Overview

Steven Crowder's Divorce refers to Louder With Crowder host Steven Crowder announcing that his wife Hillary has filed for divorce during a Rumble livestream on April 25th, 2023. During the stream, Crowder repeatedly made it known that it was his wife's decision and not his and suggested that Candace Owens, a conservative media pundit for The Daily Wire, was extorting him and threatening to use the knowledge of his divorce for her personal gain. Later that month, a video was given to the media by Hillary's family and put online showing Crowder arguing with his wife that many considered evidence of emotional abuse, with Hillary's family claiming Crowder had been emotionally and mentally abusing her for years. An article accompanying the video claims Steven was the first one to hire a divorce attorney. In response, Crowder called the video "misleadingly edited" and filed a motion to unseal all files relating to the case. In early May, ex-staffers of Crowder's spoke to the New York Post, alleging that he was abusive towards them and showed six staffers his genitals.

Background

On April 25th, 2023, Steven Crowder livestreamed his podcast Louder With Crowder on Rumble^[1] (shown below). At the start of the show, Crowder shared that his wife had filed for divorce in 2021, describing the split as "horrendous." He claims there was no infidelity or abuse on either side that led to it and that it was his wife's choice, saying, "In the state of Texas, that is permitted." He claims that his viewpoints that children need a mom and a dad have not changed and he still thinks "divorce is horrible," adding, "In Texas, divorce is permitted when one party wants it" and that his beliefs "don't matter."

Crowder explains that he's been dealing with the divorce privately from most people to protect his children, but many in "places of power and privilege" behind the scenes knew about it. He then brings up extortion and threats and plays a clip of Daily Wire host Candace Owens from January 2023 in which she says that Crowder is "going through a lot" and tells her viewers to pray for him.

At the time of the clip, Crowder was in a feud with The Daily Wire after they tried to recruit him for $50 million, which he believed wasn't enough.^[2] Owens then says she shouldn't say anything else on the matter, but might under the right circumstances. Crowder repeats that his children have a right to privacy and claims he probably won't talk about the divorce in the future, saying he still loves his wife but that he "made the wrong choice" marrying her.

Developments

Candace Owens' Response

On April 25th, 2023, Candace Owens responded to Crowder's claim of extortion through a Twitter^[3] post, writing, "Steven Crowder accusing me of extortion is so patently insane that it honestly makes me question how there are still people who cannot see how thoroughly undone he has become. This is not stable behavior. He is a man on a spiral." She later commented under the post, "If you are going to use your children as human shields to block people from digging further into your divorce, please do so without inserting me into the narrative," then added, "To remind people — the video Steven used in his show of me was a video of me RESPONDING to Steven’s first set of bizarre attacks against the Daily Wire. Steven is not the victim. He never was the victim. He’s just a bad person who continues to burn a lot of people. Outright bizarre and concerning." The post gained over 2,500 likes in a day (shown below).

Later that day, Owens expounded further on the accusations in more detail in a YouTube^[4] video posted to the Candace Owens Podcast channel, garnering over 109,000 views in a day (shown below). In the video, she calls the accusations "patently false" and "shocking."

She explains that in the clip Crowder showed, she was talking about his refusal of the $50-million contract from The Daily Wire. She accuses him of playing the victim by mentioning that the divorce is not his choice, also claiming she did not know about his divorce and that Crowder purportedly sent her a "flirty" message about how good she looked on election night. Owens claims she deduced that Crowder was getting a divorce due to the way he was acting about the $50-million contract, inspiring her to look at Crowder's wife's Instagram, where she then noticed the two were not following one another. At the end of the segment, Owens claims she's filing a cease and desist and demanding a retraction from Crowder, as well as inviting Hillary onto her platform to discuss the divorce.

Ring Camera Emotional Abuse Video

On April 27th, 2023, Yashar Ali published an article to Substack^[15] sharing an exclusive video take on a Ring camera on June 26th, 2021, showing Crowder and his ex-wife Hillary arguing. In the video, Crowder criticizes her for not doing her "wifely duties" as he tells her to put on a glove and give the dog its medicine. Hillary, who is eight months pregnant at the time, is worried that the medicine is toxic for her baby. Crowder refuses to let her take the car and tells her "watch it" after she says his "abuse is sick" (full video reuploaded to Twitter^[16] shown below).

The article gives further context to the video. According to Ali, the video was given to him by members of Hillary's family after Crowder discussed the divorce on his show against her lawyer's wishes. The article alleges that Crowder has been mentally and verbally abusing Hillary for years behind the scenes. A statement from Hillary's family, given to Ali, claims that Crowder missed the birth of his children to undergo an elective surgery and that she urged him to get help for his abuse, but he would not (shown below in full).

