doc

This chilling true crime doc investigates a high school principal who hypnotised three students before their deaths.

ITV’s next true crime doc delves into the deaths of three students who were hypnotised by a teacher.

Look Into My Eyes was first released in the US three years ago and now it’s finally made its way to the UK, landing on ITVX today, Tuesday, August 18.

The True Crime Story doc explores the story of former North Port High School principal Dr George Kenney in Sarasota, Florida who was hypnotising his students.

He reportedly “put them under” to help teens with their athletic performances and anxiety ahead of taking exams and is believed to have hypnotised around 70 students in a five-year span.

But in 2011, Kenney was under investigation as he admitted to hypnotising three students who all tragically died within months of each other.

Star quarterback Marcus Freeman, 16, died in a car accident, and the following two months, fellow teens Brittany Palumbo and Wesley McKinley also died by suicide.

The four-part special takes a look at Kenney’s interventions and their role in the students’ lives. The official description further explains that it “investigates events leading up to these untimely deaths and the tragic aftermath as victims’ families, eyewitnesses, experts, and people involved attempt to unpack what really happened.

In the trailer for Look Into My Eyes, a parent of one of the deceased teens is heard tearily saying: “This man has ruined my life”, while another man stated: “This man just wanted to help.”

Kenney pleaded no contest to two misdemeanour counts of the unlawful practice of hypnosis without a license. He was sentenced to one year of probation, 50 hours of community service and resigned from his position as principal at North Port High School, according to the docu-series.

NBC reported that Freeman, McKinley and Palumbo’s parents sues Sarasota County school board for the wrongful deaths of the teens, stating that the school should have stopped Kenney from performing hypnosis.

In October 2015, each of the families reached a maximum sum of $200,000.

Look Into My Eyes is available to watch on ITVX.

The new release is rising through the ranks already, but viewers are warned they will need a “sick bucket”

One of the “sickest” documentaries viewers have ever seen is rising up the ranks as a strong fan warning has been issued.

An Amputation Obsession: The Monster and the Surgeon was released on Prime Video earlier this week (August 13) and already it is making waves amongst viewers.

The two-part series delves into the real life disturbing story of NHS vascular surgeon Neil Hopper, from Cornwall, who lost his own legs to amputation.

After claiming a mystery illness resulted in sepsis and injuries to his legs, Neil was seen as a ‘hero’ and a symbol of hope when he documented his journey and recovery, even going back to work.

But years later, police uncovered a dark reality and horrific secrets that Neil kept hidden from everyone. In 2019, he deliberately caused irreversible damage to his legs that resulted in an amputation of both limbs before he claimed hundreds of thousands of pounds in fraudulent insurance payouts.

When a whistle-blower set out to expose an underground network devoted to extreme body modifications, police discovered Neil’s truth.

Rising up the ranks already, an official synopsis reads: “Vascular surgeon Neil Hopper becomes a symbol of hope after losing both legs, until an investigation uncovers a hidden obsession and secret life.”

Some true crime fans have already binged the two part series, and have issued a strong warning. One person took to TikTok to recommend the “crazy” watch as they said in a video: “Honestly, the things what some people get off on never ceases to amaze me.”

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They added: “It’s absolutely crazy”, as one person replied: “Just watched this it’s so messed up.” Another dubbed it as “shocking” as a third penned: “The f*** This was insane.”

In another video, one person said: “Yous need to watch this immediately but get a sick bucket before you do because oh my god, it’s horrifying.”

They went on to say: “The biggest trigger warning that I have ever, ever put on a video needs to be put on this documentary. Let’s just say your jaw will be on the floor.”

Another commented: “Only managed the first episode. Felt way too sick to continue.” One person admitted: “I think it’s the sickest documentary I’ve ever seen.”

An Amputation Obsession: The Monster and the Surgeon can be streamed on Prime Video

Doc Rivers needed some time to write the speech that he’ll give when formally inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday.

The storytelling, that part was easy. He’s a natural at that.

But what Rivers wound up learning during the trial-and-error process of speechwriting was that the words he’ll say from a stage in Springfield, Mass., aren’t going to be about him. They’re going to be about everyone else who played a role in him getting to that moment.

“You go through this journey of writing it and you realize it has nothing to do with you in a very good way,” Rivers said. “People are happy for you, and I am happy for them because they got me there. You hear all your life, ‘You don’t do anything alone.’ When you get in the Hall of Fame, you really understand that you don’t do anything alone. It’s all the coaches in your life, your parents, the players. It’s a thankful journey and that’s what the Hall of Fame should be about.”

Numbers prove he’s among best

A winner of 1,194 regular-season games as an NBA coach — and that’ll be all, he insists, saying his retirement is a real one — Rivers ranks sixth in league history. The only others ahead of him: Gregg Popovich, Don Nelson, Lenny Wilkens, Jerry Sloan and Pat Riley, all of whom are Hall of Famers, so it was obviously a lock that Rivers would be joining them.

