The details surrounding Armie Hammer’s story that he contemplated suicide in 2021 are being called into question, as old messages show him telling a similar narrative one year earlier.
In Instagram DMs exchanged between Hammer and his ex Courtney Vucekovich in June 2020 — obtained by Page Six for our exclusive interview with the Flashd app founder in January 2021 — the “Call Me by Your Name” star shared the exact same story about swimming out into the ocean.
“So, my dad and I are almost getting in to [sic] fist fights every night and my wife [Elizabeth Chambers] and I are fighting all day,” he wrote at the time.
“Then covid hits the [Cayman] island and they go full draconian shut down. No one allowed outside. At all. … So it becomes a pressure cooker. And I started to lose my mind.”
The quarantine on the Cayman Islands — where Hammer, Chambers and their two kids fled during the pandemic before the Bird Bakery owner filed for divorce — ultimately led the now-disgraced actor to debate ending his life.
“Long story short….I swam out really far in the ocean. Too far,” he messaged Vucekovich. “And immediately realized how bad things had gotten, got a therapist…got a plan to get out, but my plan was asinine.”
Neither a rep for Hammer nor Vucekovich immediately returned Page Six’s requests for comment.
In his first interview since a career-threatening scandal, which saw him being accused of raping a woman named Effie and abusing numerous others, the “Rebecca” star, 36, told Air Mail that in February 2021 he “just walked out into the ocean and swam out as far as I could and hoped that either I drowned, or was hit by a boat, or eaten by a shark.”
The motivation for Hammer to seemingly change the timeline or rehash the same story twice remains unclear, though a source close to the Golden Globe nominee believes he is doing it for “sympathy.”
“Sociopaths try to gain sympathy,” the source tells us. “He tried to say it was post-allegations. It shows how manipulative he still is by training to get sympathy.”
While Hammer has vehemently denied any criminal wrongdoing, he admitted in the interview, published Saturday, that he had been emotionally abusive toward former partners.
“I’m here to own my mistakes, take accountability for the fact that I was an a–hole, that I was selfish, that I used people to make me feel better, and when I was done, moved on,” he said.
“I’m now a healthier, happier, more balanced person. I’m able to be there for my kids in a way I never was,” the movie star added. “I’m truly grateful for my life and my recovery and everything. I would not go back and undo everything that’s happened to me.”
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.