I want to make sure everyone sees the full video, as I'm already seeing Crowder defenders say the 20 second clip is "not that bad". Please go read the full article which is even more damning than this video. pic.twitter.com/OzqomhMpJr

— Ethan Klein (@h3h3productions) April 27, 2023

"Hilary is currently living alone in Dallas, apart from her family and support system in Michigan, and is focused on taking care of her young children. She is not prepared at this time to speak about her divorce becoming public or the misleading statements made by Steven about their relationship.

The truth is that Hilary spent years hiding Steven's mentally and emotionally abusive behavior from her friends and family while she attempted to save their marriage. She was the one who was asking to work on their relationship to keep the marriage intact for their unborn children.

In June of 2021, Steven left their home to pursue elective surgery. Hilary urged him to get the help he needed to address his abuse with the hope that their marriage could be saved and they could peacefully live together as a family. Instead, Steven refused to do so and chose not to be with his wife during the birth of their twin children. After the birth, Steven bought a townhouse and left their home permanently. Hilary was unaware that Steven had hired a divorce attorney and asked his assistant to cut Hilary off financially. There is significant documentation substantiating these facts.

We hope that Steven will cease speaking publicly about these personal matters in an untruthful manner. We also look forward to there being full transparency in the legal process so there is fairness and accountability for the actions that caused the divorce, and to ensure the outcome is what is in the best interests of the young children."

That day, Candace Owens posted a video to YouTube^[17] titled "Steven Crowder Is A Monster – Change My Mind" where she reacts to the clip, garnering over 639,000 views in a day (shown below). Owens shares a clip where Crowder claims the surgery he's talking about is to resolve a heart issue. Owens claims that, according to Hillary, the elective surgery was cosmetic, optional and performed to make Crowder's chest more masculine.

Crowder Responds to Ring Video

On April 28th, Crowder responded to the Ring video.^[18] In his response, he says the clips were "misleadingly edited." He then says he filed a motion to "unseal all files as they relate to the matter of legal record. Finances, relevant medical records, including mental health history or evaluations, depositions, and any motions of sanctions from the courts of Texas" (shown below, reupload).

Ex-Staff Speak Out

On May 2nd, 2023, the New York Post^[19] published an article featuring quotes from anonymous ex-staff members of Crowder and the Louder With Crowder show, who said they "don’t want Steven to suffer," but, "want the abuse to stop or at least let future employees know what they’re getting themselves into." One ex-staff member alleges that Crowder's behavior toward his wife shows the "real Steven." Throughout the article, the ex-staff members call him abusive and claim that he sometimes made them clean his dirty laundry in the office. Six ex-staffers claim that Steven showed his genitals to them.

Online Reactions

The clip of Crowder discussing his divorce went viral on social media the day he announced it. On April 25th, 2023, it was shared by Twitter^[5] user @LegendaryEnergy, garnering over 6,200 likes and 8 million views in a day. Some people began posting memes about the situation. For example, on that day, Twitter^[6][7] users @DrWallkick and @IntelDankWeb posted memes that gained over 5,100 likes and 3,100 likes, respectively, in a day (shown below, left and right).

Later that day, Twitter^[8] user @The_sigma_fem retweeted a recent post from Crowder in which he reacts to a video of a couple, writing, "Steven Crowder posting happy couples to judge right after announcing he’s getting divorced is crazy 😭" garnering over 23,000 likes in a day.

Also on April 25th, 2023, Twitter^[9] user @RightWingCope posted a pentagon hexagon octagon meme about Crowder, garnering over 15,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Later that evening, the same user posted a meme to Twitter^[10] suggesting Crowder is bisexual, based on a viral clip of Crowder seemingly admitting that he had a "bisexual phase" in the past,^[11] garnering over 14,000 likes in a day (shown below, left). Conservative comedian Owen Benjamin posted a tweet about the situation taking an anti-Crowder stance. In the tweet, he talks about working with Crowder on-stage and about how he was made to dress in drag for various skits, writing, "Over time I realized more and more that we weren’t owning anyone and I just kept being asked to wear really degrading and sexualizing outfits […] the only thing Steven crowder is 'owning' is a bunch of dresses and a broken home. Change my mind," garnering over 850 likes in a day (shown below, right).

The divorce was also discussed by numerous left-wing media pundits and outlets on YouTube,^[12][13] including The Young Turks and The Majority Report (shown below). YouTube commentator The Quartering defended Crowder, writing in a tweet,^[14] "It's absolutely disgusting that people on the right would use Steven Crowder's divorce as leverage against him, to use it against him to embarrass him. Divorce happens. It doesn't even sound like it was his choice. You expect it from the left but totally shameful from the right."

Search Interest

External References