching career paths, and taking on a job selling time-shares at a Cayman Islands resort. Why is it getting harder and harder to distinguish real life from The White Lotus?
In case you’re a little confused about how we ended up here — or if you made the wise choice to mute Hammer’s name on Twitter ages ago — we compiled a timeline of the allegations against the Call Me By Your Name actor, his alleged victims’ statements, and his whereabouts leading up to … an alleged $67,000 unpaid balance to AmEx and his first interview after the allegations came to light, in which he admits to being emotionally abusive and shares new details about being “massively” broke. A police investigation and a finalized divorce later, he returned to Instagram and began his life and career, post–cannibalism allegations. Let’s unpack, shall we?
July 10, 2020: By mid-2020, Armie Hammer has been acting for more than a decade and is best known for playing a rich asshole in Gossip Girl, millionaire twins in The Social Network, and a tender tan American man in the Oscar-nominated Call Me By Your Name — and also that bizarre video of his son sucking on his toes. Then, on July 10, he and his wife of ten years, Elizabeth Chambers, announce their divorce in matching Instagram statements. “Thirteen years as best friends, soulmates, partners and then parents,” Chambers writes. “It has been an incredible journey, but together, we’ve decided to turn the page and move on from our marriage.”
The couple had been quarantining in the Cayman Islands, but after announcing the separation, Hammer reportedly moves back to Los Angeles, according to legal documents obtained by the Blast. Chambers requests primary physical custody of their two children and reportedly promises that she and the kids will soon return to the States.
October 7, 2020: Hammer takes on a new hobby: home renovation. In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, he mentions moving back to the States and fixing up “an old motel out in the desert” with a friend. “Do you think I had anything else better going on?” he asks Kimmel.
October 15, 2020: Hammer’s divorce gets a little murkier. In a court filing, he requests joint custody, arguing that he hasn’t seen his kids since moving back to Los Angeles in July. “When I asked Elizabeth when she was coming home, however, she first told me that the airports were closed. Then I was informed through her attorneys that flights were merely limited but that she and our children would be back in Los Angeles on the first flight in October,” he writes, per People. “It is now several weeks into October and they have not returned.”
November 25, 2020: Hammer is supposed to return to the Cayman Islands to celebrate Thanksgiving with Chambers and their kids but has issues making it out of the States, a source tells People.
January 1, 2021: Hammer tweets this. I’m not sure it’s relevant, but it’s definitely foreboding.
January 12, 2021: An anonymous woman, @houseofeffie, comes forward on Instagram and claims to have had a four-year-long affair with Hammer, during which she says he sent her graphic and violent texts about cannibalism, rape fantasies, and his desire to drink her blood. She publishes a collection of texts and screenshots she reportedly received from Hammer and also messages that reportedly came from his other exes.
“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,” she writes in one Instagram Story.
January 13, 2021: A day later, Hammer voluntarily exits the J. Lo movie Shotgun Wedding and is replaced by Josh Duhamel. “I’m not responding to these bullshit claims but in light of the vicious and spurious online attacks against me, I cannot in good conscience now leave my children for 4 months to shoot a film in the Dominican Republic,” he tells Variety in a statement. “Lionsgate is supporting me in this and I’m grateful to them for that.”
January 14, 2021: Courtney Vucekovich, an app founder who says she dated Hammer in 2020 from June to October, alleges to “Page Six” that the actor subjected her to emotional abuse, sexually coerced her, and made her feel unsafe.
“He did some things with me that I wasn’t comfortable with. 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,” Vucekovich says. She doesn’t confirm the authenticity of @houseofeffie’s posts, but their claims are similar.
January 15, 2021: More screenshots start proliferating online — this time, screenshots from Hammer’s secondary Instagram account, including several photos and videos of women in bondage. (In a few now-resurfaced interviews from the years leading up to 2020, Hammer also discussed his penchant for BDSM.) In one caption, Hammer complains about having to stay in the Cayman Islands because “my ex (for a very good reason) wife is refusing to come back to america with my children.” He continues, “there are a few silver linings. Like f*cking Ms. Cayman again while I’m down there.”
