Mischa Barton claimed she was told to ‘sleep with Leonardo DiCaprio’ when she was 19’

The actor has claimed that when she was a teen her then publicist told her to sleep with Leonardo DiCaprio “for the sake of your career”.

Mischa Barton claimed that she was told to sleep with Leonardo DiCaprio when she was 19 years old.

The model and actor, now 37, paved a successful career at an early age.

Among her roles, Barton has played Marissa Cooper in The OC, Kyra Collins in The Sixth Sense, and Vicky Austin in A Ring of Endless Light.

In a 2005 interview, which has resurfaced following DiCaprio’s recent sightings with 19-year-old model Eden Polani, she said she was told to sleep with the Titanic actor, who was 30 at the time,” reported The Sun.

Mischa Barton attends the premiere of MTV's The Hills: New Beginnings in 2019 in Los Angeles, California. Amy Sussman/Getty Images/AFP

DiCaprio had just broken up with his girlfriend Gisele Bündchen at the time after a rocky six-year romance.

Barton explained that her then-publicist Craig Schneider had seen Leo at a photo shoot, and said to her: “For the sake of your career, go and sleep with that man”.

The star continued to add, to Harpers & Queen magazine, that she had “no interest in older men”, adding: “Isn’t Leo, like, 30 or something?”

Leonardo DiCaprio attends the Don't Look Up world premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Centre on December 05, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Netflix)

DiCaprio has come under fire after being seen with Ms Polani.

Sources close to the star were forced to hit back at claims the pair were dating after they were seen together at the same event.

After huge backlash online about the 48-year-old, a source said: “They were seated next to each other at a music-listening party. There were a number of people at that event”.

It comes after psychologist Jo Hemmings told The Sun that DiCaprio will end up on the shelf if he doesn’t pack in his partying.

Since splitting from his long-term girlfriend Argentinian actor Camillia Morone DiCaprio has been spotted relentlessly living it up with a string of different women.

Barton was a teen when she starred in The OC.

Ms Hemmings told The US Sun: “Leo’s nudging 50 yet still has this Peter Pan eternal youth to his excesses.

“He’s also a bit of a risk taker and is rarely seen without a cigarette dangling from his lips or fingers or surrounded by models.

Mischa Barton in 2004 a year before she said it was suggested she sleep with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Mischa Barton in a 2005 advertisement for Keds sneakers.

“Otherwise, with no family responsibilities, Leo seems to be extending and celebrating both his successful career and his free personal life for as long as he can,” she said.

“As an only child of divorced parents, he’d probably have been overindulged by both parents growing up.

“They’d have ensured that any guilt they felt at splitting up wouldn’t impact a young, talented, and impressionable Leo.

“It’s this indulgence, combined with the fact that he doesn’t have any children of his own, that has enabled him to extend his youthful behaviour and party for as long as possible.

“There are many men of his age who are already tied to all the financial and emotional commitments of having a young family.

“They might cast an envious glance at both his record of dating young, beautiful women and his seemingly carefree approach to life.”

This story appeared in The Sun and is reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Mischa Barton claimed she was told to ‘sleep with Leonardo DiCaprio’ when she was 19’