Late last night, actress and well-known cosplayer Chloe Dykstra posted a first-person account on Medium, detailing a period of her life in which she was engaged in an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship with an unnamed man—albeit an unnamed man who many people have been comfortable identifying as her ex-boyfriend, comedian, podcaster, and TV host Chris Hardwick. Including, apparently, Hardwick himself, who, after a day of silence that saw his former company Nerdist remove his name as founder from its website, and the TV networks he’s associated with face mounting pressure to distance themselves from him, has now issued a statement directly addressing Dykstra’s account, and offering a flat denial to many of her claims.
Most pointedly, Hardwick denies the portions of Dykstra’s account in which she describes her unnamed partner as emotionally coercing and threatening her into sex on multiple occasions, and despite her stated lack of desire. Noting that these are “very serious allegations that are not to be taken lightly,” Hardwick described his relationship with Dykstra this way: “Our three year relationship was not perfect—we were ultimately not a good match and argued—even shouted at each other—but I loved her, and did my best to uplift and support her as a partner and companion in any way and at no time did I sexually assault her.”