She once claimed to have dated Leonardo DiCaprio…<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]
Words by Bonnie McLaren<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-458608476.jpg” alt=”Kat Torres” title_text=”TAGS Two Year Anniversary Party” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”] Sometimes, it\u2019s online, on our timelines, where the maddest true crime stories play out. And that\u2019s certainly the case with the story of Kat Torres.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, a BBC documentary revisited the shocking case of the Brazilian model and influencer, who, after building a wellness empire, was sent to jail for eight years for human trafficking and slavery. Torres lured numerous women to live with her, before they were later pressurised into sex work. (These are claims Torres vehemently denies, and she has appealed the conviction.) Like, Follow, Trafficked: Insta\u2019s Fake Guru, is a gripping watch about the fall of a woman who once partied with Leonardo DiCaprio \u2013 and claimed to have spiritual powers.<\/p>\n At the height of her fame, Torres had over a million followers on Instagram, and with snaps of glamorous holidays and designer clothes, her rags-to-riches tale (Torres grew up in a poor area of Brazil) was almost too good to be true. Her website told followers they, like Torres, could have the \u2018love, money and self-esteem [they] always dreamed of\u2019. There were self-help videos, too. And for a fee, clients could tell Torres their hopes, worries and problems one-on-one via video call. Her ex-husband Colborn Bell says in the documentary: \u2018Her goal was helping people really achieve and manifest their dreams for themselves.\u2019 Her inspirations? John of God, a Brazil guru who was later convicted of rape, and American spiritualist Tony Robbins.<\/p>\n As well as her online presence, in 2017, Torres wrote a book A Voz (The Voice), in which she claimed she could communicate with higher powers. She was also interviewed about the book on TV shows, telling one host she wrote the whole book in a trance. \u2018It was really a voice from above.\u2019 She also sold merchandise to her followers, with one former client saying: \u2018I would buy everything Kat made. Everything she did, I bought it.\u2019<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}”] Previously a model, before the big wellness influencer boom, Torres moved in glamorous circles. And in 2013, one of her biggest claims to fame happened \u2013 24-years-old at the time, she was photographed with Leonardo DiCaprio in Cannes. Torres claimed to have dated him, telling Brazilian newspaper Extra: \u2018Leo is amazing, but I worry about what he will think about me talking to you. We have a pact that nothing can ever be said about our relationship.\u2019 DiCaprio has never said anything about Torres, or her claims of a relationship.<\/p>\n \u2018The story about her and Leonardo DiCaprio didn\u2019t harm her at all,\u2019 a childhood friend, played by an actor, said in the documentary. \u2018I think it actually made her name in the Brazilian media. If she was smart, she could have actually taken advantage of it, but she moved to the US.\u2019<\/p>\n Speaking on the documentary, her former New York roommate says Torres started to change after she took ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic plant-based drug.<\/p>\n And some of her clients allege to the BBC that they started to feel isolated from friends and family. When she was living in New York, one of her followers, Ana, moved to live with her, and be Torres\u2019 live-in assistant. But Ana says she was surprised by the unkept state of Torres\u2019 living space, and that she never saw the money. \u2018I see that she was using me as a slave,\u2019 she later said.<\/p>\n It was in 2022 Torres\u2019s life would start to unravel. Two women in Brazil – Desirr\u00ea Freitas and Let\u00edcia Maia – were reported missing, which sparked a campaign on social media to find the women. And when former assistant Ana heard the stories about Let\u00edcia and Desirr\u00ea in the media, she contacted the FBI, to recount her experience with Torres.\u00a0<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_code _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″] By now, Torres had moved from New York, and was living in Texas with a new husband. And she wanted her most loyal followers to join her, living and working at her home. Another woman, Sol, said she only managed to leave living with Torres with the help of a former boyfriend.<\/p>\n Desirr\u00ea wrote a book about her experience called Searching Desirr\u00ea. She claims Torres bought a ticket for her to join her in Texas, and that she was later forced to work in a strip club, with all the money going to Torres. Later, Desirr\u00ea became a prostitute. Prostitution is illegal in Texas, so Desirr\u00ea alleged that Torres would threaten to report her if she ever spoke about wanting to stop. To add to her fear, Desirr\u00ea also believed Torres could curse her. Financially, there were also targets for her to make. \u2018She said I could only return home once I had reached a daily goal of $3,000 and I ended up sleeping on the streets several times because I couldn’t reach that,\u2019 she wrote.<\/p>\n Escort accounts online were found for the missing women, and that\u2019s when Torres went on the run with Desirr\u00ea and Let\u00edcia. Footage obtained by the BBC shows the moment a law enforcement officer calls to check whether Desirr\u00ea and Let\u00edcia are OK \u2013 but Torres doesn\u2019t know she\u2019s being filmed, and beforehand warns the women she would \u2018scream\u2019 if they said anything. Torres was eventually persuaded to go to a police station with the women, where staff noticed the women\u2019s unusual behaviour.<\/p>\n The documentary ends with a bizarre interview, where the BBC obtained a court order to speak to her before the verdict of the trial, regarding what happened with Desirr\u00ea. Torres \u2013 wearing heavy black eyeliner, a white sweatshirt and her long hair cut in a bob \u2013 looks dishevelled, almost unrecognisable from the glossy woman on Instagram.<\/p>\n She denied everything, even laughing at the interviewers. \u2018When I was seeing the people testifying, they were saying so many lies,\u2019 she alleged, in April 2024. \u2018So many lies that at one point, I couldn’t stop laughing.\u2019 Torres also said that she couldn\u2019t believe any of her former clients were traumatised. She added: \u2018You choose to believe whatever you choose to believe. I can tell you I’m Jesus. And you can see Jesus, or you can see the devil, that\u2019s it. It’s your choice. It’s your mind.\u2019 She also said she \u2018absolutely\u2019 did not deserve to face legal ramifications.<\/p>\n A few months later, in July 2024, Torres was sentenced to eight years in prison for the human trafficking and slavery of Desirr\u00ea. Torres\u2019 lawyer told the BBC she has appealed her conviction and maintains her innocence. An investigation into the allegations from other women is ongoing in Brazil.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”] Photo: <\/b>Getty<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The shocking story of Kat Torres: the influencer jailed for human traffickingShe once claimed to have dated Leonardo DiCaprio…Words by Bonnie McLarenSometimes, it\u2019s online, on our timelines, where the maddest true crime stories play out. And that\u2019s certainly the case with the story of Kat Torres. Earlier this month, a BBC documentary revisited the shocking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":9057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-news"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9051"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9073,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9051\/revisions\/9073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘Leo is amazing.’<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]