Chris D’Elia says ‘sex controlled my life’ as he returns to public eye after sexual misconduct allegations

Chris D’Elia has returned to YouTube and the public eye, eight months after he was accused of sexual misconduct.

Back in June 2020, the comedian was accused of harassing teenagers and soliciting naked pictures on social media, and in September, he was accused of exposing himself to three women.

At the time, an attorney for D’Elia said that the You star ‘emphatically states that he has never engaged in any sexual conduct with any woman without her consent’.

In a video shared to his YouTube channel on Friday night titled ‘It’s been a while’, D’Elia maintained that all of his relationships had been consensual, but apologised for his actions, admitting that his attitude towards sex was wrong. 

Addressing the allegations, the 40-year-old said: ‘It was a lot, it was hard. First of all, I do know how it looks with all the stuff that’s been said and the emails that have been put out there and what the media has been trying to say, and I know it looks bad and it doesn’t show the full scope of what happened.

‘I stand by the fact that all my relationships have been consensual and legal and that’s just it, that’s the truth. 

‘I’ve [sought] out a lot of medical advice and therapy. What I’ve come to understand was this was always about sex, to me. Sex controlled my life. It was my focus, all the time. I had a problem, and I do have a problem. I need to do work on that.’

D’Elia said that when he rose to fame in his early 30s, having sex became ‘a lot easier’ as women wanted to meet him after shows.

He said: ‘I felt like, oh wow, I don’t need to work as hard. I can just do a show and have sex, or roll into a city and look at my inbox and just start writing. And I did. Iwould get at least 50 messages after a show each city a night. And I would reply to all of them. And I thought in my mind that being straight-up with these women was the right thing to do. I’d say “hey, come to my hotel room and let’s have sex. Let’s make out. Let’s do this, let’s do that.” And that was what I thought was right.

‘I realised through all of this that doing that is just treating sex like it’s casual and being flippant with people, and that’s not the guy I want to be. It’s not ok and I’m sorry for that. It makes me feel shameful and it makes me feel bad.’

D’Elia said that he would ‘use the familiarity I had with these women to have sex’, and admitted that he cheated on multiple partners, including his fiancée.

He said: ‘I’ve cheated on most of the girls I’ve been with. I cheated on my fiancée now, and this is my dream girl, this is the girl I wanna be with for the rest of my life, and even that wouldn’t stop what I was doing. I was headed for this, and this needed to happen, because I wouldn’t have stopped cheating, I wouldn’t have stopped using sex.’

D’Elia concluded with an apology to the ‘people who got caught up in that s*** and the lies that I would tell’, and said he wanted to be a role model to his young son.

Last year, multiple tweets went viral, which alleged that D’Elia had messaged underage girls on social media.

At the time, he said: ‘I know I have said and done things that might have offended people during my career, but I have never knowingly pursued any underage women at any point.

‘All of my relationships have been both legal and consensual and I have never met or exchanged any inappropriate photos with the people who have tweeted about me.

‘That being said, I really am truly sorry. I was a dumb guy who ABSOLUTELY let myself get caught up in my lifestyle. That’s MY fault. I own it. I’ve been reflecting on this for some time now and I promise I will continue to do better.’

Soon afterwards, CNN reported the allegations of three women, who claimed that the star had exposed himself to them; one woman alleged that he masturbated in a car after she refused to touch him.

D’Elia denied the allegations, and has remained off Instagram and YouTube since last June.

The comic and podcaster began doing stand-up in 2006 and has gone on to have his comedy specials streamed on Netflix.

On TV, he starred opposite Whitney Cummings in Whitney, took the lead in Undateable, and most recently starred as Henderson, a stand-up comedian and rapist, in the second season of Netflix’s You. 

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