Did Jay Shetty con the world by fabricating his story? Journalist’s shocking disclosures about social media “monks”

Life coach Jay Shetty amassed a sizable fan base in 2016 when he started posting motivational videos. Shetty’s Indian parents reared him in London, where he was born. According to his website, Jay Shetty lived with monks in India throughout the summers while attending school, fully absorbing their knowledge and teachings.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Michelle Obama, Matt Damon, and other celebrities all think highly of Shetty and have expressed their admiration for her. He even performed the wedding ceremony for Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck.

Journalist John McDermott, however, has recently asserted that Shetty’s past is not as remarkable as it seems. McDermott said in a piece that appeared in The Guardian that he was asked to do a profile for Esquire, but he discovered that many of Shetty’s assertions were contradictory.

What details about Jay Shetty did John McDermott discover?
Shetty has written about his life’s journey in two of his best-selling books and has discussed it on talk programs. He said that after hearing a monk named Gauranga Das speak when he was in business school, he had a profound spiritual awakening. He said that he spent three years studying in an ashram in India.

McDermott, however, discovered a number of contradictions in the narrative. He said that Shetty often alters his age in the story. He claims to be 18 at times and to be 21 or 22 at other times. According to Gauranga Das and Shetty’s legal team, the conversation happened in 2007, making Shetty 19 or 20 years old at the time.

Shetty did visit India, according to a number of individuals who knew him at the time, but not for as long as he says. According to several of his old companions, he did not spend most of his time as a monk in Mumbai, but rather at Bhaktivedanta Manor, an estate outside of London. According to Das and Shetty’s legal team, he was only there for a few months before relocating to India. But according to a trip journal Shetty maintained at the time, Bhaktivedanta was his primary ashram. In 2011, he wrote of coming back after spending “nearly four months in India” and then spending time at City University in London, where he “enjoyed festivals and distributed flyers and books on the streets all over the UK.”

Shetty has said that during his time as a monk, he was once so cut off from society that he didn’t even know who the prime minister was when he returned to society. Some have brushed these allegations aside, claiming that Shetty was in London a much of this time, making popular YouTube videos. As one acquaintance put it, “I saw him more in sweatpants than in robes.”

Shetty has been hesitant to discuss in public that he received part of his religious education from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON, a Hindu religious organization known as the Hare Krishna movement. This might be as a result of the controversy surrounding ISKCON, which includes claims of abuse.

Over the years, Shetty has also been charged of plagiarism. A number of content providers said that he neither paid for nor requested permission to republish their works on Instagram.

McDermott discovered serious problems with the Jay Shetty Certification School, a self-help program that charges $7,400 a term and claims to provide students a master’s degree in life coaching. According to McDermott, this institution pays OTHM, a private exam-certification business in the UK, “to evaluate and certify its accreditation.” He said, “It also claims that the degree has been “approved” by Ofqual, the UK government’s exam body, which oversees all examinations for colleges and universities.

Ofqual said that it does not control the accreditation of the institution. A representative for Ofqual said in an email to McDermott that the agency will be getting in touch with the school to have “references to Ofqual removed from their website.”

McDermott further said that, according to Shetty’s attorneys, Ofqual has not authorized the Jay Shetty Certification School. On the school’s website, it states that it is instead “an OTHM Approved Center,” meaning that OTHM has received approval from Ofqual. As a consequence, students are “eligible to progress” to certain programs “with advanced standing.”

However, OTHM informed the Guardian that Jay Shetty is not recognized by Ofqual and that the Center is unrelated to any Ofqual-regulated qualifications held by OTHM. Even though the Jay Shetty School is an OTHM “endorsed Learning Programme,” they said that the way the arrangement is presently described on the Shetty’s website “may mislead” and that these programs “are not Ofqual regulated.”

Regarding Shetty, he seems to be unconcerned with the accusations so far. He hasn’t responded directly to the charges.