David Copperfield accused of sexual misconduct

More than ten women have pressed charges

At least 16 women allege that illusionist and trickster David Copperfield "committed acts of a sexual nature" and misconduct towards them. The Guardian, whose journalists investigated the incidents, reported this.

According to the women, the illusionists sought to get intimate with them and even forced some of them to take drugs to prevent them from resisting.

According to the publication, the events reported by the victims took place between 1980 and 2014. Most of the girls were still minors at the time^[1].

A famous trickster was attracted to minors?

One of the illusionist's possible victims, Britne Lewis, publicly stated as early as 2018 that she had been drugged and raped by Copperfield in 1988. She said she was only 17 years old and working as a model at the time.

This statement was followed by another woman who claimed that the trickster had done this to her and her friend. According to the woman, she would never have spoken publicly about it if it had not been for the suspicion that she had been taken advantage of by drugging.

In other cases, women have said that a celebrity has picked on them and behaved inappropriately simply during performances. The parents of some of the 15-year-old victims also witnessed Copperfield's harassment^[2].

One of the women who took part in the trickster's performance later contacted the police, but her complaint was ignored, even though the scandalous performance was filmed. "The Guardian contacted law enforcement and the celebrity's lawyers to request the video but never received a response.

Instead, journalists found that the illusionist promised to help the girls in their modeling careers by proposing intimate relationships to them.

David Copperfield (born David Seth Kotkin, 16 September 1956) is an American illusionist, magician, and one of the best-known masters of illusions and storytelling. His most famous illusions include the "disappearance" of the Statue of Liberty in New York, "levitation" through the Grand Canyon and "crossing" the Great Wall of China.

David was born in Metuchen, New Jersey, into a family of Jews who emigrated from Russia. At the age of 12, he became interested in magic and became the youngest member of the American Magicians Association. At the age of 16, he taught a magic course to students at New York University. According to Forbes magazine, in 2003, David Copperfield had a fortune of 57 million US dollars, making him the world's highest-earning illusionist at the time.

The illusionist himself denies all allegations

In an interview with the publication, Copperfield, 67, rejected all the allegations made against him. His lawyers also clarified that the illusionist had never behaved inappropriately with anyone and had certainly not molested minors. The celebrity's defense team stressed that he had been accused of false accusations on several occasions and that drugs are not part of his world.

Some women admitted that they had decided to tell about Copperfield's alleged harassment when the MeToo movement against harassment and sexual violence swept the world.

It was also recalled that before the stories with women came to light, the illusionist was involved in the case of billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. The latter was accused of sexual slavery involving minors. At the time, Coperfield's name was mentioned in the documents, but his lawyers assured him that the performer did not know about the billionaire's crimes.

In 2024, a New York court made public hundreds of pages of the case file of Epstein, who committed suicide in prison in 2019. The documents included US presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Bruce Willis, Cameron Dias, Kevin Spacey, director George Lucas, model Naomi Campbell, singer Michael Jackson, Britain's Prince Andrew, illusionist D. Copperfield and many others.

However, The Independent stressed that mentioning these names does not mean they were involved in any crime.