- Jared Fogle was known as Subway's spokesperson up until 2015 when his home was raided by the FBI.
- He's currently serving a nearly 16-year sentence for possession and distribution of child pornography.
Jared Fogle, one of the fast food industry's most infamous spokesmen, will be the focus of an upcoming documentary detailing his fall from grace as the face of Subway restaurants.
A teaser for the forthcoming documentary series — titled "Jared From Subway: Catching A Monster" and slated to debut in March on the true-crime channel ID — dropped last week, just ahead of news on Tuesday that the sandwich chain is eyeing a potential sale.
The 45-year-old first stepped into the spotlight over 20 years ago when Subway hired him to represent the brand after learning he'd lost 245 pounds from mostly eating Subway sandwiches.
His time at Subway made the Indiana-native a pop culture icon, and Fogle filmed around 300 commercials for the chain between 2000 and 2015. The partnership helped him reach a reported net worth $15 million as of 2013, according to the New York Daily News, and nearly tripled Subway's sales.
In July 2015, the professional relationship between Subway and Fogle came to a screeching halt, after federal authorities raided Jared's Indiana home on suspicion of possessing child pornography. Subway severed ties with the spokesman shortly after.
As Subway considers a potential sale of its more than $10 billion restaurant chain, and with a documentary on Fogle set to air in just a few weeks, here's how he went from Subway celebrity to shunned spokesman.
A Subway spokesman is born
In a 2004 interview with CBS, Jared said he weighed 425 pounds before using Subway sandwiches to aid in his over 200-pound weight loss. At that time, he said, he would consume around 10,000 calories a day.
At age 20, Jared decided to make some changes to lose the weight. His controversial — yet effective — diet included skipping breakfast and solely eating Subway sandwiches.
"He started skipping breakfast, and ate just two subs a day, a small turkey and a large veggie, along with some baked potato chips, and diet soda," according to CBS. "Soon, he cut his daily consumption from 10,000 calories a day to just 2,000."
When Subway heard about his transformation, he was brought on as their official spokesman, and photos of Fogle holding denim jeans from before his weight loss became a sensation. Jared amassed a fortune during his time at Subway, and met many celebrities as he gained his own fame, according to Insider.
The deal seemed to benefit both parties until the FBI raid and subsequent backlash that led Subway to part ways. The company announced the split to the public in a tweet on July 7, 2015.
—Subway® (@SUBWAY) July 7, 2015
Fogle goes down
Weeks later, the FBI subpoenaed an affidavit including texts between Jared and a former Subway franchisee in which Fogle allegedly admitted to paying for sex with a 16-year-old girl. Those who once supported the former spokesman quickly changed their opinions.
Four months later, in November 2015, he was sentenced to nearly 16 years in prison for possession and distribution of child pornography and traveling across state lines for sex with a minor.
A 2016 lawsuit filed against Subway on behalf of Fogle's ex-wife, Kathleen McLaughlin, alleged the company was aware of his actions as early as 2004 but did nothing. The couple were married for five years until their divorce in 2015. McLaughlin maintains that she didn't find out of his alleged sexual crimes until the FBI raided their home.
"As early as 2004, Subway's then-senior vice president of marketing received a complaint that Jared had approached a young girl at a promotional event for a Las Vegas Subway franchise for a sex act," the suit alleges, per Insider.
In May 2016, an Indianapolis woman came forward saying Fogle wrote her a letter from prison condemning the media for portraying him as a "monster."
"I made a couple of mistakes but nothing like the media reports have said," reads the letter addressed to Brena Firkins, Fox59 reported. "They are making me into some sort of monster which is absolutely not true."
Jared is currently serving a 15 year and eight months sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Colorado.
The documentary series will premiere on ID on March 6.