Armie Hammer has stepped away from his upcoming movies and mostly stayed out of the spotlight since allegations he sent sexually explicit text messages expressing cannibalistic desires first went public, but in the weeks since, more details about his personal life and his alleged communications with women have gone public. The latest allegation is that he reportedly sent his now estranged wife Elizabeth Chambers explicit text messages that were actually intended for someone else.
The story is referenced in a sprawling profile of the entire scandal from Vanity Fair that touches on not only Armie Hammer’s recent problems but also his family’s various scandals and tragedies. They stretch back generations and include murder accusations, Communist ties to the Soviet Union, numerous affairs and claims of sexual misconduct, all behind a backdrop of the Hammer family business empire. It’s a lot and the latest chapter is very interlinked with Covid.
No one involved spoke to this on the record, but the story recounted about the end of Hammer and Chambers’ marriage involves a trip to the Cayman Islands. The couple was reportedly there alongside his father and step-mother and their children when Covid struck. Because of quarantining, the trip reportedly stretched on for way longer than expected. By the Summer, he reportedly couldn’t take it anymore and booked a trip back to the United States without his family, which was allegedly a major blow to his marriage that was already straining amidst therapy and allegations of infidelity including with one of his unnamed co-stars. After he landed, he allegedly sent Chambers sexually explicit text messages that were intended for another. She reportedly filed for divorce not long after.
At the time, the divorce filing wasn’t looked at too closely. Couples in Hollywood get divorced all the time, and it rarely affects anyone’s career. Earlier this year, however, text messages Hammer reportedly sent to several women started appearing on social media. They were extremely explicit and talked of rape fantasies, branding and cannibalism. One alleged message reportedly said he wanted to put an unidentified woman into a “vegetative state” and “keep fucking” her until she was “sore and broken.” Hammer’s attorney later released a statement saying these relationships were consensual. He dropped out of his upcoming film and tv projects and has mostly stayed out of the public eye in the time since, and Chambers released a statement saying she was "heartbroken" about the allegations.
It’s unclear where exactly Armie Hammer will go from here or how he’ll co-parent with his estranged wife as they work their way through divorce proceedings. He’s reportedly been back to the Cayman Islands to see his kids and is saying that’s his primary focus for the time being. He still has several movies left to be released that he shot prior to the scandal including Death On The Nile, the latest Agatha Christie adaptation. It’s scheduled to be released in September.