He won a championship with Boston in 2008, won 114 playoff games as a coach, played 13 seasons, was an All-Star once, has been a broadcaster and — if he goes back to work, and his family currently has a pool that he will — he’ll be a broadcaster again.

But there’s more to life now. The Illinois native and Marquette legend has seven grandchildren, a house on the water and can’t play enough golf. He’ll still be involved in the game, somehow. It just won’t be as a coach. It’ll be as a Hall of Famer.

“Doc is a proven, extraordinary leader and communicator during his renowned NBA coaching career,” Milwaukee general manager Jon Horst said when the Bucks hired Rivers in 2024. “As a championship coach, he’s widely respected as an established innovator, and the right coach to lead our experienced and talented team.”

He was, until he wasn’t.

Injuries derailed every chance the Bucks had at being a winner last season, and when the season came to its dismal close Rivers was fairly certain it was the end for him as well — after 27 seasons on the sideline, and whole lot of missed moments along the way.

“The one thing that people have no idea about is the toll it takes on you and the family component,” Rivers said. “It is rough. You’re never home. You make sacrifices and your family has to make them as well.”

That won’t be an issue now.

A hit from the beginning

Rivers won coach of the year in his first season, taking a team he called “the 301s” in Orlando and leading it to a 41-41 record. On the surface, there’s nothing special about going .500. But the Magic were supposed to be bottom dwellers that season and Rivers used a preseason ranking of the league’s top 300 players as inspiration — since none of those top 300 were playing for the Magic.

“That season gave me great confidence,” Rivers said.

He has some regrets, of course. Critics have long pointed to the 10 losses that Rivers-coached teams had in Game 7s, by far the most of any coach in NBA history. And his fans will retort by pointing to his 114 playoff wins, fourth-most in NBA history. But the biggest do-over, if Rivers had such an option, would be changing his mind about leaving the Celtics for the Clippers in 2013.

Rivers got to the Clippers not long before the end of Donald Sterling’s ownership of the team; Sterling made racist comments and was banned by NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

“I underestimated what a great situation I was in, and I took that for granted, like you can just go anywhere and create that,” Rivers said. “I messed that one up. But then when I go to the Clippers, the team is pretty damn good. The organization, it was the worst organization in sports with the ownership problem. Within a week there, I remember telling my assistant, ‘We’ve got a lot to do here.’ ”

The championship with the Celtics in 2008 — Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, the stars of that team, will be together again to present their former coach for his Hall enshrinement — was an obvious high point for Rivers’ career. There were other moments he’s particularly proud of as well, such as delivering on a promise that he made to someone who barely played for him.

Tyronn Lue succeeded Rivers as coach of the Clippers. Lue played 11 games for Rivers in Orlando during the 2003-04 season; that was all the time it took for Rivers to be convinced that Lue would one day be a coach. He told Lue to call him if he ever wanted a job and Lue took him up on it. Rivers wound up going to the Hall of Fame, and few within the game would be surprised if Lue joins him there one day.

“It’s the stories like that that you think about,” Rivers said. “Rajon Rondo played for me in Boston. We had a very tumultuous relationship when I coached him and now, I probably talk to Rondo more than probably than any player that I coached.”

It’s what the game does, Rivers said. The lucky ones get guided along the way. He played that role with players like Rondo — who coached with Rivers — and Lue, and in Rivers’ own case, it was Riley who gave him the push he needed.

Riley and Rivers clashed at times during their player-coach relationship, and their biggest fights came when Riley was telling Rivers that he belonged in coaching.

Riley was right.

“When I was doing TV, he kept writing and sending me these freaking messages about getting into the fray,” Rivers said. “He knew it. And here I am, going into the Hall of Fame.”

Reynolds writes for the Associated Press.

Ruby Franke is at the heart of tonight’s BBC true crime doc The Devil in the Family.

A BBC true crime doc investigates the truth behind the case of Ruby Franke.

The Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke aired this evening, Thursday, August 6, on BBC Two, with the three-part special investigating the life and crimes of Franke.

Speaking to those who knew the 44-year-old best, this third episode delves into the truth which “proves far worse than anyone imagined”.

Who is Ruby Franke?

Ruby Franke is an American former family vlogger who ran the controversial YouTube channel 8 Passengers.

She started the channel in 2015 and ran it with her then-husband Kevin, documenting their lives with their six children with 8 Passengers attracting almost three million subscribers.

While it was popular, 8 Passengers received plenty of online criticism as it promoted strict parenting rules and harsh disciplinary tactics. When the channel started to decline, and was eventually suspended, Franke teamed up with mental health counsellor Jodi Hildebrandt.

Together, they launched their joint Instagram profile and podcast Moms of Truth which similarly talked about extreme parenting but also the idea that children who didn’t follow their rules were possessed or acting under dark influences.

