Jess Hardiman
YouTuber Andrew Callaghan has broken his silence after allegations that he sexually assaulted multiple women surfaced.
Earlier this month, a TikTok user names Caroline Elise claimed in a now-deleted video that Callaghan ‘wore [her] down’ with requests for sex after she said he could stay at hers but was ‘very clear about the fact’ they were ‘not hooking up’.
She recalled how he ‘eventually did get consent’, but explained: “He gets in my bed and wears me down to the point where I eventually do agree to do things that I wasn’t proud of.”
She added: “I came up with any excuse that I possibly could to just get him off of me, and he still found a way to coerce me into things that I didn’t want to do."
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Just days later, another woman named Dana also alleged that she had been pressured into sex by Callaghan, who is known for his comedic interviews on the Channel 5 YouTube channel.
“I told him to stop,” she said a TikTok video.
“I told him to get off of me multiple times.”
Callaghan has now spoken out about the claims, having issued an apology video on YouTube yesterday (Sunday 15 January).
A previous statement from his legal representative said he was ‘devastated’ to be ‘accused of any type of physical or mental coercion against anyone’.
“Conversations about pressure and consent are extremely important and Andrew wants to have these conversations, so he can continue to learn and grow,” it said.
However, Callaghan has now directly addressed the allegations himself, having shared a lengthy video on YouTube about the matter.
He argued that he had ‘never overstepped that line’, saying: “But I think I want to have a more nuanced and important conversation about power dynamics, pressure and coercion. Because, like I said, I think, for a long time, I was behaving in a way that I actually thought was normal.”
Callaghan apologised for his silence, saying he was in a state of ‘denial and shock’, also thanking ‘every single person who came out in the past week to speak about different ways’ in which his behaviour had ‘made them feel uncomfortable or pressured during a sexual situation’.
He continued: "I think that, especially, I realised when so many young people - especially young men - rush to defend me when this stuff first started coming out, that this type of sex-pest behavior is normalised, and a lot of people think this stuff is normal when I don't think that it is. And I think that I want to be fully responsible for not having a fluid understanding of consent and what enthusiastic, two-way consent looks like.
"That being said, a lot of the things that have been said online about me are not true. A lot of things are missing really important, contextual information that I think would change people's interpretation of a lot of these situations.
"But I'm not here to invalidate anybody's lived experience. If you feel pressured, you know, that's just what it is. I hope that young people, and young men in particular, can use my mistakes to learn and move through life with a better understanding of consent as far.”
Callaghan also said ‘alcohol was a contributing factor’ to his ‘poor decision-making', and had decided he would join Alcoholics Anonymous and start therapy ‘pretty much immediately’.
"During this journey into sobriety, I want to take a serious step back from public life and, like I said, figure myself out,” he said.
Callaghan added: "I hope that this reaches the ears of anyone who's felt affected by me. I'd love to reach out to you, or you can reach out to me - even just for me to say I'm sorry. I really apologise and I appreciate you all.”