Hammer confirms the account is his own when he’s forced to apologize to this real Miss Cayman and the Miss Cayman Islands Universe Committee. “I would like to clarify that the person in my video, which was stolen from my private Instagram, is not Miss Cayman,” he tells a local publication. “I am genuinely sorry for any confusion my foolish attempt at humor may have caused.” Still no comment on any of the cannibalism stuff, though.
January 25, 2021: Paige Lorenze, a 24-year-old ex-girlfriend of Hammer’s who reportedly dated him for four months in 2020, corroborates his exes’ stories. Lorenze tells “Page Six” that Hammer allegedly branded and bruised her, sexually coerced her, and took graphic photos of her without her consent. “I have gotten a DM saying Armie had sent me photos of me tied up that I didn’t know about. I didn’t even know the photos existed or what they look like,” Lorenze says. “He would talk about it like a traditional BDSM relationship, but it wasn’t. This was way outside and beyond that.”
One of Hammer’s lawyers denies the allegations, saying that “any interactions with this person” were “completely consensual.”
January 28, 2021: Hammer exits another project — this time, Paramount+’s Godfather spinoff, The Offer.
February 1, 2021: In an Instagram post, Chambers writes that she supports all victims of assault and abuse and asks for “kindness and respect” as she focuses on her priorities, including her children and her career. “I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know,” she writes.
February 3, 2021: The Los Angeles Police Department begins investigating Hammer — although this won’t be revealed until a little later. “We can confirm that Armie Hammer is the main suspect in an alleged sexual assault investigation that was initiated Feb. 3 of this year,” an LAPD spokesperson would tell Variety in March 2021.
February 7, 2021: Hammer’s talent agency, WME, drops him.
March 11, 2021: Vanity Fair publishes a bizarre bombshell article on the Hammer family, outlining Hammer’s upbringing in the Cayman Islands and revealing multiple disturbing details about his relatives. His grandfather, for instance, allegedly “killed a man inside his Los Angeles home over a gambling debt and supposed advances on his wife.” Yikes.
March 18, 2021: At a press conference with women’s-rights attorney Gloria Allred, a woman named Effie — possibly the same woman behind the @houseofeffie account, although Allred doesn’t confirm this — comes forward and alleges that Hammer violently raped her “over the course of four hours” in April 2017. “I thought that he was going to kill me,” Effie says. Hammer’s lawyer, Andrew Brettler, says their relationship was “completely consensual.”
March 29, 2021: Hammer is dropped from yet another project, The Million Dollar Spy.
April 2, 2021: … And he exits the cast of the Broadway show The Minutes.
May 31, 2021: At the very end of May, Hammer reportedly leaves the Cayman Islands and checks into a treatment facility in Florida for “drug, alcohol, and sex issues,” multiple sources tell Vanity Fair. The insiders add that Chambers accompanied him to the airport and fully supports his decision to focus on his recovery.
July 14, 2022: After a relatively quiet year, Hammer’s name pops up once again when several Twitter users, including the writer Muna Mire, claim he’s working as a concierge at a Cayman Islands resort. There are some receipts, too, including photos of what appear to be Hammer in uniform and a flyer that promises “your personal concierge,” Armie Hammer, will “help you get the very best from your vacation.” The hotel in question tells Variety that Hammer doesn’t work there, but multiple sources argue otherwise.
“He is working at the resort and selling timeshares. He is working at a cubicle,” one insider tells Variety. “The reality is he’s totally broke, and is trying to fill the days and earn money to support his family.” The source, who asked to remain anonymous, says he’s been working on the island to be near his children, who are still living in the Caymans with Chambers.
Another source, also anonymous, tells People that he is working at the resort “because he needs the money” and “his dad won’t help him anymore and he’s been cut off, so he got to work.”
What do Hammer’s reps have to say about any of this? In a statement to People, Brettler says that he “doesn’t know anything about” Hammer’s alleged gig but argues that if he is working at a hotel, “I think it’s shitty that the media seems to be shaming him for having a ‘normal job.’” He does confirm that the flyer is fake, though.
July 19, 2022: Hammer is spotted in L.A. with Chambers and his kids. According to “Page Six,” he’s been staying at Robert Downey, Jr.’s house for several weeks, a claim that could effectively negate the whole hotel-job theory. More soon, I’m sure.
