Ryan Adams has been cleared of “sexting” an underage fan following an FBI investigation, Page Six has learned.
A source with knowledge of the investigation told us: “Ultimately, the FBI found no evidence that would support charging Ryan with a crime, and closed its investigation, without charges, in the fall of 2019.”
The New York Times reported in 2019 that it had seen “extensive communication” between Grammy-nominated Adams and the fan, who went by the pseudonym “Ava.”
This included direct messages on Twitter that allegedly began when Ava was 14, and more than 3,000 text messages sent between the pair up until she was 16, alongside explicit photographs that Ava was said to have sent to the star.
Although they never met in person, Ava also claimed that they had video calls over Skype.
Throughout their conversations, Adams reportedly asked Ava, a budding bass player, about her age. “Do me a paranoid favor,” the Times claimed that he wrote in November 2014, when he was 40 and she was 16, “Show me you are 18.”
Ava, now believed to be 21, replied that she was older than she was, however, she never showed her I.D.
Adams, through his lawyer, Andrew Brettler, denied that he “ever engaged in inappropriate online sexual communications with someone he knew was underage.”
In the same Times story, several other women — none of whom are believed to have been underage — accused him of using the promise of career help to lure them into romantic relationships, and then emotionally abusing them.
At the time, Adams tweeted, “the picture that this article paints is upsettingly inaccurate. Some of its details are misrepresented; some are exaggerated; some are outright false.”
Adams’ ex-wife, “This is Us” star Mandy Moore has previously accused him of psychological abuse.
She told Marc Maron on his “WTF” podcast: “I was living my life for him. … I had no sense of self. I felt like I was drowning.” After Adams apologized to anyone he had hurt, Moore said he should have apologized in private to her. (A source close to Adams told Page Six he has since “made private amends” to Moore.)
An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment, as did Adams.