Trigger warning: This article contains details of child abuse. For 15 years, he was a fast-food spokesperson turned pop culture icon with a dark secret. In 2015, however, he fell from grace after becoming the subject of a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe that revealed him to be a pedophile. So where is Jared from Subway now?
Born Jared Scott Fogle in August 1977, he lost 245lb between 1998 and 1999 having factored Subway sandwiches into his diet plan. He was subsequently hired by the chain to advertise its health merits and appeared in over 300 commercials during his time as the face of Subway restaurants. Using a pair of old jeans demonstrating how much weight he’d lost, Fogle became somewhat of a pop culture icon and was interviewed in Men’s Health magazine among others. In 2004, he even established the Jared Foundation, a nonprofit aimed at raising awareness about childhood obesity through educational programs and tools presented to parents, schools and community organizations. But at one health-related event in 2007, journalist and radio host Rochelle Herman-Walrond told police he’d made lewd comments to her about middle school-age girls and she made it her mission to bring him down.
Where is Jared from Subway now?
Where is Jared from Subway now? He’s serving time in federal prison for child sex crimes. It all began to unravel when Herman met Fogle in 2006. She hosted him on her local Florida radio show and was uncomfortable with how flirty he was; she was particularly troubled when he told her that he found middle school girls attractive. “He had leaned over to me and, above a whisper, he leaned over and he said how hot he thought middle school girls were,” a shocked Herman recalled to the New York Post. “I knew what he said was exactly how he felt. I knew that there was something very sinister about this man… Behind the smile and the friendly presentation that he puts off that that was truly a mask.”
Jared Fogle. Getty Images
As a mother of two, she decided to befriend him and record their conversations so that she might reveal his deviant inclinations to the FBI. Children “have such nice, pure bodies,” he once said to her. “Will you let me see your kids naked?” he asked Herman, in another taped exchange. But because the recordings were taken without his permission, the FBI told Herman they would be inadmissible in court. Thus, she became an informant. Herman’s chilling recordings can be heard in a three-part documentary, Jared from Subway: Catching a Monster, which premiered on March 6, 2023, on Discovery+. Audio reveals Fogel also talking about a sexual encounter he had with a “little boy” in Thailand. “It was amazing . . . Oh, it was so hot, baby. It was so, so f—king hot,” Fogle recalled. He then asked Herman, “Would you rather have a little boy or a little girl pleasure you?”
For the next four years, Herman would surreptitiously record conversations between herself and Fogle. Meanwhile, Russell Taylor, the director of the Jared Foundation, was being looked into for his own depraved crimes. During a raid of his home, authorities discovered Taylor had hidden cameras throughout the home and in the bedrooms of his stepdaughters, Christian Showalter and Hannah Parrett, who were interviewed as part of the Investigation Discovery documentary. The cameras captured the girls during vulnerable moments, like when they were undressing, as well as their friends. Authorities found more than 500 explicit images.
Taylor was arrested in April 2015 on charges of child exploitation, possession of child pornography and voyeurism—Fogle cut ties with him immediately after the arrest. Taylor plead guilty to child sex crimes and was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison. During investigations into Taylor’s crimes, authorities discovered Taylor and traded sexually explicit videos and photographs featuring children with Fogle. “What we found in Russell Taylor’s home and on his computers led us to Jared Fogle,” Tim Horty, spokesman for the US Attorney, told People at the time.
In July 2015, the FBI and Indiana State Police raided Fogle’s home in Zionsville, Indiana, and arrested him on distribution and receipt of child porn charges. The same day, Subway announced they dropped Fogle as a spokesperson. Federal court documents, obtained by the New York Post, that year revealed he’d paid a 17-year-old for sex at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan in 2012 and said she’d receive a bonus for finding him other young victims; “I’ll pay you big for a 14- or 15-year-old .. ’cause it’s what I crave!” he wrote in a text message. “Younger the better LOL.”
Jared Fogle. Image: Joey Foley / Stringer / Getty Images
Fogle, a married father of two, pleaded guilty to possession or distribution of child pornography and traveling across state lines to have commercial sex with a minor. Fogle’s lawyer, Jeremy Margolis, said after court that his client “has a medical problem’’ and has already been seen by a “world-class” psychiatrist. “He knows that restitution can’t undo the damage that he’s done, but he will do what he can,’’ Margolis said. “Jared Fogle expects to go to prison. He will do his time. He expects to get well. He will try to make amends to the people he affected.”
Indeed, the former face of Subway was sentenced to 15 years and eight months in a Colorado prison and agreed to pay each of his victims $14,000 in restitution. His projected release date is March 24, 2029, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons online records. Two years into his sentence, in January 2017, Fogle was reportedly beaten by a fellow inmate, Steven Nigg, who pushed the disgraced spokesman down and “unloaded a barrage of punches” to his face, TMZ reported. “He had to hit him. That’s how the whole thing started,” Nigg’s brother Jimmy, told PEOPLE at the time. “He just can’t be around child molesters. He doesn’t like them.” He continued that Steven “can’t figure out why you would do that to kids,” Jimmy continued. He says, ‘I can’t be around those people’.”
Jared from Subway: Catching a Monster is available to stream on Discovery+.
Parents in need of talk support can call the National Parent Helpline at 1-855-427-2736 or the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-CHILD. To report child abuse or neglect, contact law enforcement or child protective services in your county.