I want to start this video out by apologizing for the delay. This is a very serious matter, and I wanted to make sure I gave this ample, you know, time and thought before speaking publicly. You probably also noticed that Ryan and I are both doing separate videos. This is because we each have specific points that we want to say, and we didn't think it would be as, uh, efficient to cram all of it into one video next to each other.
So instead, we opted to do two separate videos. But yeah, uh, a lot has obviously been said in the last few days. I want to address everything that's been said, uh, and I want to apologize and take accountability where I need to take accountability. For those who don't know, Lex is an old friend of ours who recently released a statement on Twitter, as well as a YouTube video, uh, detailing a sexual assault incident that involved our former channel artist.
I'm gonna go ahead and read what Lex posted on Twitter so you can get her words verbatim on everything that happened, and then I'm gonna try to supply as much additional context as I can and explain what happened from my perspective. In November 2021, I was sexually assaulted by Don on the first night that we had both met while dating.
We were both staying at Matt Watson's house. He attempted to physically force me to give him oral sex, and the only reason it didn't happen was because I was forced to physically resist him when he didn't listen to my verbal commands to stop. I waited to confront Don until Creator Clash 2022, where I could keep it offline and then never see him again.
But then Don was invited to Matt's house in LA right before I moved to LA to stay in the house that they used as an office, aka the SuperMegaPlex. I called them before I got there to tell them what happened so I could avoid being around Don, but they gave me mixed messages. Ryan wanted support, and two days later Matt, a phone call where he went into lawyer mode and promptly explained to me that technically Don isn't an employee, so we don't have to do anything, how SuperMega is his magnum opus, and how this would be very bad for them if anyone found out.
Days later, they talked to Don privately at Matt's house, where they proceeded to explain, to try and get his side of his story, left the conversation with Don saying he didn't know what he did wrong, and Matt and Ryan deciding for me that Don and I just needed to talk things out in person. The day before I get to their office, Matt texted me and told me he sent Don there, and I had to hide in the bathroom for him to leave.
During my time at the office, every action was held against us, me and Rav, in silence until they felt appropriate to use them to kick us out even though those things consisted of leaving to Tennessee while I visited my mom for her birthday, even though I bought a car, leaving town to work, Rav's partner having attempted to take their life soon after I arrived, And me still being disturbed by what happened with Don and their reaction to it.
Were all held against us and they used it to gaslight us into being framed as lazy when we were working harder than normal to get the less work done due to having no place to work. Any action that wasn't looking for a place or going to see one, aka being faster to going away. was seen as bad when there was no sense of urgency placed upon us to begin when we arrived.
Staying at the office was uncomfortable as they did not want us to be there after this event, and we ended up homeless as a result of them icing us out and refusing to communicate to us almost completely despite staying at their job. Even about crucial things like concerns about us living there. Matt and Ryan instead delegated this responsibility to their employees, who we saw as friends, asking us to help them with chores around the house, until they had them correspond instead about moving out, upon which we realized what was going on and saw ourselves out before we got kicked out.
After this, we had no communication with them, we were robbed on the way out of and back from LA, we lost almost everything we had, and we couldn't get our belongings from the office while living in the car and from hotel to hotel for a while because they weren't talking to us. I felt like I couldn't talk about what was going on with me for the past year, because I'd have to explain things that Matt and Ryan clearly didn't want people to know.
So I want to begin by offering Lex, uh, the deepest and most sincere apology because the bottom line is Ryan and myself did not handle the situation well. There are a lot of ways that we could have handled the situation better, and we didn't. I also want to state that we never took any action to cover up a sexual assault, and we never tried to cover Don from any consequences.
And I'll go into that more as we progress through the video. So on May 19th, 2022, after returning home from Creator Clash, I got a call from Don, uh, in which he was crying, saying that him and Lex had just broken up. He told me he was essentially stuck in Florida because he's from Germany and he had no money and didn't know what to do.
And at this time, I didn't know any specifics of what had happened with the breakup. He mentioned to me that they had been distant and then ended up just breaking up. That was the extent of my knowledge on the split at the time. Feeling bad for Don, I, uh, offered to get him a one way plane ticket to L. A.
to come crash at my place, until he could find a way to get back to Germany. He took me up on the offer, and on May 23rd, he flew out to L. A. When Don arrived, he cried to me about how heartbroken he was, and the whole time, I was none the wiser on what had actually taken place between him and Lex, and if I had known, I would not have invited him out to L.A. to stay with me. I would not have housed him. I don't remember exactly, but I think Rav was the one who told me initially, uh, on my balcony one night. And he told me that Don had sexually assaulted Lex. This was something that I did not expect from Don, and, uh, truth be told, I had a bit of a hard time accepting it.
I soon asked Don about this, um, and what he told me was he chalked it up to basically a misunderstanding in the bedroom. At this time, I did not grasp how serious the situation was, and obviously, he did not either. So, Lex gave Ryan a call soon after to explain what had happened, and she told him that Don had sexually assaulted her.
I then had a phone call with Lex shortly after, on May 27th, where she detailed to me what had happened between 2021 when they were staying at my house. I want to state that... From the beginning when she told me, I fully believed and have supported Lex, which I stressed to her throughout this phone call.
