Democratic megadonor David Geffen, known for hosting the Obamas and celebrities like Oprah Winfrey on his $450 million superyacht, is accused of plying his ex-porn star husband—50 years his junior—with drugs and trotting him around the globe as a “paid sex worker” to show off to his famous friends, according to a bombshell lawsuit.
The lawsuit, coming less than two years into the star-crossed May-December marriage, is not the first time legal drama has brought forth allegations that Geffen has solicited prostitution and groomed young male porn stars who came to fear him. It’s also an unwelcome jolt of bad publicity for the retired music mogul and kingmaker who is worth almost $9 billion and played a pivotal role in turning the tide of establishment support to Barack Obama in 2007 when he denounced the Clintons to the New York Times, saying that “everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it’s troubling.”
Geffen’s husband, a 32-year-old former gay porn performer named David Armstrong, accuses the 82-year-old billionaire of “grooming” him through “control, promises of love, and lavish displays of wealth.” Armstrong, who is black, says it is a case of the “exploitation of a vulnerable, marginalized young gay Black man by a wealthy, powerful white gay billionaire who believed himself untouchable.”
There’s no prenuptial agreement, something that has left Hollywood aghast, according to multiple reports, though the Wall Street Journal indicates that as a retiree, Geffen’s income is largely passive, and in California, jilted spouses have no rights to wealth earned prior to a marriage.
Armstrong says in the lawsuit he first met Geffen in 2016—when Geffen, having softened to the Clintons, was backing Hillary to replace Obama—through the “Seeking Arrangement” web platform that connects young, attractive people with older, rich men. Geffen may also have recognized Armstrong, who had a devoted fan base for his performances in adult videos. Armstrong, who also goes by the name Donovan Michaels, says Geffen paid him $10,000 for sex the first night they met. They married in March 2023 in a quiet ceremony in Beverly Hills. Geffen filed for divorce from Armstrong in May.
Platforms like “Seeking Arrangement,” similar to some escort services, are legal as they do not explicitly facilitate sex-for-hire, but soliciting prostitution is a crime in California. Geffen’s legal response to Armstrong’s lawsuit did not address the Seeking Arrangement allegations, or that of the $10,000 payment. While Geffen—one of Obama’s biggest fundraisers whose longtime business partner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-chaired Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign—has denied his husband’s allegations as “petty gossip,” it’s not the first time the billionaire has been accused of wielding wealth and power over much younger lovers. In 2015, a gay porn star whose legal name is Justin Griggs testified at a federal extortion trial that he was afraid to speak to the FBI about his purported relationship with Geffen for fear of his safety.
The 2015 trial, which took place as Geffen was actively “bundling” millions of dollars in donations for Clinton, concerned the extortion of a telecommunications entrepreneur named Donald Burns by a gay porn star he’d hired for sex named Teofil Brank. The trial exposed a lifestyle in which older, uber-wealthy gay porn fans would hire male porn models, often in groups and from the same studio, for sex.
According to Courthouse News Service, Griggs—who said he was one of a band of young men that Burns had recruited for group sex in Palm Beach and Nantucket—was asked on the witness stand by Brank’s lawyer about a telephone interview he’d given the FBI in which, according to the lawyer, he “didn’t want to give details about an individual because he was very powerful and you feared for your safety if you disclose information.”
The “friend,” as Griggs described him, had given him a “gift” of dental work. When the judge, overruling defense objections, ordered Griggs to disclose the name of the friend, he said “David Gaffen” [sic].
At the time, Geffen told the New York Post, “A witness dropped my name. I know nothing about these people or this event.”
Geffen had a busy year in 2015. In addition to his active fundraising for Clinton, he also gave a staggering $100 million to New York’s Lincoln Center for the renovation of the famously acoustically challenged Avery Fisher Hall, home of the New York Philharmonic. When the renamed David Geffen Hall reopened in 2022, Geffen was honored with multiple festive galas, solidifying him at the top of the heap of New York’s cultural philanthropists. He sits on the Lincoln Center’s prestigious board. Yale’s world-renowned School of Drama is now named for him.
