After fellow soldiers said Farmer was never wounded during a mission in Iraq, the Tulisa-born contestant states, 'Everything you have read is correct. It was ALL lies.'
- Feb 2, 2013
AceShowbiz - As people question the validity of his story about his military service, "American Idol" contestant Matt Farmer has come clean about it. To the Guardian of Valor which first pointed out his lies, the singing hopeful releases a statement admitting that he was lying about being injured in an IED explosion during his deployment.
"Everything you have read is correct. It was ALL lies," he writes. "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 do in fact take FULL responsibility for the actions and words I have said, and know that this will never go away," he continues in the lengthy statement. "I started to believe my own lies. And after I believed them... I would catch myself talking like it had happened to me my entire life."
The Tulisa-born guy adds, "The lies end here. I want to base the life I have left on nothing but what is real and genuine and in the here and now. I am EXTREAMLY remorseful and VERY upset that I allowed myself to take from the hard work of the guys that i was deployed with among others."
"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 lfe and brain... Is rediculous," he admits, before apologizing to "EVERYONE but more importantly the men I served with."
During "Idol" auditions in Long Beach, 26-year-old Farmer claimed he suffered a brain injury after being injured in an IED explosion in Iraq. "We were on a mission [in Iraq] ... we came across an IED. The IED exploded. I just remember waking up in the hospital in Kuwait. I was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury," he said. "Medication they gave me as supposed to make me be sterile, but six months later [my daughter's] mom was pregnant."
His roommate, however, contradicted his story as saying, "He was medevac'd from Ramadi because he got drunk while he was taking accutane, an acne medication... He proceeded to rat out everyone he was drinking with and never came back to the company. He was never involved in one single direct fire engagement, was never wounded."
Sgt. David Johnson, who served with Farmer, added, "Matt Farmer is a fraud... He prematurely left theatre for using banned substances specifically medication not prescribed and alcohol."
Farmer initially defended himself, claiming that part of the interview was "chopped up." He said, "IM FIRM in the fact that i know i had talked about in over 6 hours of interviews that i discussed certain missions and stuff that we did on a day to day basis...i than 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."