Franke and Hildebrandt were also business partners who ran an online life-coaching service named ConneXions.

In August 2023, Franke was arrested after her 12-year-old son escaped a home in Utah, now known to be Hildebrandt’s, and asked a neighbour for help.

Police discovered that her two youngest children were extremely malnourished with physical injuries and bondage wounds.

Franke pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse and was sentenced to four prison terms of one to 15 years each to run consecutively.

This means she will serve a total prison sentence of four to 30 years which was the maximum penalty under Utah law. Hildebrandt also received this sentence for her involvement in the abuse.

The Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

Need to know

True crime doc The Salisbury Poisonings: A Spy Next Door airs this evening on Sky Documentaries.

Everything there is to know about Sergei Skripal now

1. Eight years after the Novichok poisoning attack on ex-KGB operative Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, a true crime doc entitled The Salisbury Poisonings: A Spy Next Door, has been released. The Sky Documentaries special takes a closer look at the terrifying incident and the aftermath which saw British national Dawn Sturgess killed after encountering the deadly nerve agent.
2. The 2018 attack left the Skripals unconscious on a bench in Wiltshire, with authorities believing Novichok had been applied to their front door. Dawn Sturgess, 44, tragically died after she and partner Charlie Rowley found a contaminated perfume bottle seven miles from the original scene.
3. A judge leading a new inquiry last year said there was an “overwhelming risk” of a physical attack on the Skripals if their whereabouts were discovered. However, Sergei told officials: “I never thought the Russian regime would have tried to murder me in UK, they could’ve killed me easily when in prison.”
4. After recovering from the attack, Yulia said: “We are so lucky to have both survived this attempted assassination. Our recovery has been slow and extremely painful.” She added that the assault had left a “devastating” mark on their lives. The Skripals were housed in an MI6 safe house for two years before reportedly relocating overseas under new identities, possibly to New Zealand or Australia.
5. Their former neighbours received a Christmas card in 2019, saying: “It’s nice to know they are thinking of us, but I don’t expect we’ll ever see them again.” The contaminated Salisbury property was decontaminated and sold to Wiltshire Council for £260,000, eventually being purchased by a local resident in 2023 as the community attempts to move forward from the traumatic events.

READ THE FULL STORY: Where Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia are now after Salisbury poisoning attempt 7 years ago

After a year and half of research and interviews, the BBC on Wednesday aired an explosive new documentary in which multiple women accused Oscar winner Jared Leto of sexual assault.

Directed by Alice McShane, “Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret,” which debuted Wednesday in the U.K., revealed new claims of criminal sexual conduct by the 54-year-old actor and musician from four women, including a possible instance of statutory rape in California. In the film, a total of 10 women recount allegations of sexual assault, along with inappropriate text messages, phone calls and behavior that occurred from 2002 to 2016. Leto has denied the allegations.

To ensure the integrity of the documentary, the hour-long program was not announced ahead of time.

“Everything came out at once,” says producer Jessica Sartenaer, speaking from London over Zoom alongside McShane on Friday morning. “That was all very much part of the strategy because we didn’t want to leak anything before the investigation came out.”

McShane began working on the film after Los Angeles-based DJ Allie Teilz reshared in April 2025 her Facebook post from 2012 in which she accused Leto of trying to “force himself” onto her backstage at a concert. Teilz described the actor as “Hollywood’s most persistent predator.” About 40 women contacted Teilz with their own allegations, according to Sartenaer. In June 2025, weekly newsletter Air Mail published accusations of impropriety against Leto by nine women, which he denied.

“I began ringing around trying to find the women who’d written into Allie,” McShane says. “When I was speaking to women, I realized there were other journalists on the trail. So I did think there was going to be something published relatively quickly, which we can’t compete with because we have a whole different set of considerations. It takes a lot longer to make.”

Social media was the main resource for finding people willing to speak on the record. The filmmakers say they discovered more than 120 separate allegations online.

“But that doesn’t necessarily mean these are all women who want to speak about their experiences,” McShane says. “They’ve posted anonymously for a reason. It was a lot of hours spent digging through hundreds of people from across Leto’s life and career — people who had worked with the band, people in his acting life, his fashion life. We had an enormous spreadsheet. It was a really in-depth process.”

Ultimately, 10 women agreed to be interviewed on camera. The filmmakers offered each various options of anonymity depending on their level of comfort. None are completely anonymous, although only three used their real names. All of their real voices are heard, which McShane says is unusual.

Sartenaer adds, “The courage it takes to come forward and come up against a powerful man like Leto is immeasurable. It’s absolutely incredible what these women have done, and the anonymity decision is a very personal one. Right away, [the women had] this gut instinct about the level of anonymity that they would like.”