However, I do think that, uh, some of the things I said on this call were misinterpreted, and this has zero fault on Lex. This is 100% my fault for poorly articulating my thoughts. I wasn't sure how to talk about this type of situation, and I believe that some of the things that I said to Lex on this call came across very differently from what I intended.
But I do know that, uh, intent does not... change how it was interpreted and how Lex felt about it. Uh, but I did want to give some more context on that phone call. I told Lex that Ryan and I fully supported her, that we believed her 100%, and that we would be there for her. To be honest, I was terrified of misstepping in this situation due to its sensitive nature and how close it was to home.
I was not sure how to navigate it, this was all new territory to me, and I asked her a really stupid question because of that. I asked Lex what she wanted me and Ryan to do about the situation, which was an absolutely dumbass thing to ask. I meant it from a place of, we want to help and we will do whatever it is you want us to do to make the situation better.
I now see that obviously came across as me putting the responsibility of the situation back on the victim, and I feel terrible about that. My intention was to be helpful, and I went about it very poorly. In Lex's statement, she said that I brought up technicalities over Don's employment, uh, as well as... Me saying something along the lines of how much it would suck for SuperMega if this got out, and that SuperMega was my magnum opus, and I didn't want anything to ruin that.
Over the course of the phone call, we did discuss Don's role with SuperMega. And while I don't recall making any of those specific comments, I do know I brought up our business and how Don's actions might affect that. That was completely wrong of me to do. I never should have brought up anything as trivial as that.
While Lex was telling me something very difficult. I was kind of freaking out and I was thinking out loud. It should not have even been on my mind. Uh, and that was selfish of me. What I should have done was just listened and offered support and not question anything. Rav and Lex have both mentioned that I've, I've made comments where I've said, Well, Don isn't technically an employee, so we don't have to do anything.
I don't see the logic. In that or why I would have said that because that's not something I would have said. I think it's more realistic that something was misinterpreted or miscommunicated there. I ended the call by voicing complete support for Lex and telling her that Ryan and I were here for her and we would figure out what to do.
In hindsight, the answer is obvious, uh, and we should have acted immediately, but we didn't. For context, here are the text messages right before and right after that call. Uh, Showing that I was supportive. I was not, uh, completely callous like it was made out to be. And as a side note, I'm I'm hoping that people will not confuse me providing more context where I think it's needed with just getting defensive.
To be honest, Ryan and I were, uh, scared of this whole situation. We knew that we needed to talk to Don. So, uh, me and Ryan organized a meeting with him at our office where we sat him down and confronting him about this. We asked him what had happened that night. Um, and he explained it from his perspective, which was very different from Lex's perspective.
We felt a little confused on what had happened that night. Uh, as did Rav. Rav was also trying to figure out what had gone down. And at this point, I don't think any of us still were taking it as seriously as we should have been. And that is something that I sincerely regret, uh, because we did not take it as seriously right from the jump as we should have.
Instead, we asked questions and tried to, uh, do some detective work and get to the bottom of it, and maybe have Don talk to Lex to try to figure out, you know, if this was a misunderstanding. Uh, which I now see. It was an absolutely, you know, terrible, terrible move, uh, suggesting that, uh, having a victim and an abuser, uh, you know, telling them to, you know, maybe to talk to each other.
Horrible. And that is something that I, I, I'm so sorry about, Lex. Here you can see some text messages between myself and Rav, uh, where Rav is saying that he figured out a little more context on the situation at one point. Rav did wisen up. Uh, quicker than Ryan and I did, though. I think that he took it more seriously, uh, than we did.
We were still confused and not sure what to do, and we messed up. Anyway, I'm gonna fast forward a little bit to July 4th. Uh, we had a party at the Super Megaplex, and afterwards, uh, Lex came over to my place to crash for the night. While we were in the living room, after we got back, uh, I was on one couch, she was on the other.
We had a very in depth conversation about the entire Don situation. At this point, I had had more time to reflect on it and kind of see where I had messed up and better understood what had actually taken place and how my response to that was poor. In this conversation, I sincerely apologize to Lex. I admitted where I was wrong and I took responsibility.
I expressed remorse for how I had acted during the situation and she accepted my apology. This is why I ultimately found myself a bit confused as to why there's a notion that I have never addressed this with Lex because I have. I, however, don't blame Lex at all for how she may feel because, uh, I, this is a very complicated situation and I can't even begin to...
Pretend to understand how she feels and what kind of emotions, uh, are at play here. Despite our delayed action on this, I do want to state unequivocally that Ryan and I never made any attempts to cover up a sexual assault or to aid Don. People have been theorizing and asking us for over a year, uh, where did Don go? Why is Don no longer the channel artist? This is the reason. 
In response to what Lex told us, we removed Don as our channel artist and we cut contact with him 100%. personal business, we have not had any communications. And we did not cover this up from other people. Uh, for example, I was the one who told Ross, uh, over the phone, uh, because Ross had a show with, uh, Don, and I felt like he needed to know this.
