This post contains mentions of sexual and emotional abuse and may be triggering to some readers.

It was January 10 when Armie Hammer's name first began trending on Twitter. 

At the time, an Instagram account, House of Effie, shared screenshots of graphic messages alleged to have been sent from the actor's official Instagram account. 

In the alleged messages, which reportedly date back to 2016, Hammer spoke about drinking blood and described various graphic sex acts, which included   sexual references to cannibalism. 

Watch: Armie Hammer tells Conan O'Brien about his 2011 arrest. Post continues after video.

"I am 100 per cent a cannibal. I want to eat you," one message read.

"You just live to obey me and be my slave. I will own you," another said.

As the story continued to unfold, we woke up to new updates about Hammer almost every single day as multiple women came forward with disturbing allegations against the actor, including claims of inappropriate and nonconsensual behaviour and emotional abuse. 

In a statement to Variety at the time, Hammer said: "I’m not responding to these bulls**t claims but in light of the vicious and spurious online attacks against me, I cannot in good conscience now leave my children for four months to shoot a film in the Dominican Republic. Lionsgate is supporting me in this and I’m grateful to them for that."

The actor also exited a number of his upcoming roles, including his role alongside Jennifer Lopez in Shotgun Wedding.

But for a while, the Armie Hammer story seemed to disappear from the headlines.

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Now, two months after the story first broke, Vanity Fair have published an in-depth look at the 34-year-old's downfall.

The article, titled The Fall of Armie Hammer: A Family Saga of Sex, Money, Drugs, and Betrayal, features interviews with the actor's family, exes, and a number of anonymous sources.

Here are 11 things we learned from Vanity Fair's expose:

Hammer's marriage ended after he "fled" his family.

In July 2020, Armie Hammer and Elizabeth Chambers announced their separation after 10 years of marriage.

"Thirteen years as best friends, soulmates, partners and then parents," a joint statement on Instagram read. 

"It has been an incredible journey, but together, we’ve decided to turn the page and move on from our marriage. As we enter into this next chapter, our children and relationship as co-parents and dear friends will remain our priority."

Prior to their separation, Hammer had been living in a luxury villa in the Cayman Islands with Chambers and their two young children as well as his father, Michael, and his stepmother, Misty.

"It was a very complicated, intense situation, with big personalities all locked in a little tiny place," Hammer later told British GQ in September. 

"I don’t think I handled it very well. I think, to be quite frank, I came very close to completely losing my mind."

Elizabeth Chambers and Armie Hammer. Image: Getty. 

According to Vanity Fair, a source close to Chambers claimed that Hammer's decision to book a flight back to the United States to "escape" the Cayman Islands ultimately led Chambers to file for divorce.

Hammer had a history of infidelity.

Another element in the couple's divorce was Hammer's history of infidelity. 

When Hammer arrived in the US after fleeing the Cayman Islands, he mistakenly sent a "raunchy" text message meant for someone else to Chambers.

But that wasn't an isolated incident.

The actor reportedly "confessed to being unfaithful" shortly after his son's birth. A few years later, Chambers also discovered evidence that Hammer had had an affair with a co-star. 

While the couple had "expensive family therapy" after the incidents, Hammer's decision to leave his family in the Cayman Islands amid a global pandemic was the last straw.

The sordid history of the Hammer family.

The expansive piece delves into the sordid past of Armie Hammer's family.

Armie Hammer is the great-grandson of famed oil tycoon Armand Hammer, who had close ties to The Soviet Union. His grandfather, Julian Armand, has faced allegations of sexual abuse from the actor's paternal aunt, Casey Hammer, who has written a book about the family, Surviving My Birthright.

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In the Vanity Fair piece, Hammer's former girlfriend, Paige Lorenze, shared that Hammer described his grandfather as a "very scary person who had these crazy sex parties where there would be guns".

Elsewhere in the piece, it was alleged that Hammer's father, Michael, boasted about owning a "sex throne" at the headquarters of their family company, the Armand Hammer Foundation. (A friend who knew about the alleged sex throne said that they were "not the least bit surprised" when they heard about the allegations against Hammer).

Hammer's wife was well aware of his kinks.

It was suggested within the piece that Chambers was well aware of Hammer's kinks.