Also in New York, Geffen gave $75 million to Columbia Business School which named a building “David Geffen Hall.” In 2021 and in 2016, he gave $100 million to the Museum of Modern Art which named a three level section “The David Geffen Wing.”
In the Los Angeles area, Geffen’s name is displayed on the pediments of some of the city’s top cultural institutions including the David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Geffen Playhouse, and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Marrying a porn star 50 years his junior may not have seemed in sync with the otherwise meticulous image building by one of Hollywood’s most famously ruthless operators in his sunset years. But, according to the Wall Street Journal, Geffen’s associates, while “stunned,” realized Geffen was “in love.”
Armstrong’s lawsuit against Geffen makes similar allegations to those of Griggs. Armstrong claims Geffen forced him to undergo extensive and painful dental work—along with laser hair removal—to keep up appearances for his famous friends. Armstrong also alleges Geffen used him as “a living social experiment—a trophy to show off to his wealthy friends, under the guise of benevolence.”
According to Armstrong, Geffen sought a divorce after Armstrong said he wanted to “develop a new identity,” in part by weaning himself off drugs. His lawsuit is unusual for a divorce in that he’s claiming breach of contract, asserting that Geffen promised to support and take care of him long term.
“It was a sick game,” the lawsuit says. “[Armstrong] became a prop in Geffen’s theater of virtue, paraded around as evidence of Geffen’s supposed altruism, while privately used as a sexual commodity.”
In his response to Armstrong’s lawsuit, Geffen denies promising Armstrong anything and counters that the marriage faltered due to Armstrong’s habitual drug use and squandering vast amounts of Geffen’s money on drugs, OnlyFans, and male escorts. Geffen’s attorneys describe Armstrong’s lawsuit as “a work of fiction.”
It remains to be seen how the salacious claims will affect Geffen’s standing in Democratic political circles, where the DreamWorks co-founder has long used his vast wealth and extensive Hollywood rolodex to advance the careers of up-and-coming politicos, going back to Bill Clinton. Geffen reportedly flew to Arkansas in 1990 to meet Clinton and backed his long-shot campaign for president two years later.
Geffen reportedly urged Obama in 2004 to run for president and hosted an early Hollywood fundraiser in February 2007 that raised $1.3 million for the upstart Obama campaign.
Geffen’s support landed him top-tier access to both Democratic presidencies. Clinton invited Geffen to a state dinner in 1994 for Russian prime minister Boris Yeltsin. He was one of the White House’s overnight guests drawn into the so-called Lincoln Bedroom scandal in 1996 over the Clintons’ alleged use of White House sleepovers as a reward for top donors.
In 2009, Geffen attended an Obama state dinner for Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, where the music mogul was seated next to First Lady Michelle Obama. Geffen’s guest at the swanky event was his boyfriend at the time, 41 years his junior.
Geffen has continued to flex his fundraising muscle. In December 2023 he hosted a major fundraiser for Joe Biden in the Los Angeles area. Geffen recently donated millions to the DNC, Sen. Chuck Schumer’s Senate Majority PAC, and other Democratic groups, according to campaign finance records. In 2020, Geffen gave $500,000 to the Lincoln Project, the anti-Trump, purportedly conservative group whose co-founder, John Weaver, quit in disgrace after revelations that he preyed on young conservative men.
Geffen is far from the only Democratic power broker accused of preying on young victims.
Ed Buck, a Democratic donor linked to Adam Schiff, Hillary Clinton, and others, is serving 30 years in prison for injecting black men with meth at his home for sexual gratification. Two men died from overdoses. Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood producer and Clinton family friend, has been sentenced to long prison terms in both New York and California for raping multiple women. His third New York rape trial will take place sometime later this year.
An attorney for Geffen did not respond to a request for comment.
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