Colleen Ballinger: Miranda Sings YouTuber’s tour dates pulled following grooming allegations
Comedian has denied the allegations, calling them ‘toxic gossip’
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Your support makes all the difference.Colleen Ballinger’s forthcoming tour dates have been cancelled following allegations of grooming made against the YouTube star.
The comedian and internet personality is best known for her online character Miranda Sings, a deluded and poorly dressed wannabe singer who posts videos online. Ballinger, 36, also posts videos and creates content under her name.
In June, multiple former members of the Miranda Sings fan club came forward and alleged that Ballinger “groomed” them.
Public allegations against Ballinger date back to April 2020 when Adam McIntyre, now 22, claimed in a YouTube video that the internet personality developed an imbalanced, unhealthy friendship with him when he was as young as 13.
Ballinger denied the allegations in a video posted on her second channel, Colleen Vlogs. In the video, Ballinger – who starred in Netflix series Haters Back Off – played the ukulele while calling the allegations “lies” and “toxic gossip” and saying that she never had “any bad intentions”.
In the video’s description: Ballinger wrote: “I do not condone or support any kind of online bullying or hate towards anyone. Ever.”
Ballinger had been performing a string of live dates across the US in May and June, with the tour scheduled to restart in Boise, Idaho on Thursday (13 July).
However, despite many tour dates still being listed on Ballinger’s website, every link clicks through to websites stating that the shows have been cancelled.
According to her website, the show was “open to all ages and rated PG13 due to some adult references and expletives that appear briefly on a screen”.
The Independent has contacted Ballinger’s representatives for comment.
Back in 2020, McIntyre made his first video calling out Ballinger for her alleged behaviour. McIntyre reportedly first met Ballinger in 2014 at a tour stop in Dublin during a “very professional” interaction.
Two years later, they spoke directly during one of Ballinger’s livestreams in 2016. During the livestream, Ballinger reportedly promised she would send some of her “ugly” and unused clothes to a few of her fans. McIntyre claims he received a set of her underwear shortly after.
Ballinger previously admitted sending McIntyre a bra and underpants in a 2020 apology video, in which she said: “I don’t know what part of my brain was missing at the time. But I am not a monster, I am not a groomer, and I shouldn’t kill myself.”
Following Ballinger’s response to the 2023 allegations about her, McIntyre tweeted: “As much as colleen discredited & made fun of me, im glad her video did ONE thing, show you all EXACTLY the type of evil woman she is, that a lot of us have experienced over the past few years behind the scenes, the mask has slipped…everyone meet the REAL colleen ballinger [sic].”