Photo: YouTube/ Painful Lessons
In 2021, Armie Hammer’s ex released concerning text messages from him, including ones that stated “I am 100% a cannibal” and “I want to eat you.”
In 2022, Discovery+ released a three-part series called House of Hammer that further exposed the disturbing texts and voice memos Armie sent exes Courtney Vucekovich and Julia Morrison.
He denied allegations of actually being a cannibal, but that was not enough to prevent his life and career from going into freefall. Now, the actor is speaking out to say he’s grateful his entire life imploded.
Armie gave an in-depth interview with Tyler Ramsey of The Painful Lessons Podcast, which you can watch in full below.
In the interview, Armie says he thought the accusations that he is a cannibal “hilarious” and was initially resentful of the backlash he received.
It should be noted that even if he isn’t a cannibal, the text messages and voice notes revealed that he engaged in abusive behavior.
LAPD released a statement in 2023 explaining why they did not charge him with a crime:
“Sexual assault cases are often difficult to prove, which is why we assign our most experienced prosecutors to review them. In this case, those prosecutors conducted an extremely thorough review, but determined that at this time, there is insufficient evidence to charge Mr. Hammer with a crime.”
Armie says he experienced both “ego death” and “career death” and hit rock bottom before he realized his life was actually better after his downfall.
“I’m now at a place in my life where I’m really grateful for every single bit of it, because where I was in my life before all of that stuff happened to me I didn’t feel good,” Armie said on the podcast. “I never was in a place where I was happy with myself, where I had self-esteem; I never knew how to give myself love.”
He compared the allegations to a “neutron bomb that went off in my life,” after which he immediately lost jobs, career representation, and friends.
“It killed me. It killed my ego. It killed all the people around me that I thought were my friends that weren’t. All of those people in a flash went away, but the buildings were still standing. I’m still here. I still have my health, and I’m really grateful for that,” he explained.
Now his main focus is taking care of his two kids with ex-wife Elizabeth Chambers, who he divorced in 2020.