McShane drew on her past experiences, including making the 2023 Channel 4 documentary “Russell Brand: In Plain Sight,” which investigated comedian Russell Brand’s treatment of women, to guide the interview process.

“You really learn from a duty-of-care perspective how to best look after the women,” she says. “There’s always this balance of wanting to investigate the story, but also understanding these are people who have gone through incredibly painful experiences and they’re sharing very personal things with you. You never want to push. They are in control. You can never make these things happen. It has to come from the women.”

The initial investigation began in London and the filmmakers visited Los Angeles twice in the months that followed. The first interview was with a woman named Alex last fall. In the documentary, the former model recalls being invited to a 30 Seconds to Mars concert at London’s O2 in 2013 (Leto is the band’s frontman). She says his female assistant then brought her to an afterparty at the members’ club Shoreditch House. Although she was 19 at the time, she told Leto she was 17 to protect herself. She says the musician, then 41, replied, “Age is just a number, and, anyway, we’re in Europe.”

Alex was sent by Leto’s assistant to another afterparty at a nearby hotel, but Leto was the only one there, she says. Alex asked for a phone charger and cash for a taxi home, but was denied. When she asked if she could crash on the sofa in the hotel room, she says Leto threatened to rape her.

“Right from when we started investigating and started hearing from these women, [we were] noticing these patterns of behavior,” McShane says. “[Alex] is an extraordinary communicator. The women we were speaking to, all of them, are amazing storytellers, and resolute about telling their stories. Each time we spoke to somebody it reinforced the importance of getting it out.”

An explosive new documentary revealed new claims of criminal sexual conduct by actor and musician Jared Leto.

(Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)

Sartenaer says Leto’s seeming fixation with women of a young age was something “we were interested in investigating right off because of the pattern we noticed in the reposts from Allie Teilz.”

“Many of them did mention that they were teenagers at the time of the alleged offenses,” she says. “We knew that was a thread to follow right from the beginning.”

One woman, named Clara in the documentary, spoke about having sex with Leto for the first time when she was 17 and he was 34. The encounter took place at his home in California. In the film, she describes having a conversation with Leto about the age of consent in the state. “He just kind of shrugged it off, like it wasn’t a huge concern for him,” she says.

As the documentary points out, the age of consent in California is 18. An adult having sex with someone underage can constitute statutory rape. The filmmakers can’t comment on the law or whether there will be any legal repercussions for Leto. However, Mike Radford, executive producer at BBC Current Affairs, says what distinguishes “Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret” from prior investigations is that the film showcases alleged criminal conduct.

“That’s a different level of potential wrongdoing,” Radford says, speaking on the phone from London. “From that point of view, it becomes a more serious story, and it goes beyond misunderstanding to something more worrying.”

The filmmakers sent a “lengthy right of reply” letter to Leto and gave him two weeks to respond. They followed up several times with his team to no avail. It wasn’t until after the documentary aired that Leto denied the allegations in a statement, which was shared Wednesday with The Times.

“I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my entire life,” he said. “These claims are absolutely and categorically false.”

The documentary combines the interviews with reenactments and archival footage. Sartenaer says they had a “wealth of material” to pull from.

“There is so much content about him,” McShane adds. “And he’s so overtly sexual on the public stage. We’ve got examples in the film of him, like when he’s in the press room at the Oscars. Everything is packed with innuendo. There are examples where he’s being very inappropriate with young women on the stage. All of that placed next to these interviews can be so chilling and there were countless examples of that available to us.”

The filmmakers worked with a limited budget and a small team of three: McShane, Sartenaer and cinematographer Theo Tennant. In total, they spent a year and half working full time on “Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret.”

Alice McShane, left, and Jessica Sartenaer interview entertainment journalist Maureen Ryan for “Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret.”

(Theo Tennant / BBC)

The biggest challenge was the fact that “Hollywood is an impenetrable world,” Sartenaer says. The documentary features interviews with two people who worked with Leto speaking completely anonymously, but they were difficult to find and get on the record.

“It really took a very, very long time to have a breakthrough on the insider front [and] to actually get people to start talking with us,” Sartenaer says. “Hollywood is such a precarious place and it’s difficult to get into Hollywood, and I think once people are in, it’s probably a terrifying prospect. One foot stepped wrong could see them catapulted out of it again. We saw that nervousness in trying to speak with people. There’s a real culture of secrecy.”

Despite that, there are hopes that “Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret” will encourage other potential victims to speak out.

“The investigation is ongoing,” Sartenaer says. “What these women have done by coming forward [is commendable]. We think their courage will encourage other women to speak their truth, whoever it is about.”

Radford says the BBC is continuing its investigation into the allegations surrounding Leto.

“We would hope that should our investigation continue we would have enough material to make a subsequent documentary,” he says. “We’re not working on a documentary now because I’m not commissioned to do so. But it is our intention.”

