In the midst of glowing reviews for his latest role on Apple TV+, actor Jon Hamm is suddenly back in the spotlight—but not for reasons he’s likely happy about.
A decades-old controversy involving a disturbing hazing incident during his college years has resurfaced, and Hamm’s reaction has been anything but calm.
A Dark Chapter from College Days
Back in the early ’90s, Hamm was a fraternity member at the University of Texas in Austin.
It was during this time that fellow student Mark Sanders alleges he was subjected to brutal hazing—hazing so extreme that he dropped out of school.
The details are stomach-turning: physical assault, humiliation, and abuse that left Sanders with serious injuries, including a fractured spine and damaged kidney.
Though Hamm was arrested at the time, the charges were dismissed after he completed probation.
He’s never publicly apologized and has maintained that the allegations were exaggerated and not completely accurate.
When Asked, Hamm Reacts with Fury
The controversy had faded into the background—until recently.
When a Daily Mail reporter reached out to Hamm directly, the actor didn’t take it lightly.
Visibly irritated, he snapped at the reporter, questioning the appropriateness of the call and redirecting them to his representatives.
“It’s a very odd choice for you to call me,” he remarked angrily. “I’m a little bit offended.”
This wasn’t the first time Hamm has bristled when asked about the past.
In a 2018 Esquire interview, he grew visibly tense, brushing off the matter as an “unfortunate” event that was overblown.
He framed himself as a young man caught up in a bad situation, insisting he had moved on.
Sanders’ Harrowing Testimony
Sanders, however, hasn’t forgotten. In a past interview with Texas prosecutors, he described a nightmarish ordeal.
He recounted being struck with a paddle, dragged by his genitals, and even having his pants set on fire—all allegedly at Hamm’s hands. The pain, he said, was indescribable.
According to Sanders, Hamm also took a lighter to his jeans and forced him to blow out the flames instead of putting them out with his hands.
In another horrifying moment, he claims Hamm used a claw hammer to drag him across the room by his genitals.
The trauma was so intense, Sanders nearly lost a kidney and has stayed silent publicly ever since.
A Career Untouched by Scandal—Until Now
Despite the disturbing allegations, Hamm’s career soared.
From his breakout role in Mad Men to appearances in Top Gun: Maverick and The Morning Show, he’s largely escaped the kind of public reckoning that derailed other Hollywood figures.
In 2015, just as Mad Men was wrapping up, the hazing incident briefly resurfaced.
A source close to Hamm brushed it off as a one-time lapse in judgment, suggesting he’d grown since then.
Still, no apology ever came.
Podcast Brings Past Into Present
Now, a new podcast titled The Nerve by columnist Maureen Callahan has reignited the controversy.
In her blunt commentary, Callahan doesn’t hold back—comparing Hamm to disgraced figures like Harvey Weinstein and questioning why his reputation remains largely untarnished.
She criticizes his apparent arrogance, describing his on-screen anger as barely concealed real-life rage.
Callahan also points out how his former partner, filmmaker Jennifer Westfeldt, was instrumental in shaping his career—only for him to later move on to a much younger actress, Anna Osceola, whom he married in 2023.
A Look at the Fallout
The fraternity involved in the hazing was disbanded, and other students were sentenced to jail time.
But Hamm, now living in a multi-million dollar home in the Hollywood Hills, seems to have emerged from it all relatively unscathed.
He even told interviewers last year that he’s now open to having children—something he previously said wasn’t for him.
He also went to rehab for alcoholism in 2015, but has since made a full return to Hollywood’s good graces.
What’s Next for Jon Hamm?
With new scrutiny brewing thanks to Callahan’s podcast and growing public awareness, the big question now is whether Jon Hamm will finally address his past with accountability—or continue to sidestep it.
As his latest projects bring him acclaim, there’s a renewed call for transparency and responsibility.
In a culture increasingly unwilling to excuse harmful behavior, the spotlight on Hamm might just be getting started.