Jack Whitehall Claims Jared Leto Was Not Happy With This Brit Awards Joke
Over his previous five outings as host of the Brit Awards, comedian Jack Whitehall has become known for his love of roasting the musicians in attendance.
But it seems not everyone has been such a fan of his irreverent presenting style.
In the run-up to this year’s Brits, the comic paid a visit to the Radio 2 breakfast show, where Scott Mills asked if there’ve been any celebrities to have “taken one of the jokes really badly”.
“One guy… didn’t like his intro,” Jack responded. “And then, during the show, when I was up on stage hosting, one of the producers found him by the autocue, with his publicist, changing my script – actually deleting the intro and typing in his own one.”
“I’m like Ron Burgundy, I would have just read it, but someone found him,” Jack added.
Asked to name and shame, Jack then revealed he was talking about Jared Leto, claiming the Oscar-winning 30 Seconds To Mars frontman “wanted me to introduce him as the biggest rock star on the planet”.
“I wasn’t on board with that,” the British comedian recalled. “I wanted to introduce him as ‘the hipster Jesus’. And that was deleted.”
HuffPost UK has contacted Jared Leto’s team for comment.
During Jack’s tenure as Brits host, Jared has attended the ceremony twice, first in 2019 and later in 2025, where he presented the British Artist Of The Year award to the night’s big winner, Charli XCX.
Last year, dance act Becky Hill hit back after taking issue with Jack’s introduction for her at the Brits, accusing him of making a classist remark about her.
Meanwhile, he sparked Ofcom complaints back in 2019 after making an inappropriate joke about Little Mix while introducing their performance.
The 2026 Brit Awards will take place in Manchester on Saturday 28 February.