However, we weren't, like, super open about this to to people. Um, especially, you know, we didn't say anything to the public about it. We never stated our reasoning for cutting contact with Don or removing him as the channel artist because Lex had not Publicly talked about this and she expressed that she did not want this to be a thing that was public.
Uh, we felt like it was not our place to, uh, address someone else's sexual assault and, and give that as the reasoning for removing contact with Don. We figured that as long as he was gone and we weren't working with him, you know, that was. Our response. The last thing that we wanted was to bring attention to something that Lex did not want attention brought to.
And while we did, uh, remove Don as our channel artist and cut all contact with him, Admittedly, uh, it took longer than it should have. In retrospect, we should have done this immediately, uh, when Lex told us. But we were scared of confrontation and cowardly and did not know how to handle this type of situation and we handled it poorly.
The bottom line is it took us longer than it should have and I just want to extend the biggest apologies to Lex, uh, for making her feel like we did not care, uh, like this was not a priority for us, uh, I'm very sorry. I incredibly regret the way it was handled and I wish that I could do it over. But I can't and I'm sorry for that.
Lex also brought up an instance where she went to go stay at the office and Don was there. This was a complete accident and misunderstanding on my end. It is completely my fault. I did not mean for that to happen and I take full responsibility for that. I had been fed up with Don staying with me, uh, especially, uh, after hearing what Lex had told me, and Lex had not arrived in town yet.
At the time, I also had two or three people staying with me on top of Don, and I felt really overwhelmed. I had a lot going on in my personal life at the time that was stressing me out, and I felt overwhelmed, and I sent Don to go stay with Rab at the office. I made a mistake where I forgot that I had previously told Lex that she could stay there.
Uh, and I sent Don there to get out of my house. I never intended for them to come in contact with each other. As soon as I realized my mistake, I told Donnie I had to leave the office. And for a little more context, here is me having a discussion with Rav, where I'm realizing my mistake. Bottom line is Lex, I am sorry that I created that situation and put you in it.
It never should have happened and my stupid fried brain let it happen and there's no excuse for that. Overall, Ryan and I should have handled the Don situation completely differently. We absolutely recognize where we failed and we take full accountability for that. I also want to address a very large chunk of Lex's video that was focused on her and Rav's time living at our office, aka the Super Megaplex.
Rav was coming to America and he needed somewhere to crash, so we told him he could crash at the Super Megaplex while he gets his feet off the ground, and later when Lex... We said that she could crash there as well, too. And, you know, her and Rav were friends, so it was all good. We, of course, initially had no issue with this and we were happy to let them stay at the office.
But problems did arise over time. And generally speaking, something I think all four of us can agree on is that the thing that really plagued the situation was lack of communication, miscommunication. As time went on and weeks turned into months of them staying at the office, uh, we were unsure of their plans and how motivated they were to actually find a place to move into.
They believed that we were ignoring them and acting cold, uh, while we believed they were doing the same thing to us, uh, so it was like a two way street of awkwardness. And something to point out is when we came into the office, it would be... To get work done, uh, So it wasn't to come in to hang out, it'd be to get work done.
So it definitely seemed a little more clinical. All around it was a pretty weird vibe, And I think, uh, all four of us could have acted more mature during that period, but we failed To communicate, and that is Largely on myself and Ryan, uh, Because after tensions rose, we Honestly didn't really feel like Having a conversation.
Here's a text from Lex in a group chat, uh, acknowledging that they had been, you know, distant towards us. And I'm only bringing this up to add context because in her video she states that We iced them out and gave them the cold shoulder, but it was a two way street and it was miscommunication. I'll just go ahead and read these out to make it easier to digest.
Lex said, I've also contributed to not being available though because I've tried to stay out of both of your way as much as possible and keep my focus on work, which probably came across as fucking off and not wanting to talk to y'all and I apologize for that. I think I was also trying to be less present because I was worried I was distracting you guys from work a lot of the time at the Plex by being in the way already with me and my stuff, and I didn't want to be any more of a burden than I already felt like, but I think it just made me seem more aloof than anything.
I'm sorry we weren't able to talk about it until now. I hate to bring things up this way. I know y'all are busy, so I don't expect to be able to talk in person about anything soon. Also, it's not very inviting if you think someone is seeming antagonistic, lol. I'm glad to be able to talk about it now, I just hope that with the nature of texting seeming rather cold, what I'm trying to say is coming across as anything but trying to let you know I have not meant to cause any hurt, and I'm sorry if I did.
We totally understood this, and we apologized as well, and I figured we were all on the same page. Here's me explaining why we seemed distant, uh, at the office, and this seemed to be understood by Rav and Lex. I'm not going to read all of this because it is too long and I want to move on, but feel free to pause the video and read through it yourself.
As time went on, since they were staying at our place of work, our office, uh, we asked our employee, Jim, to facilitate a conversation, uh, between us, uh, about when they were planning on leaving. Ravenlex took this as a slight, uh, they were angered by the corporate aspect of... Asking Jim to initiate this conversation.
Really, it was a work matter for us because they were staying at our place of work, and Jim is good at this type of conversation, so we had him create a group chat that myself and Ryan were in, so we could also chime in if needed, uh, and let him kind of, like, direct the conversation, but this did upset them.
