5 celebrities who were kidnapped that you probably never knew about
Warning: This article contains discussion of rape which some readers may find distressing.
There have been several celebrities who have been kidnapped in their lives - some of whom you might not have known had experienced such a horrifying ordeal.
There's been a few instances where people have attempted to put a famous person, as well as countless others, in danger.
Last year, police arrested two suspects who was allegedly planning to stage attacks across major events in Austria, including at a concert for Taylor Swift's Era's Tour.
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And Pamela Anderson once recalled how a man mistook her for another celebrity while on a plane and attacked her, leaving her 'scared to fly after that'.
Five celebrities have experienced the horror of being held hostage and some have opened up on how the event has affected them.
Duffy
Welsh soul and pop singer, Duffy, seemingly dropped off the face of the earth after she won a Grammy for her album 'Rockferry' in 2008.
A decade later, she revealed why, writing on her website in 2020 that she had been held in captivity by an unknown person after being drugged at restaurant where she had been celebrating her birthday.
The 40-year-old said that she had been 'raped and drugged and held hostage over some weeks' and had took a step back out of the spotlight to recover.
She wrote: "I was drugged at a restaurant, I was drugged then for four weeks and travelled to a foreign country. I was put into a hotel room and the perpetrator returned and raped me."
Following her horrific ordeal, Duffy said she 'moved five times in the immediate three years after' before she began to 'feel safe'.
The singer said she then spent 'almost 10 years completely alone' and celebrated being able to 'leave this decade behind' before adding: "I very much doubt I will ever be the person people once knew."
Jessica Alba
The 43-year-old American actor and businesswoman kickstarted her career at the young age of 13 in Camp Nowhere, followed by The Secret World of Alex Mack in 1994.
Yet when she was just 15, she was blindfolded, gagged and shoved in the trunk of a car, according to reports at the time.
Alba was starring in the TV series Flipper when she reportedly began receiving strange phone calls on set and was found in the boot 14 hours later, bound and gagged.
The Golden Globe nominee has never spoken out publicly about her ordeal, according to Far Out Magazine, and the case was reportedly dropped due to a lack of information.
Kim Kardashian
In 2016, Kim Kardashian was subjected to a horrifying robbery while attending Paris Fashion Week in 2016.
The 44-year-old was robbed at gunpoint in the apartment after five people, dressed in police uniforms, bound and gagged her with duct tape before making off with $10 million worth of her jewellery, including her engagement ring to her now ex-husband, Kanye West, and two diamond Cartier bracelets and a gold Rolex.
In an interview with David Letterman in 2020 (via ABC News), the reality TV star opened up about the horrific experience, saying: "He grabbed me and pulled me towards him but I wasn't wearing anything underneath. So I was like, 'OK, this is the time I'm going to get raped. Just deal, it's gonna happen. Just prepare yourself.' So I did... But then he tied me up with handcuffs and zip ties and duct tape."
She continued: "I'm like, 'What is happening? Are we gonna die? Just tell them I have children. I have babies. I have a husband. I have a family. Like, I have to get home. Tell them, 'Take anything'."
Yunis Abbas and 11 other people were arrested in connection with the robbery. Abbias was sentenced to 22 months behind bars before being granted early release due to health reasons, BuzzFeed News reports.
Benedict Cumberbatch
The Doctor Strange star said that he was once held at gunpoint with two co-stars during a carjacking in South Africa in 2005.
The 48-year-old said the trio were working on the BBC historical drama miniseries, To The Ends of the Earth, when their car tyre burst and a group of locals held them at gunpoint for two and a half hours.
The group reportedly drove them into a different territory and set them free after making off with their bank cards and money, but it has had a lasting impact on the star.
Speaking about his ordeal to Marc Maron on his WTF Podcast, Benedict recalled: "I was then put into the boot of the car and at one point my shoelaces were bound to my wrists."
Cumberbatch also opened up about how the kidnapping had affected him, telling Variety this year: "It gave me a sense of time, but not necessarily a good one. It made me impatient to live a life less ordinary, and I’m still dealing with that impatience."
Justin Long
The actor who shot to Hollywood fame for his roles in Galaxy Quest, Jeepers Creepers and Dodgeball, amongst several others, revealed he was drugged and kidnapped in 2008.
Speaking on an episode of the Armchair Expert podcast with Dax Shepard in 2019, Justin said the incident happened while filming Youth in Revolt in Michigan (via South China Morning Post).
He claimed that two men had approached him and others working on the film in a bar and asked if they wanted to go with them to a casino.
Justin said that he was convinced to smoke cannabis, which the actor since believes may have contained the hallucinogenic drug PCP.
They also reportedly threatened to sell footage of him high on drugs to TMZ - so Justin jumped out of the car, injuring his leg, but didn't report the incident to police.
Topics: Hollywood, Crime, Music, Film and TV, US News, UK News, Podcast, Kim Kardashian
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