Slideshows

Shocking celebrity confessions

Credit: Getty Images

Lance Armstrong, a seven-time Tour de France champion who has been hailed as one of America's greatest athletes, reportedly confessed to cheating this week after a years-long investigation by anti-doping authorities found the 41-year-old cyclist used banned performance-enhancing substances. Facing a lifetime ban from athletic competition and ample evidence compiled by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, Armstrong confessed to Oprah Winfrey that he used banned substances. Armstrong is the latest in a lengthy A-list of celebrities and powerful politicians laid low by bad behavior and forced to make public and sometimes painful confessions.