Shortly after they made the decision to voluntarily leave the office, uh, we did not throw them out, we did not make them homeless. Here is a text message where they're talking about leaving the office. Rav says, But yeah, y'all have certainly gone above and beyond with your generosity and allowing us to crash for as long as y'all have, and we'd hate to overstay our welcome any further than we already have.
All of our stuff, with the exception of my two suitcases in the corner of y'all's living room space, should currently be in the garage, and when we're back, what we can do is move all of our said stuff into a proper storage space under lock and key somewhere away from the office, so as to not keep taking up y'all's workspace.
We'll also stop crashing at the office, so no worries on that front either. If y'all have any other concerns, let me know. Thank you for letting us crash for mad long, and sorry for not getting out of y'all's hair sooner. Lex stated that we did not allow them to come pick their stuff up, which is not true.
Here's a text between us on September 4th, where she said, Hey, sorry to bother you, just wanted to check in to ask if I could grab some of my stuff from the office. We'll be shooting some pics slash videos today at an abandoned water park a couple hours away, so I wanted to grab my camera and Amazon stuff I got sent there.
Hope you're doing okay today. I said, yeah, that's fine. I'm not sure if anyone is there though. She texted me two days later saying, Ended up not coming over when I mentioned lol. Would any time today be a good time to stop by and grab some stuff? I can come by myself. I said, yeah, I think Jim will be there for a while.
Text him just to be sure. I just bounced and just saw this. She then said, Coordinated with Jim. Thank you. I just left a little bit ago. I grabbed everything and threw away a lot of stuff that was in slash around the garage. Thank you so much for letting us stay there. I hope you're having a good night. I said, Thank you.
Take care. What's y'all's plan right now? She replied with, Gonna stay at an Airbnb to work at while figuring out a living situation. After they left, things did seem tense for a little bit, but they seemed to subside. I rekindled things with Rav several months later. We spoke about the last summer and how we were all in bad places, and it was awkward.
Uh, Rav and I, you know, apologized to each other and made up. We did this at my house, as well as a little discussion at Creator Clash 2023. Which, again, is why I found myself very confused when Rav said what he did on Twitter recently. If he still felt that way, I wish that he had reached out to me. And, since last summer, I assumed that my relationship with Lex was much better.
For example, here's several texts I received from Lex between November of last year and February of this year. Good luck tonight, Matt. Heart emoji. I'm in Nashville, but I'd like to try to come to a show before tour is over. We should have a cookout when we're all back in town to celebrate. I said, thank you, we'll party hardy soon.
On December 17th, guess who lives like 5 minutes away from you now? It's me, hope you're having a good day. I say, no way, for real, where at? Are you standing outside my door? She hit me up a couple days later, said, What are you doing? I said, I'm back in Charleston right now, what about you? Uh, then she hit me up the next day, said, I got really stoned and forgot to reply, lmao.
I hope you have a good time with your family. Also, congrats on 1 mil. The next day, I replied and said, Thank you! Then, on my birthday, she texted me, Happy birthday, Matt! I love you! Hope your day is great! I thought that after I apologized to her last July, things had smoothed out, and I think you can see why I would think that.
But that communication ceased around the time that we fired Leighton, who is a close friend of hers. So this next stuff is stuff that I don't really feel comfortable talking about, but it was brought up, so I have to address it. The first thing is that in her video, Lex accused me of calling My friend, Daniel, who passed away from suicide in 2015, a coward on multiple occasions, this really hurt to hear because this is simply untrue.
I have no recollection of ever opening up to Lex about my friend's suicide. And if I ever did open up to her about it, I know that I would never have referred to him. Uh, in the manner that she portrayed. That experience affected me and Ryan more than anything has ever affected us in our lives. And it's something that we're still recovering from.
And if you've dealt with suicide, you know that grief is different for each person. And you know that there are a lot of complex and confusing emotions that come with the grief, uh, Regarding suicide. Some of those include anger, and if I ever expressed that to Lex, which again, I firmly believe that I did not.
If that's the case, then I find it wildly inappropriate that Lex would use something I said in a very vulnerable State, uh, to weaponize and to make me look worse. The second thing is that Lex brought up personal details about my personal relationships and sex life. There was absolutely nothing that warranted divulging that information.
It had nothing to do with the main point of the video. And it dragged people into the situation that did not consent to having their story told to hundreds of thousands of people. And now they are hurting because of that. Anyway, I'm not here to slam Lex, I just wanted to address those two points because I felt that they were important to address.
At the end of the day, I just want to apologize to Lex for how the situation was handled. Again, I wish that I could do the entire situation over, I wish I could remove any pain that I caused, and I wish that I... You know, had been a better friend. Normally, this is where I would end the video, but unfortunately, there is a lot more that needs to be addressed.
So I was just talking about personal details being unnecessarily mentioned and weaponized to make me look worse, and unfortunately more people have jumped on that bandwagon. One of those people being Morgan, a. k. a. Morgpie. For some background, in August 2022, when I was single and in between relationships, I sexted with her for one night and ultimately slept with her for two nights in September when she was visiting Los Angeles.
