Millie Bobby Brown is speaking out about her past relationship with TikToker Hunter Ecimovic and how it was an “unhealthy situation”.
During a recent interview with Allure, the 18-year-old actor recalled the end of her year-long romance with Ecimovic in January 2021 and how it coincided with her filming the fourth season of her hit Netflix show Stranger Things.
“I felt very vulnerable,” she said. “Also, no one on the set knew I was going through this. So it was kind of nice to be able to just deal with that myself and no one else knew. Then it was harder when the whole world knew.”
Brown’s comments come one year after Ecimovic went live on Instagram to make claims about the actor and their relationship, including a remark about how he “groomed” her.
While discussing Ecimovic’s video—which was released after Brown started dating her current boyfriend Jake Bongiovi—she shared how “walking away” from her ex helped her discover her “worth” and felt “empowering”.
“It was a year of healing,” the Enola Holmes star said. “When you get publicly humiliated this way, I felt so out of control and powerless. Walking away and knowing that I’m worth everything and this person didn’t take anything from me, it felt very empowering.”
“It felt like my life had finally turned a page and that I actually had ended a chapter that felt so f***ing long,” she added.
Brown went on to say she hopes to be an inspiration to young women throughout her career and wants them to know that regardless of her success, she’s still someone who’s “made wrong decisions”.
“Ultimately, all I wanted to do within my career is help young girls and young people out there know that I, too, go through things,” she explained. “I’m not this perfect person that is selling skin-care products and [who is] in Stranger Things. I absolutely have made wrong decisions.”
In July 2021, Ecimovic shared an Instagram Live video where he said that he lived “in Millie’s house for eight months” and claimed that her parents knew “everything”, before saying that he had nothing to “apologise” for.
“I know, I groomed her,” he said, via The Los Angeles Times. “You guys do not know the story of anything. And I will never apologise. I hope you know that. ... You guys do not know a single thing at all.”
However, later that day, he posted an apology in a since-deleted TikTok video, where he said that he “sounded very immature” in the Instagram Live and should “have ended it the moment it started getting bad”.
In response to Ecimovic’s video at the time, representatives for Brown released a statement to E! News and said: “Mr Ecimovic’s remarks on social media are not only dishonest, but also are irresponsible, offensive and hateful. Instead of engaging in a public discourse with him through the press or on social media, we are taking action to ensure that he stops this behaviour once and for all.”