September 2, 2022: Discovery+ releases a three-part docu-series House of Hammer that details Hammer’s relationships and family dynasty. The series interviews two of Hammer’s former girlfriends, Courtney Vucekovich and Julia Morrison, and members of the Hammer household. The first episode focuses on Hammer’s romantic relationships and how they escalated through love bombing and manipulation. The second episode discusses Armand Hammer’s legacy and how the generational trauma affected the entire family. Lastly, the final episode attempts to bring some closure by uniting Vucekovich and Armie’s aunt Casey to discuss their experiences with the Hammer family. Major revelations include threatening notes allegedly left by Hammer in a victim’s car, accusations of wrongdoing from former employees, and the Hammer clan’s attempt to silence Casey.
September 4, 2022: One of Hammer’s first accusers, Effie, tells the Los Angeles Times that she refused to participate in the House of Hammer docuseries and found the production to be exploitative. “It is extremely inappropriate of you to exploit such a tragic, vulnerable time in many people’s lives with no regard whatsoever for our healing process and privacy,” she explains. Effie, who declined to share her last name citing concerns about harassment, launched the ongoing LAPD investigation after sharing her claims on her Instagram story in early 2021. At present, she is the only woman to publicly allege that Hammer raped her. Though she did not participate in the series, her claims appear throughout via Instagram screenshots and a clip of the 2021 press conference where she alleges, in tears, that Hammer raped her in April 2017. “The way they’ve been exploiting my trauma is disgusting,” she says. “When I keep screaming ‘no’ and they keep going, saying they don’t need my permission, they remind me of Armie.”
Elli Hakami and Julian Hobbs, the duo who began working on the show soon after the LAPD began investigating the actor, say that they did not interview Effie because they wanted to allow her case to play out and not get involved in an active investigation. They argue that they include Effie’s screenshots and videos because it’s “critically important” to the story and the timeline of events as the “match that lit the fire.” “We feel we actually have an obligation to tell the stories,” they tell the L.A. Times. “If you were to stop making films because someone said they didn’t want a film being made, you would never make a film. The reality is not everyone gets onboard films.”
September 7, 2022: The docuseries faces criticism after they use an image of an alleged bite mark onscreen. Accuser Courtney Vucekovich details her interactions with Hammer over a photo of what she claims to be a mark obtained during sexual acts — which include BDSM and biting. “I think Armie took that picture,” Vucekovich says over the image. “He bites really hard. And he tells you to wear them like a badge of honor, almost like he convinced me I’m lucky to have it.” Viewers began to question the veracity of the image when some noticed that the mark resembles a picture of a bite tattoo found on Pinterest. Following the speculation over the image’s authenticity, Discovery + replaced it with another photo provided by Vucekovich. “We take seriously the responsibility of representing victims’ stories,” a rep for Talos Films, the production company behind the series, told People on September 6. “When new information came forward about this series we immediately began investigating it and will make any appropriate changes as quickly as possible.” Vulture has reached out to House of Hammer reps for comment.
In response to the bite-mark snafu, Vucekovich explains that the photo mistakenly ended up in the docuseries because it was archived in her text thread with the Call Me By Your Name actor. “When you are love-bombed, you receive multiple images in rapid succession,” she tells People. “During my time with Armie, I received numerous messages, including countless images and videos. The bite mark shown was a photo sent by Armie within our archived text thread and over a year later, I believed it to have been a photo of me given that I have dozens of photos depicting his abuse on my body.” Andrew Brettler, a lawyer for Hammer, denies all allegations of misconduct and maintains that the actor’s relationships were “completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory,” per a September 4 statement to Vanity Fair.
October 26, 2022: Hammer needs to put some serious alleged work in at the alleged time-share job, because American Express says he owes over $60 grand. People reports that the credit-card company is suing Hammer for $66,935.07 of unpaid “purchases, balance transfers, and/or cash advances” on his account. He opened the account in 2011. According to TMZ, the account with the almost $67,000 unpaid statement was co-owned with Elizabeth Chambers, and that “it’ll be resolved as they iron out the final details of the divorce.”
February 6, 2023: In an interview with Air Mail, his first in two years, the disgraced actor admits to being emotionally abusive but maintains that his sexual encounters were consensual. He claims that Effie, who accused him of rape, planned “all of the details” of the alleged rape over Facebook Messenger, which he describes as a “consensual non-consent” scene. Although Hammer says there was an “imbalance of power” in his relationships with accusers Courtney Vucekovich and Paige Lorenze, he denies their respective allegations of bodily harm and grooming. He then alleges a pastor sexually abused him at the age of 13, which led to his interest in BDSM.
