These are seven of the sexual scandals that have shaken different public figures in five countries -- four are very recent, while the other three made a lot of noise at the time.
Gabriel Boric - Chile
On the night of Monday, November 25, a complaint of sexual harassment was made against President Gabriel Boric. The details were revealed by lawyer Jonatan Valenzuela through a statement, indicating that "between July 2013 and July 2014, my client Gabriel Boric Font was the victim of systematic harassment via email by an adult woman he met in the context of his professional practice in Punta Arenas."
On the occasion, as indicated by the lawyer, "25 emails were sent from different email addresses by the same person, including in one of them the unsolicited and unauthorized sending of explicit images. Ten years later, the sender of the emails filed a baseless complaint against then President Gabriel Boric on September 6, 2024."
Matt Gaetz - United States
Last week, former Florida representative Matt Gaetz declined his nomination as Secretary of Justice.
"I had excellent meetings with the senators. I appreciate their thoughtful comments and the incredible support from so many. Although the momentum was strong, it was clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction from the critical work of the Trump-Vance Transition," Gaetz wrote in X.
The Democrats were pushing for the release of a report from the House Ethics Committee detailing its investigation into Gaetz, including allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct and other alleged crimes, after the panel's Republicans voted not to make the investigation results public.
Gaetz has denied the allegations being investigated by the Department of Justice and the committee, including the claim that he had sexual relations with a woman in 2017 when she was underage.
Marius Borg Høiby - Norway
The son of Mette-Marit of Norway, heir to the throne of her country, appeared before a district court in Oslo on November 20th after Norwegian police arrested him in a rape case that is still under investigation.
After spending two nights at the central police station in the Grønland neighborhood, his appearance before the judge was held behind closed doors by the court's decision. Subsequently, the Norwegian Justice decreed preventive detention with a ban on visits for the firstborn son of Mette-Marit of Norway, after authorities announced that he is being investigated for allegedly committing a second rape against another woman.
The court has determined that Høiby, 27 years old, will remain in pre-trial detention for one week after the Norwegian Police requested that he be held in custody for at least two weeks.
Police lawyer Andreas Kruszewski informed that Høiby, who has denied the allegations, is also being investigated for a second rape after having had sexual relations with a woman without her consent, as reported by the public broadcasting corporation NRK.
The son of the future queen of Norway faces charges for allegedly taking advantage of a person who is unconscious or unable to resist for sexual purposes, as well as for violating a restraining order and driving without the proper license.
Prince Andrew - United Kingdom
In 2022, Prince Andrew, brother of King Charles III, reached a settlement in the civil lawsuit for sexual assault filed against him in the United States, as shown in court documents.
Virginia Giuffre accused the Duke of York of sexually assaulting her on three occasions when she was 17 years old, an accusation he has vehemently denied.
A letter filed before a U.S. district court at the time indicated that the Duke and Giuffre had reached an out-of-court settlement. The Duke's representatives stated that he had no further comments beyond the statement made in court.
Under the agreed terms, of which details were not disclosed, the prince will make a "substantial donation to Mrs. Giuffre's charity organization".
Manuel Monsalve - Chile
Last week, Chilean judge Mario Cayul ordered pretrial detention for Manuel Monsalve, former Undersecretary of the Interior in President Gabriel Boric's government, for rape and sexual abuse of an advisor. He also set a four-month deadline for the investigation.
The investigation will go through crucial episodes, including the moment when the 59-year-old doctor and former member of the Socialist Party gives his statement to prosecutor Xavier Armendáriz, the collection of new testimonies from witnesses, and psychological evaluations of the victim to assess the damage.
Formalization is the first stage of the case and involves the Prosecutor's Office informing Monsalve, who was in charge of public security in the Boric Administration until October 17th, that there is an investigation against him.
Donald Trump - United States
At the end of January, a jury found former President Donald Trump guilty in the defamation trial initiated last year by writer E. Jean Carroll.
The decision in a New York court also ordered Trump to pay Carroll a total of $83.3 million in compensation and punitive damages for the columnist.
Trump, who rejected the accusation from the beginning, was not present when the jury delivered its verdict.
Carroll sued Trump in civil court, who will once again be the President of the United States, accusing him of rape for an attack that occurred in the 1990s inside a luxury department store in New York.
A jury found the former president guilty and ordered him to pay the writer $5 million dollars in damages. However, Trump was also sued for defamation after he accused her of lying when she first made her allegations public in 2019.
Silvio Berlusconi - Italy
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was found guilty in a trial for child prostitution and sexual services in exchange for money, being sentenced to seven years in prison on June 24, 2013. He was also banned from holding public office again.
At one point, Berlusconi was accused of paying a 17-year-old Moroccan girl named “Ruby Heartbreaker”, whose real name is Karima el-Mahroug, in exchange for sex. The 74-year-old billionaire initially dismissed the accusations as “baseless”. He passed away in 2023 at the age of 86.