Mischa Barton: I was told to ‘sleep with’ Leonardo DiCaprio at age 19
Mischa Barton once claimed she was told to sleep with Leonardo DiCaprio when she was just 19.
In a 2005 interview, which has resurfaced following DiCaprio’s recent sightings with 19-year-old model Eden Polani, the “O.C.” star recalled how her then-publicist had urged her to bed the notorious playboy, who was 30 at the time.
Barton, now 37, told Harper’s & Queen, which later rebranded as Harper’s Bazaar, that her rep said, “Go and sleep with that man” when they saw DiCaprio at a photo shoot in Malibu, Calif.
What’s more, the “Sixth Sense” actress claimed she had been advised to do so “for the sake of [her] career.”
Barton told the magazine that she had no interest in dating older men before asking, “Isn’t Leo, like, 30 or something?”
At the time, the “Titanic” star was back on the market following his split from supermodel Gisele Bündchen after a turbulent five-year rendezvous.
Page Six has reached out to reps for DiCaprio and Barton for further comment.
The decades-old interview bubbled up online again this week after DiCaprio, now 48, came under fire for being seen with Polani at a Grammys event.
Polani, who has since deleted her Instagram account, was pictured sitting next to the Hollywood heartthrob at Ebony Riley’s EP release party earlier this month.
But shortly after the pair were spotted together, a source close to DiCaprio — who’s been trolled for strictly dating women under the age of 25 — clarified to Page Six that they are not a romantic item.
“There is zero truth to this. He was seated next to [Polani] at a music party, along with many other people,” the insider told us. “It’s just silly. Leo clearly can’t be dating every single person that [he’s] in a room with.”
Prior to Polani, DiCaprio had been swarmed by countless models following his split from Camila Morrone last summer after four years of dating.
DiCaprio rang in 2023 with 23-year-old model Victoria Lamas and pals Drake and Tobey Maguire on a yacht in St. Barts.
And last year, the Oscar winner sparked romance rumors with Gigi Hadid after they were seen out and about in NYC.
The pair, who have known each other for a while, were first spotted hanging out with a group that included Gigi’s sister, Bella Hadid, and Kendall Jenner at Art Basel in Miami in 2019.
