4 minutes read
What 'world's hottest felon' Jeremy Meeks looks like now more than a decade after viral fame
Kim N.
Jeremy Meeks found instant overnight fame back in 2014 after his striking mugshot went viral - but what is the 'hot felon' up to now?
Now 42, Meeks was 30 when he was arrested in Stockton, California, during a gang sweep, but ended up amassing an unexpected following after his mugshot was shared on Facebook by police.
His shaved head, light stubble and tattoos, combined with his chiseled jawline and piercing blue eyes had thousand thirsting over him, and soon earned him the accolade of being known as the 'hot felon'.
In February 2015, Meeks was convicted by a federal judge of one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison, where he served 13 months of his sentence before being released in March 2016.
Upon his release, Meeks was quickly signed up by a model agent and began a very successful modeling career, making his runway debut in 2017.
Prior to his arrest, Meeks had a son with his ex-wife Melissa Meeks, to whom he was married from 2008 until 2018, and went on to have a second son with Chloe Green, the daughter of British businessman Philip Green, before the pair split amicably in 2019.
What does Jeremy Meeks look like now?
Well, there's no mistaking Meeks as he still remains just as striking as he ever was, as fans got an update on his life in a new podcast interview.
In March 2026, Meeks appeared on the Matthew Cox - Inside True Crime podcast where he opened up about the madness of overnight fame.
He revealed that fans were so obsessed with trying to get close to him that they even took up some of the very limited visitor slots to see him in prison, stopping his own child - Jeremy Jr., now 17 - from being able to visit his father.
Meeks explained: "I’m still a month into my mug shot going viral. This is so fresh that I'm still getting letters. I got random, random f**king people coming up to visit me."
He revealed that they never actually got to spend time with him face to face as he would deny them "before I even walk up the stairs into the section" as he could see them through the glass, and told officers he did not know who the visitor was.
Despite him turning down their visits, the prison still counted them as among his two-per-week allowance.
"They're like, ‘Well, I'm still taking your visit. You can deny it, but I'm still gonna take your visit for the week.' So now my family can't come because I got f**king random people coming to see me and it was so frustrating."
He recalled telling two people who'd returned numerous times: "'Hey, please don't come back. I need to see my kids.
"'My son's 5 years old and he doesn't understand why I'm not home and he needs to see me. I’m just gonna ask that you please don't come back.'"
He admitted: "It was rough. And the only thing that made it rough is ‘cause my kids."
As he didn't have social media before prison, Meeks didn't initially understand his mugshot going viral, until news channels began trying to speak with him.
"I would say on the third day, that's when just... floods and floods of letters from all over the world. I was probably getting 300 letters a day," he revealed, adding that he was found it "too much" when people began sending him nude photos and money orders.
He revealed that the intense attention - including reporters fighting to get into the courtroom for his hearings - led to conflict with the corrections officers when he was behind bars.