At present, the BBC doesn’t have plans to air “Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret” in the U.S. It was offered to the U.S. market while in production, according to Radford, but not picked up for distribution.

“There was no legal reason it isn’t airing there,” Radford says. “In fact, the legal threat is much greater in the U.K. because the libel laws are tougher in the U.K. So there was no fear around putting it out in the U.S.”

McShane and Sartenaer have been heartened by the immediate response to the documentary. But they also hope the momentum will continue.

“I hope we keep seeing the reverberations and I hope the conversation doesn’t die,” McShane says. “Ten years ago at the height of #MeToo this would have really punched through. The general outrage has cooled a little bit when stories of this nature are published. But we hope the conversations stay strong because it’s really important people keep talking about this.”

The three part documentary has finally been released in the UK

True crime fans cannot stop talking about a brand new documentary that has been dubbed a “disturbing” watch.

Don’t Date Brandon has this week been released on Channel 4, with all three episodes airing last night (July 30) as it explores two chilling relationships.

Viewers are plunged into the moment that two women discover that they have dated the same man that they met online, but despite things seemingly appearing well, dark secrets are soon uncovered.

Amber Rasmussen and Athena Klingerman bravely open up on how they were manipulated by con man Brandon Johnson as the three part series exposes his elaborate web of lies and past abuse.

A Channel 4 synopsis reads: “True crime series. When Amber finds out that her husband’s a liar, she starts a podcast with his ex-wife. But as more women come forward, they discover that Brandon isn’t just a cheat; he’s dangerous.”

First airing on Paramount+ last year, Don’t Date Brandon has just been released on Channel 4, with all three episodes available to stream online for free. Despite its release in 2025, viewers are only just discovering the harrowing watch now as they say it is a must watch for everyone.

Taking to TikTok, one true crime fan said in a video: “I promise you definitely won’t want to miss this one because it is an absolutely wild ride.”

They went on to say: “As you’re watching this documentary it becomes more and more dark and more and more terrifying. What unfolds at the end of it is truly quite chilling and there are actually some very disturbing scenes in this so be aware of that.”

In another video, another viewer said: “It’s quite good.” One person commented: “Just finished Don’t Date Brandon. Started it last night – had horrible nightmares about my ex last night.”

Taking to their own video, one person admitted they were not “prepared for this documentary” as they captioned their post: “Craziest one in a while”.

Another stated they have been “waiting for the longest time” for the UK release, adding: “I cannot wait to watch this, I’ve heard great things from those of you who have already seen it.”

One person replied: “Don’t Date Brandon is amazing I watched it on YouTube crazy.”

When it was released in the USA last year, one viewer said it was one of the “most horrifying” documentaries they had watched, adding on TikTok: “Episode 3 is incredibly hard to watch.”

Don’t Date Brandon can be streamed for free on Channel 4

The three-episode documentary includes bodycam footage, texts and interviews with the victims’ loved ones.

Netflix viewers have branded the streamer’s latest true crime documentary “a hard watch”. The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare is on Netflix and the harrowing factual series investigates the horrifying murders of four University of Idaho students.

The students were fatally stabbed in an off-campus house in the early hours of the morning, but the motive behind the killings has never been disclosed.

The tragic deaths were covered extensively in the press and the case has been revisited in a number of TV shows, including Prime Video’s One Night in Idaho: The College Murders.

Viewers have already shared their thoughts on the Netflix documentary, with one saying on Reddit: “This show does a really good job of looking at the victims as people. It’s really heartbreaking.”

Another commented on Instagram: “This is going to be a very hard watch,” while another shared: “This case still haunts me.” Here is all you need to know about what happened.

When did the Idaho Murders happen?

The murders took place in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, in an off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho.

Five roommates, plus a partner of one of the students, were in the house by 2am after spending the night at various locations.

Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen were two of the students who survived the attack, both hiding in the same bedroom.

In February 2023, a friend of the survivors spoke to PEOPLE about how the roommates were still impacted by the murders, saying: “They feel a lot of survivor’s guilt.

“Their friends are gone and they’re still here. It’s been really rough on them. They’re going to be dealing with this for the rest of their lives.”

Who were the Idaho Murders victims?

Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin were the four victims and they had all been close friends. On the night they were killed, survivor Dylan, who was a junior at the time and living in a room off the side of the kitchen, heard someone scream in the house.

She recalled how she thought she overheard an unfamiliar male voice saying: “It’s okay. I’m going to help you”. Feeling nervous, she ran to her door and locked it, trying to call all of her roommates, but nobody was answering.

She went over to her door and opened it to see a man dressed in all black, but he did not approach her. She returned to her room, where she called Bethany Funke, later joining her in her bedroom, where the two locked themselves in.

The Netflix documentary’s director, Skye Borgman, said she was keen for the film to focus on the victims and not their killer.

She said: “When I was able to sit down and talk to the families, both before we started shooting and during the shooting, that’s one thing that they really wanted to get across: They weren’t just victims.

