YouTube This article is more than 6 months oldYouTuber Colleen Ballinger loses shows over alleged inappropriate behavior
This article is more than 6 months oldComedian known for Miranda Sings character faces accusations of inappropriate behavior with minors and wearing blackface
Colleen Ballinger’s podcast Oversharing and several of her live shows have now been canceled as the YouTuber known for her satirical teenage persona Miranda Sings continues to face criticism for allegedly behaving inappropriately toward underaged fans and wearing blackface.
Ballinger’s co-host, Trisha Paytas, called the ordeal “embarrassing” in a YouTube video this week, confirming that the duo’s podcast would end after just three episodes.
“When I say I’ve never wanted a chapter in my life to be over faster than this, even though it was a really small chapter, I mean it,” Paytas said in the video.
The cancellations marked a staggering halt to Ballinger’s career. Ballinger created Miranda Sings as a student at a Christian university in 2008 and eventually attracted millions of followers, earning a Netflix show that lasted for two seasons. She had been in the midst of a national tour as allegations from former fans emerged of bullying and inappropriate behavior with minors. An upcoming show on 10 August in St Louis, Missouri, was cancelled due to “unforeseen circumstances”.
Back in April 2020, YouTuber Adam McIntyre claimed in a video that Ballinger befriended him when he was between 13 and 16 years old. McIntyre, who believed he was legitimately friends with Ballinger, claimed he exchanged texts with her and had access to her social media accounts. Ballinger reportedly sent lingerie to McIntyre, an act that Ballinger later said would become a “big joke within the fandom” in a video addressing McIntyre’s claims.
“No, I should have never sent a fan underwear, how stupid am I? No, I definitely should have never given him access to my Twitter account, and no, I shouldn’t have talked to him as often as I did,” she said at the time. “But I am not a monster and I am not a groomer.”
Since then, more allegations of impropriety surfaced after KodeeRants, another former fan and YouTuber, released a video detailing private exchanges allegedly between Ballinger and McIntyre in a group chat reserved for fans called “Colleeny’s weenies”. The exchange, now in since-deleted videos from KodeeRants, showed Ballinger, who was in her 30s, reportedly asking McIntyre, who was 15, if he was a virgin and what his favorite sex position was.
The inappropriate behavior extended to the stage as well, with Ballinger putting teenagers in awkward, sexualized situations for the sake of comedy. Another fan accused Ballinger of sending nude photos of her eventual podcast co-host, Trisha Paytas, to him that were taken from Paytas’s OnlyFans page. Video clips also surfaced of Ballinger allegedly performing Beyoncé’s Single Ladies in blackface, an accusation her legal team denied in a statement to Vulture. They noted Ballinger had instead painted her face green modeled after the witch in the Broadway hit Wicked before she performed Single Ladies.
In late June, Ballinger denied the allegations in a YouTube video, in which she sang about the “toxic gossip train, chugging down the tracks of misinformation” while playing the ukulele.
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