‘American Idol’ contestant Matthew Farmer has admitted that he lied about his military service on Wednesday night’s episode of the popular singing show, this after first denying he had made false claims, and blaming the show’s editors for misrepresenting him.
In a rambling statement to the website Guardianofvalor.com, Farmer apologized for claiming he had suffered a traumatic brain injury after being injured in an IED explosion in Iraq.
“It was ALL lies,” Farmer wrote. “I in fact HAVE lied since a younger age and had a problem with it. I am coming out and making a statement (even though I was instructed not to) because I DO want to come clean.”
“I was told to keep quiet and not talk to anyone, and I have decided that what’s best for me and my family is to come out and end the insanity,” Farmer wrote. “I indeed have many many things to work with and need to get a lot of help doing it. Again I apologize to everyone that I have come across and hurt or lied too.”
Farmer said he regretted demeaning the service of his fellow Army Infantrymen with his false statements.
“I am EXTRMELEY remorseful and VERY upset that I allowed myself to take from the hard work of the guys that iIwas deployed with among others,” he wrote. “To think that I would go on a national TV show and get away with continuing a lie so big, and so deeply imbedded in my life and brain … Is ridiculous.”
Many soldiers who had served with Farmer had written to StolenValor.com saying his IED story was a fabrication, and that he had not been injured in combat, but from a mix of acne medication and alcohol, which is forbidden.
“I was a sniper section leader attached to his company and lived in the same room with him until he was medevaced from Ramadi because he got drunk while he was taking Accutane,” his alleged former roommate told the website. “He was never involved in one single direct fire engagement, was never wounded, and made up this whole lie to try and make his story sound good to ‘American Idol.’”
Another soldier, Sgt. David Johnson, who said he served with Farmer, claimed his former colleague was “a fraud.”
“His actions endangered the rest of his platoon and company and forced the rest of the company to be searched in what is called a ‘health and welfare’ for illegal substances,” Johnson said.
And the statements didn’t stop there.
Another said he was taken home after having seizures from “unauthorized” medicine use, another said the “Idol” contestant “never saw combat, never got blown up, never got a TBI,” and a team leader of the United States Army Infantryman, John F. McManus, said Farmer’s televised story was “a bold-faced lie,” and that he has “used the blood, sweat, and tears or real, hard-working, tough, brave and honorable Infantry soldiers to paint himself as someone he was most certainly not.”
Farmer, via Guardian of Valor, first denied the allegations, and passed blame to the producers at “American Idol” for “chopping” up his sound bites when they edited his TV profile.
“I wanted to contact you directly and let you know that ‘American Idol’ took certain things I said out of context. Three pictures that were shown were not ones provided by myself but stock photos THEY used,” Farmer reportedly wrote. “I at NO time gained any monetary values about my story that was used on ‘American Idol’ and want it to also be known that I am no longer a part of the show.” (The “Idol” judges loved his performance and had sent Farmer on to the next round.)
Farmer went on to say he did indeed “overdose on pills,” and after being medivac’d out and later sent to Germany, where he said he was told that he had “PTSD and anxiety disorder.” He also vehemently denied that he was “kicked out” of Iraq or the Army.
With regards to “Idol,” Farmer insisted that he had asked the show to not talk about anything but he and his young daughter, who appeared with him in the audition, and wanted no “claim to fame” for anything related to his military career.
He noted that a “portion” of the statements published on the website were “correct,” but when pressed by Guardian of Valor to address his IED explosion claims, he responded: “I’m FIRM in the fact that I know I had talked about it over 6 hours of interviews that I discussed certain missions and stuff that we did on a day to day basis. Then I mentioned to a producer in an interview that I had an accident while in country and remember ‘waking up in Kuwait.’ This is where this was all pieced together. I am sure you have watched the clip and can realize that it is chopped up.”
The founder of Guardianofvalor.com, a serviceman who wishes to remain anonymous, says stories like Farmer’s are “disappointing to the whole war fighter community.”
“A lot of us have lost friends, brothers, sisters, moms and dads to the IEDs in both Iraq and Afghanistan. For someone who was never hit by one of these devices, to claim to have been, tarnishes the memories of those who have been killed by them,” he told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “It is a disgrace to our military when it is used for publicity to help someone gain popularity with the judges of ‘American Idol,’ or the American people in general.”
-FoxNews