24 Internet Rumors That Turned Out To Be Real

In a post-truth world, rumors are rampant. The number of daily online revelations must be overwhelming, though most people seem to take them in for a short while before they are dispelled. However, many famous rumors came true, especially online rumors. There is a vacuum now where truth once sat, and a shining rumor mill is in its place.

1. The Government Data Gathering Rumors

Internet boards had been plastered for years with rumors about our governments spying on us. While most people didn’t consider this news, others would become more agitated, eventually becoming ridiculed. However, in 2014, Edward Snowden threw a grenade into the system, leaking confidential files on how the National Security Agency (NSA) had been not only spying on citizens but keeping their data on record.

2. Bruce Willis’ Cognitive Decline

Milwaukee professional movie nerd, YouTubers Red Letter Media, released an episode in 2022 labeled “The Bruce Willis Fake Movie Factory.” In this episode, they posit the theory that Bruce Willis had appeared in a series of fake movies in which he has a less-than-influential role, released for financial benefit. Sadly, they were right when Willis announced later that year he had aphasia, a form of vocal impairment linked to dementia.

3. The U.S. Soccer Team Scandal

The U.S. international men’s soccer team captured the world’s imagination when they hosted the 1994 World Cup for the first time. Four years later, national team captain John Harkes was cut from the squad on the eve of the 1998 France World Cup. Rumors were rife that Harkes had an affair with Eric Wynalda’s wife, though the coach claimed it was a tactical omission. Only in a 2010 interview did Wynalda confirm the story.

4. Rob Ford’s Substance Abuse

The former mayor of Toronto never shied from controversy during his long political career, culminating as mayor of Toronto. Whether it was domestic disturbances, off-color remarks about certain demographic groups, or publicly drunken behavior, nothing tarnished his reputation like the allegations of narcotic abuse. In 2013, rumors of his banned substance abuse grew after an alleged photo surfaced showing the major indulging. After denying the accusations for a while, Ford checked himself into a rehabilitation clinic for a two-month political hiatus a year later.

5. Tim Burton’s Fake Hansel and Gretel Movie

Tim Burton’s relationship with Disney is well documented. The director’s years working in Burbank as an unhappy Disney animator are well known. However, less well known is a short Hansel and Gretel TV movie he made, released on Halloween 1983, alongside his more familiar short, Vincent. The movie was so out there that Disney never showed it again for fear of damage to its reputation. Rumors grew that the film was fake, but after many years of gossip, the Museum of Moving Arts (MOMA) discovered the tape in 2009 to verify its plausibility.

6. The Interview Movie

When Sony Pictures announced the release of the slacker comedy The Interview in 2014, the company’s world turned upside down. International hacking group, “Guardians of Peace”, claimed to have hacked Sony’s system, releasing staff members’ personal information, company plans, and sensitive emails. While conspiracists cried foul play and charged that it was a publicity stunt, even Hollywood admitted it wasn’t that brave with marketing. Subsequently, many staff members had to install identity theft tracking devices into their lives.

7. The Super Mario Flagpole

Technically, it was not initially an Internet rumor, but how many Gen-Xers and older Millennials heard the rumor that jumping a flagpole in Super Mario Bros. was possible? Kids in the ’80s decided it wasn’t possible, though, after decades of trial and error, some savvy gamers discovered the hack. The rumor would have ended much quicker if internet gaming sites had been a thing in the ’80s.

8. Ricky Martin’s Personal Preferences

When a publicist fights hard to disprove rumors about their multi-platinum-selling artist being gay, it usually means there is something to the story. Ricky Martin‘s musical success was based on a starkly masculine appearance and persona, so one can imagine why his publicists wanted to hide the truth. However, in 2011, Martin’s memoirs turned the rumor into reality.

9. The Atari Desert Burying Rumor

In 1983, there were rumors in the fledgling video gaming world that Atari had buried thousands of copies of the video game E.T. Due to the game’s terrible reviews of its poor playability and graphics, it left Atari with thousands of unsold copies. Then, in 2014, after some sleuth work by a gaming enthusiast, a landfill in Alamogordo was excavated to reveal the rumors were true. Ironically, 900 cartridges sold for $108,000 at auction a year later.

10. Judas Priest’s Personal Life

Like with Ricky Martin, some recording artists were reluctant to share their love life details with the public, as it might have affected their sales. Rumors about Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford being gay became popular in the ’90s. Fast-forward to the modern day, and Priest is proud of his orientation. Who would have guessed a man who enjoyed cavorting onstage in black leather chaps and a biker’s hat might be gay?

11. The John Edwards Rumors

In 2007, the National Enquirer printed a story about presidential Democrat hopeful John Edwards, claiming he had an affair with a small-time filmmaker who had become pregnant during the ordeal. In 2008, Edwards went from debunking the affair to admitting it but denying he had fathered the child. Within two years, he had come clean. What’s worse is his wife, Elizabeth, had been undergoing treatment for inoperable cancer, dying two years later.

