From 2000 to 2015, Jared Fogle was Subway's most famous spokesperson — and a secret child predator committing horrific sex crimes.
Mariela Lombard/ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoJared Fogle was convicted of child sex tourism and possession of child pornography in 2015.
Known as the “Subway Guy,” Jared Fogle was the franchise’s best-known spokesman. He first became a household name across America after he claimed to have lost 245 pounds in less than a year by eating two Subway sandwiches per day. This endorsement was excellent PR for the sandwich brand, since its famous slogan “Eat Fresh” implied that it was a healthier alternative to other fast food restaurants.
Starting in 2000, the company hired Fogle for a few ads, which proved to be immensely popular. Before long, he was effectively the face of Subway. In all, Fogle starred in more than 300 Subway commercials and made countless other appearances in TV shows and public events. But years later, Fogle’s seemingly inspiring career came to a sudden, shocking end.
In 2015, it was revealed that Jared Fogle was a secret pedophile who traveled across state lines to abuse minors and regularly viewed child pornography. An FBI investigation revealed that he had been receiving child abuse images and videos from his friend and associate Russell Taylor. Furthermore, Fogle had also abused at least 14 minors.
Many were shocked when Fogle pled guilty to the charges against him. But not everyone was surprised. In fact, Fogle had been suspected of child abuse as early as 2007, when the FBI investigation began. Disturbingly, some allege that Subway executives were aware of the accusations against Fogle, but the company continued to work with him until they couldn’t.
Jared Fogle’s Weight Loss Journey Through The “Subway Diet”
Jared Scott Fogle was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on August 23, 1977 to Norman and Adrienne Fogle. It’s believed he had a relatively normal childhood. He graduated from North Central High School in 1995 before attending Indiana University as a business major.
It was there, in 1998, that Fogle took the first steps — quite literally — to national recognition. At the time, the 20-year-old weighed 425 pounds and struggled to walk across campus to his classes. Without any major lifestyle changes, Fogle realized that he was on his way to an early grave.
So, he decided to make a change. As he said in a 2013 interview with Men’s Health, he “lived ten steps away from a Subway restaurant,” and so he began eating two Subway sandwiches per day — one turkey, one veggie.
ZUMA Press Inc/Alamy Stock PhotoJared Fogle speaking to a classroom of children, showing the pants he used to wear when he was at his heaviest.
This, in addition to exercising more, led Fogle to lose 245 pounds in less than one year. The media first took notice after an article was written about Fogle for Indiana University’s newspaper, and he was later included in a 1999 Men’s Health article entitled “Stupid Diets That Work.”
That article caught the attention of the higher-ups at Subway, who had effectively just been handed the world’s easiest ad campaign.
Soon enough, they were reaching out to Fogle to appear in numerous commercials for the company, and as Men’s Health put it — unfortunately, in hindsight — Fogle was “to Subway what Ronald McDonald is to McDonald’s. He’s so closely associated with the franchise and its success that one can’t imagine Subway existing without him (or vice-versa).”
How Jared Fogle Became “Jared From Subway”
Subway’s campaign with Jared Fogle was so successful that over the course of 15 years, he made regular appearances in the company’s advertising — more than 300 total. He appeared at various events, representing the brand and posing for photographs with fans. The story of his weight loss journey clearly resonated with the millions of people hoping to slim down.
South Park even made an episode about Fogle, called “Jared Has Aides.”
Comedy CentralJared Fogle’s depiction in South Park.
To say that Fogle was well known is an understatement. At the height of his career, he was a bona fide celebrity. Seemingly everyone knew “Jared from Subway.” Although he was never an official employee of Subway, the company gave him a Subway Black Card, and he was making around $2 million per year as a representative and a motivational speaker.
As Fogle himself said in 2013, “Subway is the biggest franchise in the world now” — and his name was directly tied to it. For a time, this was a mutually beneficial arrangement. But everything would change in 2015.
The FBI Investigation Into The Subway Spokesman
It was a shock to many when, in 2015, the FBI released details of an investigation into Jared Fogle that revealed him to be a child predator. What is more surprising, though, is just how long he had been getting away with it.
It was a Florida journalist named Rochelle Herman who first alerted the FBI to Fogle’s disturbing behavior and perversions.
Herman met Fogle in 2006, when he was a guest on her radio show. Fogle was flirtatious, which made her uncomfortable, but her discomfort turned to alarm when he revealed “how hot he thought middle school girls were.”
Mariela Lombard/Zuma Press, Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoJared Fogle running alongside Meb Keflezighi, an Eritrean-born American long distance runner.
Determined to expose Fogle for what he really was, Herman formed a friendship with him. Meanwhile, she secretly recorded phone calls with Fogle, in which he would divulge more details about his attraction to minors, saying, “They just have such nice, pure bodies.” He also expressed a desire to be with children as young as nine years old.