“They were alive, bright, happy, amazing people. And it was really important for them to tell this story and to put that message forward — what we lost.”

Who was charged for the killings?

On December 30, 2022, police arrested Bryan Christopher Kohberger on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.

At the time of the murders, he was a PhD student completing his first semester at Washington State University in Pullman.

In July 2025, the doctoral student in criminology was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences in prison without parole, as well as another ten years for burglary, after issuing guilty pleas.

In July 2026, Kohberger filed a handwritten petition seeking to withdraw his guilty pleas and proceed to trial. The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare is on Netflix

CARDI B is about to let everyone in on the story of her rollercoaster life — including working as a stripper.

I can reveal the rapper is the subject of a major new documentary from the same team behind programmes on Victoria Beckham, Pamela Anderson and Coleen Rooney.

Production company Dorothy Street Pictures is secretly working on the special, in which she will speak about her rags to riches story.

Cardi, who wore this eye-popping pink catsuit and matching hat for a performance in New York on Sunday, has quite a backstory, so I’m sure it will be riveting viewing.

She started off her working life as a stripper, and would entice men to hotel rooms and steal their money.

Her fortunes changed when she became a viral sensation a decade ago on apps such as Vine and Instagram, and eventually got signed to a label and scored hit songs including Wap and I Like It.

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Cardi has not been short of controversy during her time in the showbiz spotlight, famously throwing a shoe at rival Nicki Minanj during a spat in 2018.

She has also had a difficult love life, getting married to Migos rapper Offset in 2017, and having four kids with him before they separating in 2023.

A source said: “Cardi is one of the most in-demand rappers in the world and is also one of the most interesting.

“She has lived her life in the public eye to some degree. But there’s a lot that she’s never opened up about, and this is her chance.

“Next year will mark a decade since she released her major-label debut single Bodak Yellow and so there’s a documentary in the works which will mark that.

“There’s a lot to talk about and she wants the public to see who she really is, because she often feels misunderstood.

“It’s expected to air on a big streaming service like Netflix, but the deal is still being hatched out.”

Cardi released her long-awaited second album Am I The Drama? last year and then went on a tour across North America.

And I won’t be surprised if we see her back on stage at British festivals next summer.

KOJO: LADIES RULE

Kojo Funds has worked with acts ranging from Wizkid and Tion Wayne to Kano and Bugzy Malone since bursting on to the music scene a decade ago.

But the British singer has saluted the work ethic of top women in the industry and says they have inspired him.

His biggest chart hit to date is 2017 collaboration Finders Keepers with Mabel, and has also worked with Raye on a 2018 track called Check.

Kojo said in an exclusive interview: “Female artists who are operating at that level take their craft seriously. Put effort into what you’re doing, don’t do it anyhow.

“They’re very hard-working, I respect them for that. The work ethic… that’s the kind of thing I took from them.”

Kojo’s new single How Many will be on his EP Hello It’s Me Again, which is out on August 21.

And one person who’s bound to be giving it a spin is Cardi B.

Recalling how the US rapper discovered his music, he said: “Her first time in London, she went to a club and they were playing my music.

“Dun Talkin’ came on and she saw how people were hyping her up while she was moving to it.

“The next morning, she’s on Instagram singing it, with her hair messy, a little bit tipsy.”

They’ve since performed together and hung out, so I’m hoping a collaboration with her is on the cards next.

DANCING On Ice beauty Vanessa Bauer has been tipped for a career in Hollywood by Football Factory and The Business actor Tamer Hassan.

She has re-trained after the ITV show was axed, and plays Tamer’s girlfriend in new film Rise Of The Footsoldier: Retribution.

On how great she was playing Isabella Chaika opposite his character, Colonel Sullivan, he told me: “Vanessa has a future in films, 100 per cent.

She looks great, she carries herself well.

“She’s definitely got some chops to be an actress.”

Vanessa joined Dancing On Ice in 2018 when the show was revived.

She won with Jake Quickenden, and was a runner-up several times with celebs including Diversity’s Perri Kiely and Towie’s Joey Essex.

But the show ended again in 2025 and now she is exploring new paths, having also appeared in Netflix’s The Thursday Murder Club.

THE race for No1 is hotting up.

Shakira’s Dai Dai now is just 118 copies ahead of Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In – closing the gap from 609 copies the previous day.

The World Cup anthem will be her third chart-topper if she can hang on to the lead until Friday.

But if Rein Me In can clinch it, it will become the longest-running No1 of all time, with 19 weeks at the top.

ROMCOM TOO TOUGH FOR CHRIS

OSCAR-winning director Christopher Nolan says there’s one genre that’s too hard for him to tackle – the romcom.

The man behind movies such as Oppenheimer, Interstellar and The Dark Knight would be “terrified” at the prospect of making one.

