Top 10 Biggest Celebrity Scandals and Controversies of 2022
Here is the follow-up list to the Top 10 Celebrities Who Most Ruined Their Careers in 2021. Instead of evaluating how scandals and controversies can ruin a celebrity's career, let's just focus on the scandals and controversies themselves and why they're considered as such. Also in the previous list, some people put celebrity names without explaining why they supposedly ruined their careers. In addition to the name of the celeb, you will also have to say what kind of scandal or controversy they have found themselves into, whether it's an arrest, allegations, adultery, a controversial recording (interview, TV appearance, YouTube video, song), a controversial social media post, erratic/violent behavior, legal troubles, etc.
Because of this inexcusable act after Rock made a terrible joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith has been banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years, with probably more sanctions to come. It's crazy how a single move watched by millions of people can damage your career.
And just like that, the actor Will Smith messed up his career by slapping someone at the Oscars, over a joke. That was literally shocking and outrageous.
Will Smith doesn't know how to take jokes. It was just a joke. Maybe some jokes are offensive, but this reaction was not good.
Following an investigation, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted to having breached Covid-19 rules by throwing a Christmas party at 10 Downing Street in 2020. Although he has apologized, more and more people want him to resign.
How have we, as a country, lowered the bar to such a degree that people look at this ridiculous man and think, "Oh yeah, he's the best person to lead the country"? What a truly sad state of affairs.
It's pretty disappointing when people in power can't follow their own rules, especially over something so trivial.
Following an intense televised trial, Amber Heard has been found guilty of libel, and a jury awarded Johnny Depp over $10 million in his lawsuit, enforcing his claims that she had fabricated her abuse allegations against him. This trial will probably be remembered not only as one of those that rocked the nation, but also the one that most broke the Internet.
More and more details about Depp and Heard's destructive marriage have been revealed throughout the trial. This includes degrading messages Depp sent to friends, including Paul Bettany about Heard, and disturbing audio recordings where Heard admitted to hitting Depp.
Yup, more Kimye in 2022. Despite the two having found respective partners (edit: Ye and Julia Fox broke up), Ye has been trying to win Kim back in multiple ways and has publicly called out Kim for their daughter North's education. In fact, he's against North being on TikTok (she's 8) while Kim doesn't seem to mind it and takes his remarks as personal attacks and manipulations.
For once, Ye is not entirely wrong because he's conscious that his daughter using TikTok at 8 is not necessarily good for her development. If it were me, I wouldn't want my 8-year-old child on social media.
Edit: A lot more has happened, including but not limited to: insulting Pete Davidson, canceling his friends who are close to Pete, sending a truck full of roses to Kim Kardashian for Valentine's Day, and publicly sharing DMs of Kim, etc.
Update: Brittney Griner has been sentenced to 9 years in prison in Russia for drug possession. Edit: She has been released in exchange for an arms dealer.
His podcast The Joe Rogan Experience has been controversial for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 on Spotify. As a result, Canadian musician Neil Young threatened to remove his whole catalogue from Spotify if the podcast was not removed from the streaming service.
As a result, Spotify removed Young's catalogue. Joni Mitchell, as well as Crosby, Stills & Nash followed suit to support Young, their longtime friend. Since then, Spotify is being criticized for letting misinformation be spread.
He won the American Music Award for Favorite R&B Artist. When Kelly Rowland declared him the winner, boos could be heard in the audience, to which Rowland responded by praising Brown, who was not present to pick up his award. It's a mystery and a disgrace that this abusive manchild still gets nominations at award shows.
When will they finally understand that he hasn't learned from his infamous assault on Rihanna and will never learn from it? Nominating an abuser is basically endorsing his behavior and making it acceptable when it's not.
This definitely deserves to be way higher on the list.
I know it's been a while since Kevin Spacey was disgraced, but he's had four rape allegations in the UK by three different men recently. He seems almost as bad as Dahvie Vanity at this point.
This douchebag is a sick, pompous piece of trash whose incompetence, neglect, and stupidity cost Halyna Hutchins her life.
He should be in prison.
That was last year, and it was more a tragedy than a scandal.
Another leftist idiot that should be in jail.
The 20-year-old Manchester United soccer player is currently under investigation for assaulting and raping his girlfriend. She posted pictures of her bruised face and body on social media. As a result, he has been suspended by his club until further notice.
More charges have been added to him, including death threats. He was also dropped by his sponsor, and probably more to come. Looks like his career is crashing on takeoff.
I support Manchester United, but what an absolute clown.
The Newcomers
During the 2022 American Music Awards, Chris Brown, who won the award for Favorite Male R&B Artist, was scheduled to perform a tribute to Michael Jackson for the 40th anniversary of Thriller. Ciara was also scheduled to take part in that tribute. However, 24 hours before the ceremony, the AMAs decided to cancel Brown's performance without providing many reasons.
Chris Brown was clearly disappointed, so he later posted videos of the rehearsals. It looked like it would have been an amazing performance, probably his best in years. Even though I personally dislike Chris Brown, I feel really bad for him. If the AMAs didn't want him to perform for whatever reason, they should have just not invited him instead of humiliating him like they did.
Recently, James Corden was banned from the New York City restaurant Balthazar after being rude to the staff more than once. He later apologized to the restaurant staff, and his ban was lifted.