In 2007, Herman presented her tapes to the FBI. Unfortunately, they told her that because she had recorded these conversations without Fogle’s knowledge, the evidence would be inadmissible in court. Additionally, authorities pointed out that having fantasies wasn’t illegal, so Herman needed to find out specific names of any victims that Fogle had abused and any specific places he’d gone to engage in illegal sex acts.
So, Herman became an informant for the FBI. But after years of having to keep in contact with Fogle, she grew frustrated. An attempt to lure Fogle to Florida for a fake children’s birthday party — a sting operation — fell through, and they were seemingly no closer to putting Fogle behind bars. Furthermore, Herman struggled mightily when Fogle made lewd comments about her own son and daughter, who were just 11 and 10 years old.
But then, a tip about Russell Taylor, the executive director of the Jared Foundation — Fogle’s nonprofit that was created to fight childhood obesity — gave investigators exactly what they needed to catch Fogle.
How Russell Taylor’s Arrest Led To Jared Fogle’s Shocking Downfall
In April 2015, Indiana State Police obtained a warrant to search the home of Russell Taylor after receiving a tip that he had sent images depicting bestiality. While possessing the pictures is not technically a crime, having sex with an animal is, and they had enough evidence to investigate Taylor for that. Instead, the police found something else disturbing.
In Taylor’s home, hidden cameras had been set up with the specific purpose of recording his stepdaughters, Showalter and Parrett, while they were naked or undressing. Taylor — and his ex-wife Angela Baldwin — had captured more than 500 explicit images of the young girls and their friends.
Police Photo/FacebookRussell Taylor and his ex-wife Angela Baldwin.
Before long, authorities discovered that Taylor had recently sent an image of a naked minor to Jared Fogle, then 37. In response, Fogle asked when he would be able to have sex with the child. It was soon discovered that Taylor had been supplying Fogle with child pornography for years.
This gave authorities enough evidence to raid Fogle’s home in Zionsville on July 7, 2015. Then, a picture of the real Jared Fogle began to appear.
As it turned out, Fogle had received over 400 child pornography videos and images from Taylor alone. He also spent about $12,000 per year on sex workers, at least some of whom were underage — and thus, victims of child sexual abuse. In a text message to an undisclosed recipient, Fogle wrote, “I’ll pay you big for a 14- or 15-year-old .. ’cause it’s what I crave!”
According to the FBI, Fogle was charged in August 2015 with distributing and receiving child pornography and traveling to engage in commercial sex acts with minors. Soon afterward, Fogle pled guilty to the charges against him, admitting to possessing child pornography and abusing 14 minors.
WENN Rights Ltd/Alamy Stock PhotoJared Fogle at an event with gold medalist Apolo Ohno and sportscaster Erin Andrews.
Fogle was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for his crimes. As for Taylor, he was sentenced to 27 years in prison in 2022 after pleading guilty to charges related to child pornography and sexual exploitation.
Taylor was initially sentenced in 2015 like Fogle, but that sentence was later thrown out once it was revealed that Taylor had received ineffective legal assistance. And Baldwin, Taylor’s ex-wife, was eventually sentenced to 33 years for her role in the crimes.
Since the controversy broke, many have wondered whether Subway executives knew about the horrific crimes before Fogle was arrested.
Did Subway Know About Jared Fogle?
Following Jared Fogle’s arrest, reports came out saying that a former Subway franchisee had claimed that Subway management knew Fogle was a pedophile long before he was charged with any crime.
According to the former franchisee, Cindy Mills, Fogle had spoken openly to her about his interest in children after meeting at a Subway event. Mills, who admitted to having an affair with Fogle, claimed that Fogle said he’d paid for sex with minors ranging from age 9 to 16 while on a trip to Thailand.
Allegedly, Fogle even asked Mills if she could set up a meeting between him and her underage cousin so that he could have sex with the minor.
Nancy Kaszerman/ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoJared Fogle allegedly confided in his mistress Cindy Mills about his interest in children.
Mills said she reported Fogle’s disturbing behavior to the head of the Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust, Jeff Moody, and two other executives. Mills claimed that the executives brushed off her concerns, and that it was also pointed out that Fogle was not technically an employee of Subway.
Subway said they had “no record of this allegation” and that Mills’ concerns were never brought up to the franchise’s management team.
As for Fogle, he currently remains in prison serving out his sentence, but he could be released as soon as 2029 — a year earlier than expected.
After reading about the downfall of Jared from Subway, learn about Peter Scully, the depraved pedophile who built a child porn empire on the internet. Then, learn about Jeff Doucet, the pedophile killed by his victim’s father.
