Johnson & Johnson has offered $5.5 billion to settle nearly all remaining lawsuits linking its talc-based products to ovarian cancer, aiming to close a legal fight that has run for more than a decade. Separately, actor and musician Jared Leto is facing fresh sexual misconduct allegations from four women, made public through a new BBC documentary, adding to earlier accusations reported last year.
Johnson & Johnson Offers $5.5 Billion to End Talc Lawsuits
Johnson & Johnson has proposed a $5.5 billion settlement to close out tens of thousands of lawsuits claiming that its talc-based products, including its once-popular baby powder, caused ovarian cancer in women who used them. The pharmaceutical giant said the deal covers about 76,000 claims, representing nearly all remaining talc-related lawsuits, including cases combined in federal court in New Jersey and related cases in state courts.
The settlement comes after a rocky legal road. A bankruptcy court judge had earlier rejected a much larger $9 billion settlement plan put forward by a J&J subsidiary, which would have ranked among the biggest mass tort settlements ever. Rather than appeal that decision, the company chose to keep fighting the cases in open court.
For the deal to go through, at least 95% of the law firms representing the plaintiffs must agree to it. Payments will roll out over time — Johnson & Johnson plans an initial payment of no more than $3 billion next year, with no further payments due until 2028.
Importantly, Johnson & Johnson continues to deny that its talc products ever caused cancer, though it stopped selling talc-based baby powder in the United States and Canada back in 2020. The company has framed the settlement as a way to move forward. A company litigation executive said that while J&J remains confident it would have ultimately won further litigation, this resolution lets the company put the matter behind it and stay focused on its healthcare mission.
This settlement, if finalized, would close one of the longest-running product liability battles in U.S. corporate history — one that has shadowed J&J’s reputation for well over ten years.
Jared Leto Accused by Four More Women in New BBC Documentary
On the entertainment side, actor and Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman Jared Leto is facing a fresh wave of serious allegations. Four women have come forward with new claims of sexual misconduct against Leto as part of a BBC documentary titled “Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret.” In total, ten women — some of whom say they were teenagers at the time — make allegations against the actor and musician in the documentary.
According to reporting on the documentary, the alleged incidents took place between 2002 and 2016, when Leto was in his thirties and forties; he is now 54. One woman alleges Leto assaulted her in a motel bathroom when she was 17, while another claims he threatened her with sexual assault when she was 19 and had been left alone with him in a hotel room. A further account describes an alleged encounter in California when a woman was 17, which would qualify as statutory rape under state law, along with a claim of grooming through explicit phone calls made to a 16-year-old.
The BBC noted that Jared Leto had not responded to the allegations put to him for the documentary. This isn’t the first time such claims have surfaced — an earlier report published in June had already detailed accusations from nine women, some alleging misconduct while they were underage, which a representative for Leto denied on his behalf at the time.
The new allegations have reignited public conversation around accountability in Hollywood and are drawing wide media attention as more details continue to emerge.
Why These Stories Matter
Both stories, though from very different worlds, highlight the growing pressure on powerful individuals and corporations to answer for decades-old conduct. J&J’s settlement shows how sustained legal pressure can eventually force even the largest companies to the negotiating table, while the allegations against Leto reflect the continuing reckoning within the entertainment industry over abuse of power and consent. Readers should note that the allegations against Jared Leto remain unproven claims at this stage, and no criminal charges have been confirmed as of this report.
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