Famed American magician David Copperfield has been accused by 16 women of sexual assault and inappropriate behavior, according to a Guardian investigation in the US.
More than half of the allegations were from women who said they were under 18 at the time of the incidents. Some said they were 15 years old, although he may not know their ages.
The charges against him include allegations that he drugged three women before having sex with them, which they believed they could not consent to.
The allegations against the 67-year-old illusionist, which he has denied, date from the late 1980s to 2014.
The Guardian US is investigating these claims as part of a series of stories based on interviews with more than 100 people and court and police records.
The women who have made accusations about Copperfield’s behavior met him through his work as one of the world’s most successful entertainers.
Some of the women told the Guardian that it was only after the #MeToo movement that they felt able to speak out about their alleged experiences with Copperfield.
Asked about the allegations, Copperfield denied any wrongdoing.
His lawyers told the Guardian that he had “never behaved inappropriately with anyone, let alone a minor”. They said a “true” portrayal of Copperfield would describe his “kindness, shyness and respect for men and women”.
They said Copperfield is a champion of the #MeToo movement, which encourages women to come forward and tell their stories of alleged abuse.
They also said “numerous false allegations” had previously been made against him.
Copperfield has been accused of misconduct in the past. One of the 16 women, Britney Lewis, went public in 2018 with allegations that he drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1988 when she was a 17-year-old model. Copperfield denied the allegations, which were published in The Wrapa digital news channel that covers media and entertainment.
Another woman told the Guardian she had a similar experience, claiming that she and a friend had been drugged and that they were both unable to consent before he had sex with each of them.
“I … would never have said that to someone out of the blue if I didn’t really, honestly believe that I was on drugs at the time,” said Jillian*, who said she agreed to meet Copperfield for a drink in 1993, after one of his shows.
Lawyers for Copperfield denied Jillian’s allegations and said no similar claims or complaints had been made against him at the venues he was performing at the time. The lawyers also said that drugs were “not part of his world”.
In four other cases, women alleged that Copperfield groped or sexually assaulted them during live performances on stage. Three were teenagers at the time of the alleged incidents. Family members of a 15-year-old girl who were sitting in the audience claimed they saw him groping her breasts.
Lawyers for Copperfield said claims that Copperfield touched women inappropriately were “not only completely false, but completely implausible”.
Fallon Thornton, 38, told the Guardian that Copperfield grabbed her breasts after calling her on stage during a performance in January 2014 at the MGM Grand casino hotel. She reported the allegation to MGM and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, records show, but Thornton felt her claim was never taken seriously. Las Vegas police told the Guardian they closed the case due to “insufficient evidence”.
Copperfield’s lawyers also claim that law enforcement at the time told Copperfield’s team that video footage from the performance Thornton attended did not show him touching the “chest area” of any contestant. Neither Copperfield’s lawyers, Las Vegas police nor MGM shared footage of the performance with the Guardian, despite requests.
MGM, the entertainment and gaming conglomerate where Copperfield has performed regularly since 2000, declined to comment on the alleged 2014 incident or other allegations against Copperfield.
The Guardian’s investigation highlighted common themes among the allegations: several women said Copperfield had promised them help with their careers in modeling or the entertainment industry, and that he had tried to keep in touch with them and their parents.
One woman, Carla*, claims that after meeting Copperfield at one of his shows in 1991, when she was 15, he began calling her late at night. She said she now feels “prepared.” She said he sends her gifts and tickets to his shows. After she turned 18, she said they had consensual sex. She said it was her first time.
Copperfield’s lawyers did not dispute that the magician knew the teenager and said they had a perfectly legal and consensual relationship that lasted four years. Lawyers said he “vehemently denies any suggestion of grooming or any other misconduct.”
Separately, Copperfield has come under scrutiny for his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the accused child sex trafficker who killed himself in prison in 2019.
Copperfield was among the high-profile figures named in Epstein-related court documents that were unsealed in January. The inclusion of Copperfield’s name does not mean that he committed a crime. According to one affidavit, Copperfield asked a woman — who it later emerged was one of Epstein’s victims — if she was “aware that girls were being paid to find other girls” for Epstein.
His lawyers told the Guardian Copperfield had heard a “rumour” about it but had no “knowledge or belief that anything wrong was going on”. His lawyers also said he saw “no reason to contact law enforcement or raise the matter with others” after the woman he asked raised no concerns. Epstein, the lawyers said, was not someone with whom Copperfield regularly interacted.
“Our client was unaware of Epstein’s horrific crimes,” his lawyers said. “Like the rest of the world, he learned about it from the press.”
The illusionist announced with fanfare in October 2023 that he was teaming up with global charity Save the Children for an elaborate stunt planned for February 2024 that would make the moon “disappear”.
The partnership was announced on NBC’s Today Show and Save the Children issued a press release welcoming their collaboration, saying that “Copperfield’s message of positivity and passion for helping children around the world are a perfect complement to the hard work we do every day.”
But the illusion did not happen in February as planned. Save the Children, which removed its message from its website, confirmed to the Guardian that its partnership with Copperfield ended on January 4, 2024. That was one day after Copperfield’s name was mentioned in unsealed court records related to Epstein. Save the Children declined to comment on whether the publication of the Epstein papers was behind their decision to end the partnership.
On his Instagram account, Copperfield posted on February 29 that he would still make the moon disappear. “Some cool new developments are taking extra time.”
Lawyers for Copperfield said he took the “baseless attacks” on his reputation very seriously and that he hoped his partnership with Save the Children would continue again in the future.
His lawyers added that their client had never been charged with a crime.