During our hookups, I explicitly stated to Morgan that this was a hookup and that I had just gotten out of a relationship and I was not looking for anything and this is something she acknowledged. I actually brought this up. Uh, more than once. After she left L. A. to go back home... I could tell that she had caught some feelings, and I did not want to lead her on.
So I began to kind of distance myself. Shortly after, I also ended up working through a rough patch and started dating my current girlfriend. And I talked to Morgan even less after this. We stopped communication. I didn't feel like it was appropriate to, you know, be talking to someone whose the relationship I had was primarily sexual.
Uh, while I had a girlfriend. We pretty much lost all contact, uh, after I started dating my current girlfriend, and I figured that that was normal, and that's kind of just what is the typical life cycle of a hookup. I was very surprised to hear what Morgan... Had to say on stream considering last month in June.
We had a very pleasant conversation Where we tied up any loose ends and smoothed everything out and I'm going to share that conversation Morgan reached out to me on June 8th and said hey Matt. Hope you're doing well. I said hey, I've been doing Okay, been really busy and stressed, but I'm pushing through.
Have you been? She said, Oh man, me too. Supremely stressed, but I'm coming to LA this month, and I'll be doing so much cool shit, so I'm excited. Glad to hear you're pushing through. I said, I'm just kind of exhausted with tour coming up and stuff, but I'll be okay. I've been doing therapy a lot, which has been super helpful, and glad to hear you're doing cool shit.
She replies with, Oh, I'm so happy to hear therapy has been helping. I've had mixed results with that, great when it actually works out. She replies with, Yeah man, I'm excited, but yeah, just thought I'd check up on you, cause even though things got a little weird, I'll always care about you, dude. Hope you have a great tour too.
I respond with, I appreciate it, and I'm sorry things got a little weird. I'm not very good at navigating stuff, and when I got in a relationship shortly after, I wasn't sure how to not be awkward about it. I care about you too, and I don't feel weird at all about things or about you. She said yeah, I kind of know what happened lol people talk, but cool man.
I'm glad things aren't weird I said same glad it's not weird. I feel a lot better now lol She said me too. I hate loose ends and I said same they bother me so much lol and for clarity I never felt bad or negative about you. I just didn't know how to not be awkward after a hookup I'm not really a hookup person, especially since I'm in a relationship now Sorry for my awkwardness.
Glad we're all good. Morgan replies with, Yeah, I felt a bit sour about it tbh because I'm not really a hookup person either. Lowkey caught me with some feels and I felt pretty used afterwards. But shit happens and that's on me so I don't harbor any ill will towards you. I mean, I didn't expect a relationship or anything, but yeah lol.
I responded with, I feel ya, and I'm sorry for acting in any way that made you feel used. That was never my intention, and I'm just kind of awkward with this stuff. I could tell a little that you were catching feels, and I didn't want to lead you on and hurt you. Morgan said, I really appreciate that, I'm just a big baby, and when I open myself up like that to someone, it's because I'm really into them.
Contrary to what my profession may lead you to think, but I'm glad we could talk about this. I appreciate you talking about this with me, even though you aren't obligated to at all. I said, of course, I'm really glad we're talking about it too, because I didn't like feeling awkward or having a loose end.
And she said, yeah, same. W, I respond with a cool sunglasses smiley face, and that was the last time we talked. So you could see why I was a bit surprised when Morgan went on stream and said what she said. Morgan not only brought my current girlfriend into the situation on stream without her consent, she also name dropped my girlfriend and revealed that we were in a relationship, which was not public information.
I'm very private about my relationships, so this was a big blow. Morgan also brought my ex girlfriend into the picture without her consent and has strongly hurt her because of this. She lied about conversations with my ex girlfriend. She wrongly stated that I had been having a multiple month affair with my current girlfriend while I was dating my ex girlfriend.
She lied that we had been consistently sexting when we only sexted for one night in August. And I have all of our text messages to prove that. She also lied about not knowing who my current girlfriend was, uh, Because she did know who that was and she used it as a segue to name drop her. She also falsely claimed that I was cheating on my current girlfriend, which is not true.
And for transparency, on day one of me dating my girlfriend, I informed her that I had recently slept with Morgan. And she told me it was not an issue. Following when I had that text conversation with Morgan in June where we smoothed things over, Morgan began hanging out with our ex employee Leighton more, and I have not heard from her since that conversation until I saw her stream.
Now, if you're wondering why I'm bringing up Leighton again, I'm going to explain. A SuperMega named Leighton Stollert has made some very serious accusations against me and Ryan. I did not plan on, nor did I want to make a segment of this video based around this, but after everything Leighton has said about us publicly, I feel that I have no choice but to respond and give my side of the story and show receipts.
We fired Leighton from working at SuperMega in March 2023, and since then, he has led a vindictive campaign to cancel us, to deplatform us, to ruin our image. Basically, we were not happy with his performance. He had been causing problems, uh, with his mood swings and outbursts at the office, as well as a general performance that we didn't like.
We made the difficult decision to let him go. Leighton himself actually suggested leaving SuperMega prior to being terminated. So when he stated on stream that we were looking for any reason to fire him, this simply isn't true. Here is a text he sent to me and Ryan in the week leading up to his termination.
