Colleen Ballinger, the YouTube star behind the popular sketch character Miranda Sings, addressed the allegations of grooming she faces in a musical, 10-minute-long video shared Wednesday (28 June).
Public allegations against Ballinger, 36, date back to April 2020 when 22-year-old Adam McIntyre released a video in which he claimed Ballinger developed an imbalanced, unhealthy friendship with him when he was 13.
This week, several former members of the Miranda Sings fan club spoke to HuffPostUK, alleging that Ballinger “groomed” them.
In a video posted to her Colleen Vlogs YouTube channel, Ballinger called the allegations “lies” and “toxic gossip” all while playing the ukulele.
“Some people are saying things about me that just aren’t true,” she said at the beginning of the video.
“Even though my team has strongly advised me not to say what I’m going to say, I realised they never said I couldn’t sing about what I want to say.”
She continued: “I used to message my fans – but not in a creepy way, like a lot of you are trying to suggest. It was more of a loser kind of way. I was just trying to be besties with everybody.”
Ballinger admitted that “there were times in DMs when I would overshare” but said she “changed my behaviour and took accountability”.
She then went on to sing: “Thought you wanted me to take accountability / but that’s not the point of your mob mentality / your goal is to ruin the life of the person you despise / while you dramatise your lies and monetise their demise.
“... I’m sure you’re disappointed in my shitty little song / I know you wanted me to say that I was 100% in the wrong / well I’m sorry I’m not gonna take that route / of admitting to lies and rumours that you made up for clout.
“The only thing I’ve ever groomed is my two Persian cats / I’m not a groomer, just a loser / who didn’t understand I shouldn’t respond to fans / and I’m not a predator even a lot of you think so / because five years ago I made a fart joke.”
While Ballinger admitted to making “jokes in poor taste” and “dumb mistakes”, she added: “Was it my intention to manipulate? No.”
“For what it’s worth, I never had any bad intentions,” she said. “But I do feel like s***.”
In a tweet addressing the video, McIntyre wrote: “As much as colleen discredited & made fun of me, im 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.”
Ballinger previously admitted sending McIntyre a bra and underpants in a 2020 apology video. “I don’t know what part of my brain was missing at the time,” she said. “But I am not a monster, I am not a groomer, and I shouldn’t kill myself.”
You can find everything we know about the grooming allegations Ballinger faces here.
She did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment.
