Nearly 2 1/2 years after Colleen Ballinger was accused of “grooming” her fans, the YouTuber said her reaction to the allegations was “embarrassing,” specifically her 10-minute long non-apology musical video that was widely ridiculed.
“I obviously didn’t handle the situation the way that I should have, and it’s really embarrassing,” Ballinger, who is known for her off-beat, tone-deaf character Miranda Sings, said on Thursday’s episode of the podcast “Tea Time with Raven and Miranda. “I wish I could have handled it a lot differently than I did.”
Ballinger continued: “I’m talking about a musical instrument that I should have not picked up.”
Four days after celebrity.land ran a story featuring Ballinger’s former fans accusing her of having inappropriate relationships with them, Ballinger uploaded a video on her YouTuber account, where she sang and played a ukulele and denied the allegations. Many people called it her apology video, but in the video, she only says “sorry” once, when she sings, “I know you want me to say that I was 100% in the wrong, well, I’m sorry, I’m not gonna take that route.” The video is still up and has more than 20 million views. It was mocked during the 2023 Streamy awards, and most recently, actor Rachel Bloom said she thinks about it “once a week.”
During the podcast, Ballinger apologized for any wrongdoing with her fans. She said when she began uploading on YouTuber about 20 years ago, knowing how to navigate being a YouTuber was unprecedented, specifically on whether she should communicate with her fans or not.
“I didn’t think about a power dynamic that could have been there, I didn’t think about a parasocial relationship and I should have,” Ballinger said. “I should have been more responsible in thinking about that, but I didn’t even think about myself that way. I was like, ‘Yeah, we are friends.’”
In 2023, former fans told celebrity.land that Ballinger had inappropriate conversations with them about sex while they were still minors, and that Ballinger confided in her fans about her then-relationship with fellow YouTube star Joshua Evans.
Ballinger said on “Tea Time” that she was “angry” at the allegations, leading her to upload the musical non-apology video. “I’m not a groomer, I’m just a loser who didn’t understand I shouldn’t respond to fans, and I’m not a predator even though a lot of y’all think so,” Ballinger sings in the video.
“While there were things being said about me that weren’t true … [my supporters] wanted an explanation. They wanted to understand what was going on, and they deserved that and I didn’t give it to them,” Ballinger said. “Instead, I was angry and sang a song, which is crazy.”
She said it wasn’t until a few days later when she was talking to someone on her team that she realized the video was a mistake.
Ballinger addressed multiple accusations, including one from a former fan who said Ballinger embarrassed them during a yoga challenge at one of Ballinger’s stage shows. During the challenge, Ballinger invited a fan onstage and then spread their legs open while a loud fart noise played. Ballinger said she never meant for the joke to be sexual. Later on in the podcast, however, she said that to appeal to her older and younger fans, she decided to keep doing “crass, innuendo-type jokes” because they will go over the kids’ heads “and the parents will have something to laugh at.”
Ballinger also owned up to chatting with her underage fans in a group chat. In some chats, Ballinger had asked her minor fans about their virginities. Ballinger said she was trying to match their “crass” humor, but calls her participation “stupid.”
Adam McIntyre, the former fan who accused Ballinger of “grooming” him, responded to Ballinger’s appearance on the podcast on his YouTube channel, saying he gets “angrier” at Ballinger the older he gets and criticized her for “victimizing herself.”
“Fuck you, Colleen Ballinger, like actually, fuck you, Colleen Ballinger,” McIntyre said in his YouTube video. “You are fucking scum. You are absolute scum.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.celebrity.land ’
