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Armie Hammer wants to set the record straight about those cannibalism allegations.

In January 2021, several anonymous users shared alleged graphic DMs from the Call Me By Your Name actor that referenced sexual acts and other fantasies, including two that allegedly read, "I need to drink your blood," and "I am a 100% cannibal." The messages, whose authenticity has not been verified by E!, helped derail Hammer's acting career and preceded a two-year rape investigation, which ended with no charges filed.

"There were things that people were saying about me that just felt so outlandish," Hammer said on the June 16 episode of the Painful Lessons podcast. "That I was a cannibal."

The 37-year-old continued, "Now, I'm able to sort of look at it with a sense of distance and perspective and be like. 'That's hilarious.' People called me a cannibal and everyone believed them. They're like, 'Yep, that guy ate people.' You're just like, 'What? What are you talking about? Do you know what you have to do to be a cannibal? You have to eat people. How am I going to be a cannibal?' It was bizarre."

Nowadays, Hammer looks back at the turmoil with a feeling of gratitude. "Whatever it was that happened, I'm now at a place in my life where I'm grateful for every single bit of it," the Social Network star said on the podcast. "I'm actually now at a place where I'm really grateful for it, because where I was in my life before all of that stuff happened to me, I didn't feel good. I never felt satisfied I never had enough. I never was in a place where I was happy with myself, where I had self-esteem. I never knew how to give myself love."

These mark the most detailed comments Hammer has made about the cannibalism allegations. At the time the social media scandal broke out, in a statement to E! News, the actor slammed the "bulls--t claims" made against him while announced he would step down from his co-starring role opposite Jennifer Lopez in the movie Shotgun Wedding. He has not acted onscreen since the 2022 movie Death on the Nile, which he filmed in 2019.

"So everything in my life falls apart," Hammer recalled. "I lose all my representation. I lose all of my work. I lose everything right at the time I think this is the worst thing that's ever happened to me. But when I look at it now with a sense of perspective and albeit a much healthier perspective, I'm able to look at things, like, for the last couple years, I've taken my kids to school every single day. I've picked them up every single day from school. I drive them around. I take them to what they need to do and then I take them home to their mom."

Hammer shares two children with ex-wife Elizabeth Chambers. The two announced their breakup in 2020, months before the social media scandal and before a woman named Effie, represented by powerhouse attorney Gloria Allred, alleged at a March 2021 press conference that the actor raped her throughout an on-and-off four-year relationship, which she alleged took place while he was married.

The LAPD investigated her accusations and in May 2023, prosecutors ultimately determined there was insufficient evidence to charge Hammer with a crime.

The actor had months prior denied any criminal wrongdoing. In a 2023 Air Mail magazine interview, he admitted to being emotionally abusive toward former partners and recalled his own sexual trauma at age 13 at the hands of a youth pastor, which he said first spurred his interest in BDSM.

Also in 2023, Hammer spent time in a treatment program for drug, alcohol, and sex issues.

"It was a crisis, a spiritual crisis, an emotional crisis, and the way I saw it was, I have two options here. I can either let this destroy me or," Hammer said on the podcast, "I can use this as a lesson."

He continued, "It was awful and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy but for the people in my life that I truly love, I hope some version, preferably smaller than what I went through, would happen to them as well so they could learn everything that I've learned, and I feel great about it now."

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