James Franco’s first public troubles came back in 2014, when he was accused of sending text messages to a young woman who, at the time, was 17 years old. According to various reports, Franco sent text messages to the woman, who was not yet 18 — and Franco was 35 years old. According to a report in The Daily Mail, Lucy Clode, a Scottish fan of Franco, exchanged several direct messages with the “Spring Breakers” star where he inquired as to whether the young woman had a boyfriend, where in New York she was staying, and asked for her phone number. Franco, at one point, sent a photo of himself to prove that it was really him.
Franco admitted to sending the messages on a 2014 episode of “Live with Kelly and Michael” (via Entertainment Weekly), telling the morning talk show hosts, “I’m embarrassed, and I guess I’m just a model of how social media is tricky. It’s a way people meet each other today, but what I’ve learned is you don’t know who’s on the other end. I used bad judgement and I learned my lesson.” Still, this was only the beginning of Franco’s public problems.