12. The Jimmy Savile Scandal

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) presenter Jimmy Savile was one of the country’s most famous people. He became a DJ in the ’70s before launching a successful television career. Sometime in the ’70s, punk rock singer Johnny Rotten called Savile out in a BBC interview, claiming he was a predator the BBC was protecting. The interview never aired, and forty years later, Savile’s many victims came forward- sadly, it was after his death.

13. The Harvey Weinstein Rumors

Former Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein’s name is synonymous with both award-winning movies and abuse toward women. The latter was just a rumor for a long time, and his days of misogyny finally caught up with him in 2020. However, Courtney Love alluded to this with an off-the-cuff remark in a 2005 red-carpet interview, telling young girls, “If Harvey Weinstein invites you to a private party at the Four Seasons, don’t go.”

14. Lost Was Mostly Unplanned

Lost became a cultural phenomenon when it aired in 2004, running for six seasons before signing off with its controversial finale. A fan-based rumor midway through the show suggested the show’s writers had no idea what they were doing and had no plan for ending each show or season. Five years after the show ended, an unnamed Lost writer conceded to Prison Break writer Nick Santora that this was the case.

15. The Caitlyn Jenner Rumors

Before birth, Caitlyn Jenner was better known as Bruce Jenner, a former Olympic legend more famous as stepfather to the Kardashian tribe. For many years, the Internet was rife with suggestions that Jenner secretly wanted to become a woman. Fast forward to 2015; Bruce Jenner was no more, and Caitlyn Jenner took his place, winning Glamour Magazine’s Woman of the Year award.

16. Joaquin Phoenix’s Phony Rap Career

Just as the Internet was heating up as an international digital rumor mill, in 2010, Joaquin Phoenix used the web’s viral nature to promote the idea he was embarking on a solo hip-hop career. Such was the star’s enigma that many believed him. However, Internet circles talked about it being a mockumentary plug for a movie, which Phoenix confirmed shortly after.

17. Wholesome Ned’s Transgressions

Rumors were circulating about YouTuber and Try Guys member Ned Fulmer’s extramarital activities before he admitted to his eight-year affair with a production team member. What made this rumor hard to believe was Ned’s squeaky-clean, family-oriented, Christian persona. However, in 2022, the group removed their co-founding member from the channel when the rumors proved to be facts.

18. Hilaria Baldwin

Recently, Alec Baldwin’s wife, Hillary, had to admit that her claims of being a poor Spanish immigrant were not valid — though her admission wasn’t frank in itself. However, for a while, there were already whispers in online chat rooms that she was faking her accent, her publicized ignorance of the English word for cucumber, and her entire back story. Hilaria Baldwin was born in Boston as Hillary Lynn Hayward-Thomas, and while she spent summers in Spain, she is no Spanish peasant. Her family is wealthy, and she attended expensive private schools throughout her childhood.

19. R. Kelly’s Dark Side

Was this ever a rumor? When rumors grow into open secrets, it usually means they are true, as R. Kelly found out. Maybe R. Kelly’s former underage crush, the late R&B singer Aaliyah’s song title, “Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number,” should have rung some alarm bells. There are also countless anecdotes about his conduct around attractive, underage fans. Thankfully for everyone, R. Kelly is now serving a 20-year jail sentence.

20. The Ted Cruz Cancun Rumors

In the years following his humiliation of Donald Trump, Senator Ted Cruz has acquired fans on the right of politics for his Senate hearing appearances, cross-examining judicial nominees, and poignant oratory. However, Cruz became the subject of a rumor that he had fled to Cancun on holiday during Texas’ winter storm power outages of 2021. Not long afterward, Cruz had to confess he had been to Mexico, though the alibi that he was playing chaperone to his daughter was ridiculed.

21. Ellen Degeneres’ Hostile Workplace

Ellen captured our minds first with the Ellen sitcom in the ’90s, which made her such a household name that she inevitably got her chat show. However, rumors of Ellen’s true backstage personality began to appear in online chatrooms many years before. However, in 2020, Ellen’s crew members began speaking up about Ellen’s toxic work environment.

22. C.M. Punk’s Return to WWE

In 2021, veteran World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) pro wrestler, actor, and mixed martial arts fighter C.M. Punk made a return to wrestling when he signed a deal for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) before a controversial backstage confrontation with fellow wrestler Jake Perry led to his termination in August 2023. Subsequently, rumors of a return to WWE began growing before finally, four months later, Punk signed for WWE, much to the shock of wrestling fans everywhere.

23. The Tide Pod Challenge Rumor

Teenagers were rumored to have participated in the Tide Pod challenge in 2018, which sparked outrage among parents fearful for their kids. It turned out that it initially started as a joke, and nobody had been eating them all along. However, this message never reached some individuals who suffered grave consequences for swallowing the colorful tablet.

24. Roe vs. Wade

Rumors about the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, returning the reproductive rights question over to the state legislatures. Before it happened, people on the left side of the aisle had been discussing the possibility for a while, fearful that a Conservative-majority Supreme Court would revisit the old law. However, years before the current Supreme Court was established, rumors of them revisiting the law had been in the air.