This week Jared Fogle pleaded guilty to charges of child pornography and child sex. He allegedly had been flying to New York City on "business trips" in order to participate in illegal underage sex with minors. Additionally, he was accused of using the director Russell C. Taylor from his charity "The Jarod Foundation" — a foundation started to fight childhood obesity — to produce child pornography for him. The youngest known participant was a 6-year-old at the time, according to USA Today.
Fogle came from grassroots beginnings as he became recognized for his battle against obesity that ended in his triumphant loss of 245 pounds, and Subway acquiring him as a spokesperson and using him for over 300 ads. His net worth is estimated at about $15 million.
Fogle appeared to have everything that a man could dream of: fame, wealth, a healthy body, a loving wife and family. The ultimate American dream success story. He evidently dealt with his own demons, however.
What makes a man who seems to have it all resort to such corrupted hobbies and addictions? A man who had the ideal life and sponsorship who becomes violator of numerous laws and moral codes by soliciting for child pornography through prostitutes and actively garnering child pornography from a director of a children's charity?
This type of scandal speaks largely for the inability to decipher the face of a person facing child pornography allegations in a crowd of individuals. There is no set-in-stone type of person who comes up to the stand in these cases; it can be a woman, a man, any age, any background, any income, basically any demographic.
Experts speculate that Fogle's demons of pedophilia arise from not just a decision to participate in acts so entirely immoral, but from a mental health disease. Pedophilia has been believed to be a mental illness that is formed from day one, birth, and that the only cure is intensive psychiatric therapy.
People with these disorders stand among us unannounced and silent. Now these people are identified as one man: Jared Fogle. His disorder was a part of him long before his fame, his fortune, his family. It became a part of his psyche before becoming Subway's spokesman and national icon.
Many may try to argue that Fogle's downward spiral arose because of his fame and fortune, but these qualities are unrelated to his personal demons. He simply happens to be one of the many with the mental disorder that allows him to crave child pornography and underage prostitution and be the unfortunate face in the limelight who must be help accountable for the actions of which he is accused.