I'm sorry I messed up so much with my position. It's not being harsh, I know it's the both of your company, and all of this makes the two of you look bad. I could step away from the merch stuff if you guys feel like I'm not doing enough for the role. I'm sorry I've messed up so much. I'm really sorry to the both of you that I've caused so many internal issues plus public issues.
No one else is messing up as much as I am, and espe Especially when there's only six of us, I'm sure it really shows. I 100% understand if you guys are ready for me to leave SuperMega and let someone else take care of my responsibilities. It's not fair to you two that I keep screwing up. I feel like I'm the new Jackson causing massive issues to the company rather than being an asset.
I don't know if my role is worth saving anymore, but I'm willing to transfer to working from home or any other option so I can focus on the merch. I'm sorry I've put you two through so much stress in the past two years. So yes, as you can see, Leighton was aware of his performance and the issues that were taking place with his job, and we were not looking for any reason to fire him.
We did not want to fire him. Leighton's position fell under the classification of at will employment in California. This means that we are able to fire him at any time for any reason. This does not include severance, however... We felt bad, uh, because this is not an ideal situation, so we decided to give him severance when he left.
Severance is a very legal matter, which we didn't realize. It's not as easy as just writing a check and giving it to someone on the way out the door. We essentially had to contract an employment attorney specifically to Do this. Here's an email with our lawyer explaining that. We gave Leighton 12, 000 in severance, which he admitted on stream he wasn't even supposed to get, technically, but was still offended that it was only 12, 000.
For reference, in California, a typical severance package consists of one week's pay for every year the employee was with the company. We gave Leighton two months of pay and told him that he could dictate the narrative of his departure, that we would not tell people he was fired, and that we would always be here for him in any way that he might need.
He signed the severance agreement, stormed out, and immediately blocked us on everything. We were concerned at this point because in the months prior, someone who had been with Leighton and a group of his friends, uh, told us that he had been flaunting that if things ever went south with us, he could just easily cancel us.
We actually brought this up to Leighton in a meeting that, uh, a reliable source had told us this. He swore that He never said that, and he swore that he would never do that. We were still wary after that, because that actually wasn't the first time we had heard that from someone. So, fast forward to Creator Clash 2023, on the day me and Ryan returned home, Leighton took to Twitter to accuse us of homophobia.
We responded to Leighton and provided more context to situations that he had left context out of. We also provided people with the information that he not only propagated a lot of the jokes that he claimed to be offended by, but he participated in the jokes, he even encouraged them. We always wanted Leighton to feel comfortable even when we were making jokes, we never wanted him to feel targeted with any jokes.
His tone changed completely, uh, the moment he was fired. Uh, and as proof of that, here are screenshots from several occasions where I made sure Leighton was comfortable with these types of jokes, to which he always replied yes, and even in one message, said it would be weird if we stopped. In this message, Leighton says he sees no issues with the jokes.
Here he says he feels more comfortable around us than anyone. And I said, real talk, we absolutely love having you as a part of SuperMega, you've completely revolutionized our company. Leighton responds by saying, I love all the gay jokes you guys throw at me, and I said you're a crucial member now. If they're ever too much though, just tell us.
And he said, I'm so fucking happy to hear that. I fucking love working with you guys. Nah, you guys have never offended me. I think Justin is nervous that it'll come off as homophobic, but I love you guys and the gay jokes. It would be weird if you guys held back, LMAO. I jokingly said, Screenshotting all this to cover my ass, which he said LMAO to.
Here's another instance where I said, Also legit, if we're making too many gay jokes, please tell me. We're always fucking kidding, but I get it if it gets too much, haha. He responded by saying I looked like an F slur. I said, okay, perfect response, LMAO. We're gonna do some awesome shit, man. And he said, I've never felt more at home with a job.
This is not to mention the numerous times Ryan and I brought this up in person with him, in meetings, making sure he was comfortable with any jokes that were made about sexuality, and he responded with the same sentiment. Something to note is that while Leighton worked at SuperMega, he also accepted and held a full time position at the merch company which fulfilled our merch.
So after Leighton's callout post and after we posted our response, he was advised by his employer that starting shit publicly with one of the company's bigger clients was a bad look and a horrible business decision. Leighton made an agreement with his employer that he would not cause any further drama.
But he was furious that he could not say more. Leighton was extremely disgruntled that we fired him. He felt that it wasn't fair, and he felt like he needed to get even by taking away our platform. I later received anonymous screenshots that were leaked from a Discord server that's just dedicated to hating on SuperMega.
The members of which created and spread horrible lies about my ex girlfriend on Tumblr. They have harassed me for years, some of them also write underage sexual assault fanfiction. The screenshots detail the exact situation Leighton was in with his employer. That's how I knew that they were real because I knew about this agreement.
As well as a plan to get other people to speak out against us so Leighton would then be free to cancel us himself, the Discord message reads as follows. Leighton works for a big merch company called, I'm gonna go ahead and just censor the name, which he was working with while working for SuperMega. And when all the homophobia allegations came out, a big billionaire sponsor for said company told them that they need to drop SuperMega as a client and fire Leighton.