The Brit whose new epic The Odyssey is No1 at the box office, explained: “I think doing a romcom would be incredibly difficult.

I love watching those movies. But no, I think people who direct comedy, people who do comedy . . .  that’s one of the hardest things in the world, to make people laugh that way.

“If I show a film to people and maybe they don’t respond to bits of it, I’m like, ‘Ah, they don’t get it. Whatever’. There’s no hiding behind that when you do comedy, so I would be terrified.”

TYLA POPS TO UK ON TOUR

TYLA is hitting the road for a 34-date global tour following the release last week of her second album A*POP.

The Chanel singer has announced she will open the tour in Paris on October 12 before shows at London’s O2 Academy Brixton on October 15 the O2 Apollo Manchester on October 19 and O2 Academy Glasgow on October 18.

Tickets will go on sale at 10am this Friday through tylaworld.com.

Zara’s latest feet

THERE was no chance of Zara Larsson getting cold feet about her latest brand deal with these slippers.

She wore the funky footwear – designed as giant feet in flip flops – while reclining on a sofa as part of a campaign for re-sale site Depop.

Zara put 30 pieces of clothing from her own wardrobe up for sale, and they sold out almost straight away.

She said: “I’m not particularly sad about releasing anything of mine into the world because I know I’m gonna get many more beautiful things back. Fashion is fun in that way.”

Given all the designer brands desperate for her to wear their clothes, I am sure she has plenty of options.

LIFE OF RILEY FOR RAY AND DANNY

DANNY DYER and Ray Winstone are teaming up again, two decades after appearing in TV film All In The Game.

The hardmen, pictured together in 2006, have been cast in UK crime thriller Going Under, which is due to hit cinemas next spring.

Production on the film has just been completed, after being shot in secret.

It will follow Ray’s gangster character Riley and his right-hand man Don, played by Danny, trying to pull off one final deal.

Charli’s bra-t summer

CHARLI XCX is ready for our fourth heatwave of the summer – and has stripped off to prepare.

She shared this photo of her wearing a bra and sunglasses on Instagram, just as it was revealed there will be a picture of the singer going on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

A 2024 photo of Charli in a white crop top, which was taken by Harley Weir and used to promote her album Brat, has been added to the gallery’s collection and will be in its History Makers Now space.

Senior curator Brandei Estes said: “We are delighted to acquire this striking portrait of Charli XCX, which captures one of the defining cultural figures of her generation.”

WILD Child actress Emma Roberts has tied the knot to afellow screen star Cody John.

Emma, who appeared in American Horror Story and is the niece of Hollywood A-lister Julia Roberts, wore a Monique Lhuillier dress, and told Vogue: “I’ve been married in a movie before, and I tried out wedding dresses for that, which feels so weird. Now, it’s the real deal.

“I wanted it to feel very vintage-inspired.”

The couple started dating in 2022.

LIZ & BILLY LOVE BIRDWATCHING

LIZ HURLEY has revealed the secret to her romance with Billy Ray Cyrus is a shared love of birdwatching.

She said: “We’ve been together nearly 18 months, but we spend the vast majority of our time in the countryside, whether it’s in England or Tennessee.

“We like doing the same things, which some people would think is a little odd. We like bird watching. We’ve got binoculars, we’ve got long lenses.”

The relationship has been especially good for her son, filmmaker Damian, who has been able to meet Billy’s superstar daughter Miley.

Liz added on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live in the US: “When he was a young teen, he used to love all her music. I used to have to watch her music videos like Wrecking Ball a zillion times with him, so we were very familiar with who she was, and I knew I was going to like her, and I do like her.”

A mother who faked a pregnancy after suffering several miscarriages is the subject of a harrowing Netflix documentary.

Netflix’s latest docu-drama unravels an elaborate lie that saw a woman to cross an irreversible line.

Streaming giant Netflix has just unveiled an emotional trailer for a tragic docu-drama perfect for Maternal Instinct fans, that tells the story of a Mexican woman named Alejandra.

Based on real events that shook all of Mexico in 2009, the film, which features both dramatisations and real home footage, tells of how Alejandra had always wanted to be a mother. However, after suffering multiple miscarriage and noticing the distain from her family, she decided to fake a pregnancy.

The trailer features the voice of Alejandra, who says: “I felt so special. From the moment that the people close to you start treating you lovingly, expectantly, with that joy.

“The way they come up and touch your belly…Many times I wanted to say ‘This isn’t happening, I’m not pregnant’.”

Alejandra explained the tragic reasoning behind her actions, sharing: “When I got married, I felt pressured to please his family.”

Being only 25 at the time, she felt burdened by family and societal expectations and despite her efforts to conceive, she struggled numerous times.

Alejandra then recalled how she met a young woman named Mayra, who she claimed was pregnant but did not want to have the baby. Fixated on the knowledge she knew somebody who did not want to keep their baby, Alejandra began orchestrating her elaborate plan to abduct a child.

