Overview

Millie Bobbie Brown's Friendship with Drake refers to the relationship between child-actress Millie Bobbie Brown, best known for playing the character Eleven on Stranger Things, and Canadian rapper Drake. After Brown, 14, revealed on the red carpet that she and Drake, 31, keep in touch via text, people questioned whether the friendship was appropriate.

Background

On September 17th, 2018, at the 2018 Emmy Awards, Access Hollywood interviewed Millie Bobbie Brown about her friendship with Drake. Brown stated, "He's honestly so fantastic. A great friend and a great role model… We just texted each other the other day and he was like 'I miss you so much,' and I was like 'I miss you more.'” She also stated that Drake offers her advice on boys.

Developments

The comments raised concerns that the relationship between the two was potentially inappropriate. This was exacerbated by the fact that it had been recently revealed that Drake was dating 18-year old model Bella Harris.^[1] The relationship was questioned by news outlets such as The Independent,^[2] with blogger Katie Goh writing:

Maybe it’s easy to read too much into the situation but personally, I can see no circumstances in which a 31-year-old man sending an “I miss you” text to a 14-year-old girl to whom he’s not related is appropriate, no matter how wise beyond her years that girl seems.

Some Twitter users accused Drake of "grooming" Brown, a practice in which older men lay the groundwork for underage girls to date them once they become of legal age (examples shown below).

On September 18th, YouTuber Nerd Suburbs posted a video parody of the controversy in which Drake is arrested for pedophilia. The video gained over 47,000 views (shown below).

After the backlash, Brown posted a defense of her friendship with Drake on her Instagram story, saying it was a "lovely friendship," and she advised the world to get back to "real problems" (shown below).

Search Interest

External References