Said company refused to fire Leighton and still kept SuperMega on as a client. If we can get SuperMega and enough hot water that the sponsor wants to drop them again without getting Leighton fired, then Leighton can come out and say whatever he wants about them. We just need a piece of gossip that's a big enough deal that a sponsor will want to drop SuperMega.
Our friend is friends with 2Mad, and 2Mad hates Matt, so he might have some dirt on him. Then another message reads most importantly, that Leighton wants to cancel super mega, but he needs someone else to come forward first. Another thing is that Leighton somehow has one of Marvel's screenshots of her conversations with Ryan and was thinking about using that as leverage to cancel him, but it's not enough.
And Discord user, of course, he needs your permission first. Will you be willing to come forward even anonymously with your experiences with Ryan? This is all from April, right after Leighton made his initial statement. And because I wondered if I'd ever have to use this, I emailed this to myself as evidence, which you can see in this video.
I am opening up the email and showing the date as proof. We worried that this would be the case, and it soon proved true. Shortly after, one of Leighton's best friends, who is Lex's boyfriend, Uh, tried to instigate drama on Twitter by lying and saying that he has heard us say the n word multiple times. In reality, we've only met this individual a handful of times and it's mostly been at social events and always accompanied by Lex.
So to think that we would just casually be dropping the n word with a hard R in front of not only someone who's a stranger, but also a woman of color. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. He also mentioned the Chuck E. Cheese joke, and I don't think it's a coincidence that a short time before he posted this stuff, Leighton replied to a tweet about SuperMega with a gif of Chuck E.
Cheese. Leighton denied that he even knew his friend was going to say anything, or that Leighton was involved with this, but... I think it's a little too coincidental. That didn't really go anywhere, and then after that, things were relatively quiet for a while. Leighton would frequently slander myself and Ryan to fans on his Discord server.
He even went as far as to join a fan's 18 year old birthday drunken Twitter space to shit talk us. This stuff was creeping us out. He was obsessed with us and wouldn't leave us alone. And at this point, we were fully expecting... More of Leighton's close friends to Eventually speak out about us for one reason or another and now a lot of them have now I want to make something very clear.
I am NOT downplaying Lex's situation with Don or her coming forward with that I am in no way saying that her coming forward with the Don situation is a ploy by Leighton to get us canceled. I think it's very brave that Lex came forward and I am NOT Contributing that to Leighton. That was poorly handled by me and Ryan, and we take full responsibility.
However, there's a lot of other stuff that I think the dots can be connected. But after Lex came forward, Leighton wasted no time to go to Twitter to make her story about himself, and to jump on the opportunity to air out his personal grievances with us. People on Twitter even noticed this, and they were quick to call it out.
He finally had the freedom to exaggerate, misrepresent, and flat out lie about myself, Ryan, our friends, our partners, and our company. He did a three hour stream, so I'm not going to go into every point, obviously. It seems that he tried to throw anything and everything he possibly could think of at the wall to see what would stick.
I think that's pretty obvious and telling of his true motive here. So let me start off by Leighton once again stating that Ryan and I don't care about suicide, and we would frequently make jokes about our friend Daniel committing suicide. This is so unbelievably offensive and honestly disgusting to me.
To weaponize the death of one of our best friends, whom he did not even know, in a pathetic attempt to smear our names and make us look worse, is not only low, but it shows a complete disregard for caring about suicide and mental health, except for when it's convenient to use as an excuse, a crutch, or a weapon.
Throughout the stream, Leighton portrays myself and Ryan as horrible monsters who mistreated Raven Lex and commonly complained about them at the office. While it is true that we had complaints about their extended stay at our office, Leighton was no stranger to complaining about this with us, and there are even texts to show.
That he was frustrated and complained just as much as us. Leighton also said that we repeatedly made him uncomfortable by exposing ourselves to him around the office. It's true that we did do a lot of crude, jackass style bits around the office, and that's apparent in our videos too, but if Leighton ever felt uncomfortable by any of that, He never showed it, and he never brought it up.
I find it a little ironic that he complained about this, considering, for example, in December, we were recording a podcast, when he came in unannounced, and showed us his cock and balls. In late 20s, uh, Chuck Hey, Leighton. Hey! Woah. Somebody's putting on a show. Do you see his balls? Leighton, you wanna come take a seat?
Do you see his balls? I don't think it's appropriate for the podcast. You wanna, you wanna wrap yourself in a towel. That is a three hander. That is a three hander. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's not lying. Or, or, or before he came around the corner, he stood there for three minutes going... Chuffing his shit. You're chuffing it, dude.
He said lie detector test, I'm completely soft right now. But he looked over and he saw three beautiful men sitting down, so who knows. That's true. Leighton, you know what we're gonna do to prove that later? We're gonna pants you at a random time. It's a damn shame no woman Well, he showed us his penis, that is a three hander.
Another huge accusation that he made is that we love to toss around the N word. I'll admit we make crude jokes behind the scenes, obviously, but we would never drop the N word. I know our past on YouTube is more questionable in 2016 to 2017, 2018, uh, during that time period. And I know that a lot of the jokes we made were very questionable and offensive.