She is heard saying: “When I started gaining weight, everything started to change. I wanted someone to burst that balloon of lies.”

In June 2009, she went to the Hospital General de México, where she was employed, and left with a newborn girl, tucking the baby into a bag. Contributors offering their testimony in the film are heard saying: “This was very hard to believe. Yet, it happened.”

Reflecting on her actions, Alejandra said: “What did I do wrong? Breaking the law. Deceiving. Hurting. I think my desire to be a mum was to please others.”

Her story was told in a book by Randall Fuquay called A Child to Call My Own: A True Story of Desperate Love, a Stolen Child, and the Nine Months that Changed Everything. Now, the story has been adapted for the small screen by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Maite Alberdi.

A Child of My Own comes to Netflix on August 13

Need to know

The Costa Concordia disaster is one of the biggest maritime disasters since the Titanic, and the captain of the luxury cruise ship was at the centre of the tragedy

Everything you need to know about Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino

1. Netflix’s Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea delves into the harrowing 2012 Costa Concordia disaster that claimed 32 lives. The film features never-before-seen footage and survivor accounts from the luxury cruise ship that struck a rock near Giglio Island on 13 January 2012.
2. More than 4,000 passengers and crew were plunged into their worst nightmare as the vessel took on water and began to tilt. Captain Francesco Schettino delayed over an hour before ordering passengers to abandon ship and failed to provide authorities with accurate information.
3. The media branded him “Captain Coward” after footage emerged showing he had abandoned the bridge and boarded a lifeboat himself. Schettino told the court he had ordered the ship off course to please the vessel’s head waiter, whose family hailed from Giglio. Prosecutors alleged he steered too close to the island to show off to a dancer accompanying him at the helm.
4. Schettino was ultimately convicted of manslaughter and abandoning ship, and was sentenced in February 2015 to 16 years behind bars. He began serving his term in 2017 at Rome’s Rebibbia prison.
5. The term consisted of ten years for manslaughter, five years for causing the shipwreck, and one year for abandoning passengers, to be served consecutively. Having exhausted every avenue of appeal and with his conviction upheld, he began his sentence in 2017.
6. Schettino is not due for full release until 2033, according to Maritime Executive.

READ THE FULL STORY: Costa Concordia Captain Francesco Schettino sentence explained and year of release

Netflix viewers are binge watching the four part series, which has already found itself in the top 10

A “disturbing” true crime series that gives viewers nightmares is available to stream in full.

Earlier this week (July 1), streaming giant Netflix released four part series Worst Neighbor Ever, which comes from the same creators of shows Worst Ex Ever and Worst Roommate Ever.

Spanning across four episodes, it plunges viewers into real life neighbour disputes that often escalate to violence, and even murder. Through chilling body cam and CCTV footage as well as heartbreaking interviews with victims, the series also offers a unique approach by using animated re-enactments.

Promising to show cases that are “more shocking than ever”, an official synopsis teased: “You think you know your neighbors? Think again.

“This new series features first-hand accounts of violence, intimidation, and harassment that are more shocking than ever. Through compelling testimonials, startling body cam footage, and animated re-enactments, Worst Neighbor Ever proves the people next door aren’t just a nuisance – they’re lethal.”

The cases included a huge insurance scam explosion that had a catastrophic impact on one community, as well as a suspect’s chilling moves before a brutal shooting that left one dad dead.

Already, Worst Neighbor Ever has found itself in the top 10, surpassing other new releases taking the top spot.

Viewers cannot stop binge watching the four part anthology series, with some having “nightmares” from the harrowing cases shown.

Taking to X, one person wrote: “Episode 3 of #WorstNeighborEver has in my tearssssss. J**** man.” Another said: “#worstneighborever is crazy.”

A third fumed: “this #WorstNeighborEver series is ridiculous. there’s really some evil people out here.”

A fourth added: “These #WorstNeighborEver cases get worse and worse omg.” A fifth commented: “Episode 3 of worst neighbor ever just ruined my mf dayyyyyy!!!!!”

Another stated: “Every single episode of #WorstNeighborEver has made me cry, episode 3 especially.”

Over on TikTok, one true crime fan said the show was “unbelievably shocking” as they said in a video: “It did not disappoint, it was absolutely fantastic and I am shocked beyond belief.” They added it made then “so sad and so angry”.

One person replied: “just watched it the first episode was gut wrenching”, as another echoed: “OMG just finished watching it, I was bawling my eyes out he didn’t deserve that.”

A third added: “Thought it was so good, and so disturbing.” In another video, one reviewer stated the ‘Worst Ever’ collection has them “locked in every time”, as another said they were “not prepared” when watching the heartbreaking episode. A third penned: “It gave me nightmares.”

Worst Neighbor Ever can be streamed on Netflix