When Hugh Grant Was Caught With A Sex Worker
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s DepartmentHugh Grant’s arrest for “lewd conduct” with a sex worker was a huge scandal of the 1990s.
In 1995, Hugh Grant was one of the biggest movie stars in the world. He’d recently starred in the smash hit Four Weddings and a Funeral and was preparing to release a new film, Nine Months. Then, on June 27, 1995, Grant was caught with a sex worker near Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Grant’s abashed mugshot appeared in newspapers around the world, but the actor was ultimately able to handle the storm of the scandal. Instead of hiding out or issuing denials, Grant apologized, continued with his publicity tour for Nine Months, and owned up to his actions.
Just 11 days after his arrest, Grant appeared on The Tonight Show, and Jay Leno famously asked Grant: “What the hell were you thinking?”
YouTubeInstead of hiding from the scandal, Hugh Grant faced it head on.
Grant replied, “People have given me tons of ideas on this one, from ‘I was under a lot of pressure, I was lonely, I fell down the stairs when I was a kid’… but I think it would just be bollocks to say anything like that.”
He then owned up to what he had done: “You know in life what’s a good thing to do and a bad thing to do. I did a bad thing.”
Grant repeated the apology on a number of other talk shows — which had been pre-booked for Nine Months — and ultimately emerged from the scandal relatively unscathed. Some of his biggest movies came after his arrest, including Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and Love Actually.
Things also turned out fairly well for the sex worker, Estella Marie Thompson (also known as Divine Brown). She earned enough money from speaking to the press about the scandal after her arrest that she was able to get off the streets — and even sent her children to private school.