But now, pushing 30, we have grown a lot and know that that is not acceptable. And that word is never being used between us, in any context. To state otherwise is a flat out dishonest lie, and it's a low hanging attempt to make us look bad, because honestly, it's really easy. You don't need any proof. You can just say that we said the N word.
The Chuck E. Cheese joke is real, but the joke was that you can't say his middle name. It's a really stupid joke. It's not even funny. The joke is based on the trivia fact where people are like, Do you know what Chuck E. Cheese's middle name actually is? What the letter stands for? The joke is that... It's such a horrible word, you can't say it, and it's shocking.
We have never said the actual word when doing that joke, that's not even funny. And we've even done this joke on the channel in Let's Plays, it's not something we've tried to hide. It's also a very old joke, I think this was back from the Tucker Brothers era. But again, we have never used the actual n word when doing that joke.
The joke is that you can't say his middle name. Really highbrow humor right there. Leighton also joined in on discussing my personal relationships and my love life. He twisted the truth to make it sound a lot worse. For context and honesty's sake, I was in a three year relationship and last year I broke that off in a dishonest way.
I met and fell for my current girlfriend. While I was still in the relationship. And one night while intoxicated on alcohol and shrooms, I confessed my feelings and I kissed her in the days following the guilt ate me alive. It ate her alive as well. And I subsequently ended my relationship with my girlfriend of three years.
It was an absolutely horrible thing to do. And I don't think I'm ever going to forgive myself for that. I put her through a lot of pain and stress, and it's very painful for her to be brought back into it now. Leighton and Morgan also lied while I was unfaithful that night. I never engaged in a sexual relationship or took it anything beyond kissing until I was in a relationship with my current girlfriend.
I know that that doesn't make it better. I just wanted to set the record straight on that. That was the first and last time in my life I've ever done anything like that. It was out of character for me and being intoxicated is not an excuse. It was shitty. It was scummy. I regret it wholeheartedly. But my guilt is not the issue here.
The issue is the weight that my ex girlfriend has to carry, uh, of the consequences of my selfish actions. And I am truly sorry to her. So, for a year later, for her to be pulled back into the picture without her consent is very painful for her. And while this situation and my actions were scummy... It had nothing to do with anything online or the initial issues raised, uh, by Lex about Don.
And I don't think it was appropriate or necessary to drag both my current girlfriend and my ex girlfriends into the line of fire. They are both being harassed viciously, and their personal lives are being used as weapons to make me look worse, and I think that's completely unacceptable. I met my current girlfriend in June of 2022.
She had no clue about the Don situation. She was not connected to the situation at all. It was even stated on Leighton's stream that I had asked Jim to get a house and move in with my current girlfriend so I could sneak over, uh, and have sex with her under the guise that I was just meeting up with a co-worker.
You know, because I live by myself, and there's definitely nowhere I could have sex. It's just an absolutely ridiculous, weird claim. Uh, doesn't make sense. Eventually, Leighton ended his monetized stream with a self promo, and immediately took to Twitter to gloat about our downfall. Once again, completely taking Lex's situation and making it about himself.
You guys know that this is not my style, and I did not want to have to dedicate a section of this video. Uh, responding to Leighton, uh, in the way I'm doing so, but with what he has said publicly about me, I have no choice but to respond. I'm asking that people use their common sense, and maybe take a step back and look at the big picture here, and I hope that people can see that there is a personal vendetta that is being blown up here, and used.
To end this video, um, I want to say that I don't expect people to watch this and uncancel me. I don't expect people to, uh, flip back over to my side. Uh, do not harass anyone that was mentioned in this video. I'm not sending any harassment. I did not want to get into a lot of this, but when accusations like these are publicly made, it's fully within my right to be able to respond and defend myself and provide context where I feel like it's lacking.
A lot of people, mainly Leighton and his close friends, have I used this as an opportunity to capitalize off of what was initially someone's story of sexual assault. It seems like the story lost its plot and quickly devolved into a dog pile on me and Ryan when I don't think we necessarily were the focus to begin with, um, because it was about an assault.
I anticipate many more people online will continue to do this because that's the internet. And that's what it is. Overall, I would like for people to understand that this situation is not, uh, entirely black and white. There's a lot of nuance. There's a lot of personal feelings involved on all sides. The internet is very quick to pick sides with this kind of stuff and very hesitant to budge.
But I hope that with the additional context I have provided in this video, uh, you have a clearer view of the bigger picture. I am not expecting forgiveness or redemption. I messed up when it came to Lex with the Don situation. I'm not expecting forgiveness from Lex, but I do apologize entirely for How I fumbled that situation and how I wasn't a better friend.
I'd like to also apologize to everyone that has become collateral damage in this situation. That includes the employees of SuperMega. That includes friends that have been brought into it. That includes, uh, partners that have been brought into it. That includes girlfriends and exes that have been brought into it.
I am deeply sorry. That my actions have culminated back into something that is affecting you. Finally, I want to apologize to all of the viewers and fans that, uh, I've let down. I am deeply ashamed of myself, and I wish that I could redo things. Uh, but I can't. So, I understand your anger and frustration, and I'm sorry.
Anyways, thank you for listening, uh, I appreciate it. Uh, and I hope you all take care.