THE ex-husband of embattled YouTuber Colleen Ballinger has shared a bizarre post about self-wellness as the star faces grooming allegations.
Ballinger, 36, who skyrocketed to fame on YouTube with her beloved character Miranda Sings, received blowback following allegations that she engaged in an inappropriate relationship with an underage content creator.
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The YouTuber denied the allegations, calling them a toxic gossip train in a 10-minute video on Wednesday.
Now, her ex-husband, Joshua David Evans, shared a cryptic post amid the controversy surrounding his ex-wife.
“In the midst of chaos and pain, remember to protect the goodness within yourself,” The post read.
“Choose healthy ways of coping. Choose humility over winning. Choose the version of you that you can be proud of.
“You don’t have to be perfect to do the right thing.”
GROOMING ALLEGATIONS
In 2020, fellow YouTuber Adam McIntyre accused Ballinger of grooming and using him for content when he was a minor.
He said he discovered Ballinger as Miranda Sings in 2012 and instantly became a fan.
However, he claims that in 2016, he and Ballinger started talking on a more personal level and became good friends.
At this time, McIntyre would have been 13 years old, and Ballinger was already in her 30s.
In his video titled colleen ballinger, stop lying, McIntyre accused Ballinger of using him for free labor and video ideas and gave him the password to her Miranda Sings Twitter account to run it.
He also shared a video in which Ballinger allegedly sent lingerie to him when he was 15.
The allegations resurfaced in June after another former fan of Ballinger’s, KodeeRants, came forward about their own experience, providing screenshots of messages showing Ballinger allegedly talking in a group chat that included minors and adults.
“I did not know at the time that there were minors in these group chats,” Kodee said in their video titled Why I left the Colleen Ballinger fandom…, while admitting that they were adults when they were first added to the chat.
“I should have done the research on [this], so I want to apologize to any child who was in these group chats. I should not have been in a group chat with you.”
Kodee initially sided with Ballinger when McIntyre first made his allegations against her in 2020 but has since apologized.
In their video, Kodee shared more screenshots of Ballinger allegedly asking underage fans inappropriate questions, including McIntyre.
“Basically, it has been confirmed that Colleen was orchestrating everything, through this person Kodee, to try to take me down because she didn’t want me having a voice,” McIntyre claimed.
He also confirmed the screenshots Kodee shared in the video of the inappropriate messages Ballinger allegedly sent to McIntyre and other minors.
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“She asked me what my favorite sex position is,” McIntyre claimed.
“Now, if that doesn’t validate any of the stories that she would be talking openly about her sex with her ex-husband to me, then I don’t know what will.”
He claimed that Ballinger would create a toxic environment with her younger viewers, allegedly egging them on to bully her ex-husband, former friends, and other fans.
BIZARRE VIDEO
Weeks after the wave of allegations, Ballinger addressed the accusations in a bizarre social media video.
Ballinger appeared in the video, titled Hi, with a ukelele in hand, singing “all aboard the toxic gossip train” at the beginning of the footage, “chugging down the tracks of misinformation.”
Ballinger stopped singing several times to deliver an almost spoken-word response as she acknowledged her self-admitted weird relationship with her fans early in her career.
“I’m not a groomer, just a loser who didn’t understand that I shouldn’t respond to fans,” she said, adding that she’s not a predator “even though a lot of you think so because five years ago I made a fart joke.”
“I was just trying to be besties with everybody,” Ballinger said, referring to the group chats she was accused of speaking to underage fans in.
She compared herself to the weird aunt at a family gathering that wants to know all the kids’ gossip.
“I’ve been sharing my life online for over 15 years, I’ve poured my heart out to you, and because of that, I feel like I’m talking to my friends,” she said.
“But in the beginning of my career, I didn’t really understand that maybe there should be some boundaries there.”
Ballinger said there were times in private messages where she would “overshare details of my life” but that she hasn’t done so in years because “I changed my behavior and took accountability.”
She denied the allegations that her behavior was predatory or that she groomed any of her fans.
“The only thing I’ve ever groomed is my two Persian cats,” she sang.
“I didn’t realize it was my responsibility to decide what was appropriate for every kid to see,” she said, adding that her Miranda Sings character has always been PG-13.
“I’ve always relied on parents to decide if they’re comfortable with their families watching my YouTube videos or coming to my live shows.”
At the time of writing, Ballinger’s video has received more than 90,000 views.
“For what it’s worth, I never had any bad intentions,” Ballinger said. “But I do feel like s**t.”
A transcription of the video has been shared on Twitter, where fans slammed her response as a “10-minute non-apology song.”
McIntyre quickly tweeted reacting to the response, saying: “As much as Colleen discredited & made fun of me, I’m glad her video did ONE thing, show you all EXACTLY the type of evil woman she is, that a lot of us have experienced over the past few years behind the scenes.
“The mask has slipped…everyone meet the REAL Colleen Ballinger.”
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