In that interview, he made some degrading comments about Kendall Jenner, who was then 17 while he was 23. A few weeks after being engaged to Megan Fox, a lot of people are bringing back that interview and criticizing him.
The French soccer player was filmed mistreating his cat and received tons of backlash for this horrendous act. Even though he apologized, this incident will surely damage his reputation.
Update: He just pled guilty to animal abuse in front of the British Court.
The UK court has now made its verdict for this "catgate." Kurt Zouma and his brother will serve 180 hours of community service and are barred from owning a pet cat for 5 years.
Oh mean. He is an animal abuser. How could he do that to his cat?
He's such an extreme hypocrite. He called it a terrorist attack the day and year before he apologized for something else. Tucker Carlson basically has more control over a sitting politician, which is scary.
He called the Capitol riot a "violent terrorist attack."
This incident dates back to 2018 when Cuba Gooding Jr allegedly groped a woman in NYC. His career was already on the decline, but this incident could be the definitive end of it.
One may not have agreed with her leftist political stance, but having fun with friends at a party is an unjustified criticism.
Some leaked video footage showed the Finnish Prime Minister singing and dancing at a party along with other celebrities. The video sparked outrage and had a lot of people talking about what they expect from their leaders.
One may not agree with her leftist globalist ideology, but condemning her for partying with friends is absurd.
In February 2022, DaBaby and his crew were filmed fighting with Brandon Curiel, the brother of his ex-girlfriend DaniLeigh, in a bowling alley. Following this fight, Curiel filed a lawsuit against DaBaby, claiming he had psychologically damaged him. DaBaby said he was acting as a means of self-defense.
However, DaBaby had already fallen out last year because of his homophobic comments at Rolling Loud, and this might be the definitive end of him.
He just released a song called "Boogeyman," in which he claims to have been intimate with Megan Thee Stallion and brings Tory Lanez's alleged shooting of her in August 2020 into the lyrics.
Kanye West accused Billie Eilish of dissing Travis Scott after she interrupted her concert to help a fan who was apparently having trouble breathing. However, Billie Eilish hasn't mentioned Travis Scott at any point. It's just Kanye being Kanye, as always.
Honestly, this might be the turning point between me just saying that Kanye West is a jerk, despite really liking most of his music, and low-key wishing he would be hit by a car. Yes, I know that isn't right, but still.
Kanye West is such a terrible person.
Amber Heard is not only a horrible spouse, but she's also accused of ableism. She accepted to play the mother of an autistic child whom she believes is possessed by forces of evil.
I know Amber is already disgraced, but this ableism in film really needs to stop. Sia's Music was already offensive enough, so no more ableist movies, please.
Edit: The name of the movie is In The Fire, and filming has unfortunately just begun.
According to the Spanish Prosecutor's Office, Colombian singer Shakira has been accused of tax fraud amounting to $14.7 million and risks an 8-year sentence. She allegedly maintained her tax residency in the Bahamas between 2011 and 2015 while living in Spain.
Shakira claims to be innocent and will not accept an agreement with the justice.
It's odd. I was just thinking about how I thought tax evasion is a really underhated crime. Then I wondered what I would think if a celebrity that I had an overall positive opinion on did it, and a few hours later, I see this item. The worst part is it's probably true.
The comments said here were way wrong on all accounts. In the past, people on a talk show or just news gigs would get fired. Remember Matt Lauer, Megyn Kelly, & Sharon Osbourne?
If it wasn't evident enough, some shows do have a toxic workplace. It seems obvious when watching a clip of The View.
The actress and host was suspended from The View for two weeks after she made some hurtful comments about the Holocaust, declaring it was not about race.
If she was in Germany, she would be arrested as Holocaust denial is illegal there.
He shared a link to an antisemitic film on Twitter and received tons of backlash for this. He was suspended by the Nets, and Nike cut ties with him.
He has apologized since, but only time will tell whether he will recover from this serious incident.
Jason Alexander, Britney Spears's infamous 55-hour husband back in 2004, was filming himself on Instagram trying to break into her wedding. First, he told the guards that he was invited, then he headed to the wedding and told multiple people he was one of the wedding's organizers. A fight ensued, leading to Jason being arrested by the police.
Luckily, nothing too bad happened.
During a 2021 interview, the retired Brazilian F1 pilot used the Portuguese n-word to refer to Lewis Hamilton when discussing an incident between him and Max Verstappen. This interview resurfaced on social media in 2022 and caused the F1 to condemn him.
He has since apologized, claiming his use of the term was not racist, but he had already made homophobic remarks about Hamilton in the past.
This year, he got criticized again for his political views and for supporting Bolsonaro during the presidential elections in Brazil.
The former Nickelodeon producer has had new allegations under his belt lately after he was let go from the network in 2018. He apparently insisted on hyper-sexualized content in his shows. To some, he created uncomfortable work environments and traumatized some actors who worked with him.
The actor was arrested twice in Hawaii this year. The first time was on March 28 for allegedly fighting with patrons. Ezra Miller, who is non-binary, was subsequently charged for disorderly conduct.
Their second arrest was on April 19 after allegedly throwing a chair and injuring a woman in the process. Their controversial relationship with 18-year-old activist Tokota Iron Eyes is also making headlines, which could definitely lead to a fall from grace for Ezra Miller.