A wild new documentary sheds light on the rise and fall of the disgraced creator of the Girls Gone Wild franchise.
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Joe Francis, 51, is the man behind the series that was created in 1997, catching regular girls acting “wild” on camera at parties and often flashing the camera during college spring breaks.
Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story, is now streaming on Peacock. It tells of the seedy underside of what was really happening behind the scenes while detailing the secrets of Francis, who was arrested several times and served nearly a year in jail.
Francis, who is also a longtime friend of the Kardashians, has been romantically linked to Tara Reid and photographed alongside celebs, including Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.
Francis is also a longtime friend of the Kardashians, has been romantically linked to Tara Reid, and has been photographed partying with celebs such as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.
Francis lives in a compound in Mexico and hasn’t been interviewed in years but agreed to speak with Canadian journalist Scaachi Koul in an audio-only interview. He moved to Mexico after his 2011 arrest for allegedly imprisoning three women at his Hollywood home and assaulting one of them.
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“I did this all by myself with incredible hard work,” he told Koul of Girls Gone Wild, per the New York Post. “And it was all methodical. Let me just really take you back. I am a paperboy at like seven years old. I have been an entrepreneur my whole life, always making money. My dad had a lot of financial problems so I ended up getting a special work permit so I could scoop ice cream.”
Francis claimed that he financially supported his family when he was 13 and bought his first private jet a decade later.
Those alleged “facts” were difficult to corroborate, Koul said, adding details point to Francis’ childhood being “affluent and pretty comfortable.”
Francis has faced a flurry of legal troubles, including allegations of tax evasion (a per a Forbes report), and sexual misconduct, according to the The Hollywood Reporter.
While some lawsuits were dismissed, others settled, his legal woes culminated in 2013, when he was sentenced to 270 days in jail for an incident involving three charges: false imprisonment, assault causing great bodily injury, and dissuading a witness, according to NBC News.
On the documentary, Girls Gone Wild participants share their thoughts.
“Whatever they could say, they would say it, to get you on that bus,” recalled Janet, who went on the bus and stripped down on camera.
She alleged that the cameramen promised young, insecure girls fame, popularity and booze.
“I remember tripping the entire time I was walking, that’s how intoxicated I was, to this bus,” added Danielle, who was 18 at the time and signed a release before filming.
“I want to be a part of something that I thought was cool at the time … After we sign, then it got more sexual, like a ‘let’s take your shirt off now’ situation,” she said.
“I felt like what I had to say did not matter. I very much got that vibe from this cameraman. Like, if I didn’t comply, things could go really badly for me,” she added.
Janet and Danielle were both 18 at the time, but some girls allegedly were not.
“I was so humiliated. I was 16, I was so young,” recalled Lori, who appeared topless on a Girls Gone Wild tape in 1999. “I was obviously drunk.”
She was so embarrassed that, “I just stopped going to school, I didn’t know what to do.”
Following a 2003 raid, authorities found footage of at least 30 underage girls on tape for Girls Gone Wild.
After that incident, employees got more diligent, checking women’s identification.
In his audio-only interview, Francis can be heard saying, “I don’t want f—ing minors in my s—. I don’t want to go to jail. Am I totally misunderstood? Absolutely.”
As for the Girls Gone Wild cameramen who filmed minors, Francis said, “I was the owner of a company. You can’t hold Jeff Bezos responsible for what one of his hundred thousand Amazon delivery guys does. If he pees in someone’s lawn — and that is basically what we are talking about right here.”