According to a source close to Chambers, Hammer introduced his wife to Shibari, which is a Japanese form of artistic rope bondage.

Chambers reportedly encouraged Hammer's hobby, suggesting that he write a book about Shibari titled 'Why Knot?'

According to Courtney Vucekovich, one of the actor's former girlfriends, Hammer practiced his hobby on mannequins.

"One of the most shocking things, that I realised he did to other women, is he says that he never tied up a human being before, only mannequins," she said. 

"I remember thinking, like, that’s got to be true because that’s the weirdest f**king thing I’ve ever heard. Who would lie about that? That’s weirder than saying, 'I tied up 25 people.'"

Earlier this month, a female mannequin bound with rope was pictured in a rubbish bin outside Hammer's Los Angeles home, which he has since moved out of.

Hammer got a number of tattoos after his divorce.

In the months after Chambers filed for divorced, Hammer reportedly got more than five tattoos, including the word "chaos", an outline of the Cayman Islands, and "a heart that was inked... at Kaia Gerber’s birthday party to match two teenage boys". 

Armie Hammer and Elizabeth Chambers with their children Harper and Ford in 2019. Image: Getty. 

Hammer made "rules" for his former girlfriend Paige Lorenze.

Hammer's former girlfriend, Paige Lorenze, admitted she felt "really unsafe" while dating the actor.

"He started making rules for me of things I could and couldn’t do, who I could have over, who I couldn’t. He told me that I couldn’t have anyone else in my bed. And then I just started to feel really unsafe and really sick to my stomach about things," she said. 

Lorenze shared she later ended the relationship over text "because you never know what you're going to get with him".

She added: "He's kind of a scary person."

The actor is reportedly broke.

Lorenze also claimed she paid for "everything" during her relationship with Hammer, as he was getting by on "loans from friends".

In 2017, Hammer even admitted that he couldn't pay out a bet he had made as it would "bankrupt" him.

Hammer introduced his girlfriends to his mother.

Hammer had a series of girlfriends after his divorce, and he wasn't afraid to introduce them to his family.

Both Vucekovich and Lorenze were introduced to Hammer's mother, Dru.

Paige Lorenze. Image: Instagram. 

While Lorenze, 22, was visiting Hammer's mother, she spoke of "the devil" trying to "take" the actor, and expressed her concerns about her son.

"She was very, very sweet to me," she said. "I’ve never been to such a Christian household."

Chambers compared their marriage to Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.

According to unnamed sources, Chambers has jokingly told friends her marriage to Hammer is comparable to Netflix's Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.

The film follows Ted Bundy (played by Zac Efron) and his longtime girlfriend Liz Kendall (played by Lily Collins).

A friend blamed the alleged graphic messages on Hammer's "dry sense of humour".

In response to Hammer's alleged graphic messages, a friend close to the couple blamed the texts on the actor's "dry sense of humour".

"I was like, this is just Armie making really perverse jokes. And then it got conflated with his [seemingly] newfound interest in BDSM sex, which is his prerogative," they claimed.

Armie Hammer had it all. With a beautiful family, princely good looks, and charisma to spare, the actor’s downfall seemed, to some, like a surprising turn for the rising star. In reality, it was only the latest chapter in a fraught family legacy: https://t.co/FzDl4DqgU3

— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) March 11, 2021

Hammer was arrested in 2011.

Vanity Fair's piece resurfaced an old clip from Armie Hammer's interview on Conan O'Brien.

In the clip, Hammer shared he ended up spending the night in a West Texas jail after a police dog sniffed out marijuana in the actor's vehicle.

"The inmates were great," he said in the clip. "The guards were real assholes." 

You can read the full Vanity Fair article here.

For more on this topic:

• "Like f***ing Ms Cayman again." Why everyone is still talking about Armie Hammer.
• An infamous Playboy interview and a break-out role in Gossip Girl: The life of Armie Hammer.
• The Hollywood wild man is over. How we're finally outgrowing the appeal of the 'bad boy'.
• In 2021, we're witnessing a second reckoning.

Feature Image: Getty.

If this post brings up any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service. It doesn’t matter where you live, they will take your call and, if need be, refer you to a service closer to home.