It’s been a big year for celebrity arrests, and all of them were endlessly talked about on social media. Some of them were very serious indeed, while others led to months of memes and mockery. So, here are the five most explosive celebrity arrests of 2024.
Sean “Diddy” Combs
The man known as P Diddy was arrested this year, and it was a deeply serious list of crimes he was alleged to have committed. In September 2024, after a litany of lawsuits and allegations against him, plus a raid on his home looking for evidence of human trafficking, Combs was arrested and charged with sex trafficking and racketeering. More and more allegations have come out since then and they’re all extremely distressing. One lawsuit accuses prominent rapper Jay Z of raping a 13-year-old along with Combs, which Jay Z vehemently denies.
The entertainment industry is currently removing all traces of Combs, who was a huge star before. Kesha even changed the lyrics in her hit song “Tik Tok” from “wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy” to “wake up in the morning feeling like just me.” His music is no longer played on a lot of radio stations, and the projects he had in development before the arrest have been dropped. The whole incident has been a huge shock for the industry and the ramifications are likely to last a very long time.
Justin Timberlake
Driving under the influence is not funny, but the situation with Justin Timberlake did lead to some very funny memes. He was arrested for DUI in June 2024 and refused to take a breathalyzer test. But the kicker came when the cop arresting him didn’t recognize him as the world-famous pop star. According to Page Six, Timberlake said, “This is going to ruin the tour,” the cop answered, “What tour?” and Timberlake said, “The world tour.” This was referring to his upcoming Forget Tomorrow World Tour, and Timberlake probably awoke the next morning wishing he could forget yesterday instead.
“This is going to ruin the tour” fast became a meme, and for a couple of weeks after the arrest, you couldn’t move an inch on social media without seeing it. People also delighted in the singer’s glassy-eyed mugshot. Timberlake ended up having to pay a fine and do 25 hours of community service, and he publicly stated he’d learned his lesson. “Even if you’ve had one drink, don’t get behind the wheel of a car,” he said to cameras after the sentencing.
Nicki Minaj
The Netherlands is generally viewed as being fairly chill about drugs, but Nicki Minaj discovered otherwise when she was arrested in Amsterdam while traveling for her Pink Friday 2 World Tour. She was found to be in possession of soft drugs and detained by officers, causing her to miss the next show she was set to perform: the Co-op Live arena in Manchester. She wasn’t able to talk to fans until the next day, after paying a fine, and she was not happy. “After sitting in a jail cell for 5-6 hours, my plane still didn’t take off for another 20 mins once I boarded,” she said, before indicating that the police had deliberately set out to stop her performing at the Manchester show.
“Please please please accept my deepest and most sincere apologies. They sure did know exactly how to hurt me today but this too, shall pass,” Minaj told her fans. They more than accepted her apology and showered her with love in the replies to her post. On the whole, social media seemed to have found the whole thing pretty entertaining.
Morgan Wallen
It’s safe to say Morgan Wallen is not a nice guy – remember his casual use of the n-word back in 2021? – and his 2024 arrest will do nothing to change anyone’s opinion of him. He got drunk and hurled a chair off the top of a rooftop bar, and while it luckily didn’t hit anybody, it did land next to two cops. Wallen was arrested and charged with three counts of felony reckless endangerment and one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
So, it didn’t look good for him. In December 2024, he pled guilty to two misdemeanor reckless endangerment charges, with two other charges being dismissed. Wallen was sentenced to 11 months and 29 days in jail but only had to serve seven days at a DUI education center, with the rest of his time being served under supervised probation. Wallen released a statement saying, “I’m not proud of my behavior, and I accept responsibility.” Things would have been very different, though, if the chair had hit someone.
Karen Huger
Real Housewives of Potomac star Karen Huger captured headlines in the last month of 2024. Her DUI arrest was actually in March when she crashed her car into a pole. At the time, Huger released a statement to TMZ saying she had merely been very upset when she crashed… but that wasn’t the case, she was really drunk. And just how drunk became clear with the release of the bodycam footage in December.
Huger’s DUI arrest might have gradually been forgotten, if not for the bizarre and outlandish statements she made to the arresting officers. In one, she referred to her RHOP nickname, saying, “They call me the Grand Dame. I don’t know what the f**k that’s about. Andy Cohen coined that,” She told the cops she hated them, demanded “Do you know who I am?” and finally, back at the police station, called herself, “Thomas Jefferson’s concubine.” It was not a good look. The aftermath all played out on RHOP, and finally on December 18 she was found guilty on all but one of six charges. Ouch.
Published: Dec 27, 2024 8:00 PM UTC