Job-wise, he says he’s working as a sober companion after his time-share gig last summer got him “sucked into an immigration investigation” over his nonexistent work permit. In his own words: “My financial status is I am not only broke; I am massively in debt.” After the allegations surfaced, he claims he attempted suicide while quarantining in the Cayman Islands in 2021. That same year, he says Elizabeth Chambers asked her estranged husband to do a psycho-legal evaluation. In the report, obtained by Air Mail, Chambers alleges that Hammer groomed girls as young as 15 and describes him as a “psychopath.”
February 7, 2023: Elizabeth Chambers says she learned about the cannibalism and sex-abuse allegations against Hammer at the same time as the public. “I was like, ‘There are no words. What the fuck?’” she tells Elle in an interview. Chambers declines to comment on Hammer’s Air Mail interview, his sexual interests, or their own sex life. “I support Armie through his journey and I always will,” she says, though she often thinks about how this will affect their children’s lives. “Do I want my son to become this? Would I want my daughter to stay in a relationship like this?”
May 31, 2023: The LA District Attorney’s office issues a statement that it will not be pursuing charges of sexual assault against Hammer. “Due to the complexity of the relationship and inability to prove a non-consensual, forcible sexual encounter we are unable to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” the statement, obtained by CNN, read. Hammer responded to the news on his Instagram, writing “I am very grateful to the District Attorney for conducting a thorough investigation and coming to the conclusion that I have stood by this entire time, that no crime was committed. I look forward to beginning what will be a long, difficult process of putting my life back together now that my name is cleared.”
July 5, 2023: Three years after announcing their separation, almost to the day, Elizabeth Chambers and Armie Hammer are divorced. TMZ reports that Hammer will be paying $1500 a month is child support, but that he has no income at the moment. The settlement also states that neither party will let the children meet “a new romantic interest unless he or she has been in a significant and exclusive relationship with that person for at least 6 months.”
November 1, 2023: Hammer shares a bizarre new video on Instagram from the inside of a moving train, set to the song “El Milonario” by Gitkin. His camera is trained on a laptop playing a clip of a man running beside a horse. The actor’s entire profile is completely scrubbed, save for the new, singular post on his grid. When pop stars play these kinds of Instagram games, it means they’re revving up for a new era. It’s unclear if Hammer’s video has a hidden message, though. Do you wanna know?
June 16, 2023: On an episode of the podcast Painful Lessons, Hammer addresses his acting career and says he has co-written a screenplay. “In terms of my career as an actor, I’m nowhere,” Hammer explains. “I’m not getting jobs. I’m not getting into rooms to meet with people. I’m not a viable commodity for the entertainment industry in terms of the Hollywood system. I’m not welcome to play in that sandbox — for right now.”
Despite the cannibalism and sexual-assault allegations effectively barring him from acting, Hammer is “grateful” for the resulting career nosedive, which allowed him to do some soul-searching. “I never knew how to give myself self-validation, but I had this job where I was able to get it from so many people that I never had to learn how to give it to myself,” he says.
The screenplay he’s “passionate about” mirrors his own life, he tells the podcast. “I’ve decided I’ll try to make my own sandbox — if you won’t let me play in yours, I’ll go play in mine,” Hammer says. “Writing the script has been incredibly cathartic. We took an original piece of source material that was then turned into a film. We looked at it and said, ‘There’s a lot of parallels here,’ albeit some more subtle and some more overt. We took that and made it much more autobiographical.” It’ll definitely be an interesting double feature with House of Hammer.
July 14, 2024: Hammer denies sexual-assault allegations on an episode of Bill Maher’s podcast, Club Random. “For two and a half years, [the LAPD] went through phones, emails, eyewitness reports in a time where if they could have nailed someone like me it would have been such a boon for the LAPD,” he states. “They came to the conclusion that there was no evidence that any crime had been committed.” Hammer also discusses the full psychological evaluation performed in the Cayman Islands connected to his custody battle with Elizabeth Chambers. The report was “glowing,” according to him.
This post has been updated.
