Steven Crowder, currently feuding with Candace Owens
Right-wing culture warriors Candace Owens and Steven Crowder are in the midst of a bitter feud, sparked by a video in which Crowder announced that his wife was divorcing him, implying that Owens had crossed a line by publicly hinting at his marriage troubles.
Who is Steven Crowder?
Crowder is a high-profile content creator on “anti-woke” YouTube, who has repeatedly sparked backlash for his controversial comedy sketches, and has been accused of homophobia, racism and misogyny, which often results in YouTube demonetizing his content on the platform.
Crowder is widely known for the meme template “Change my Mind,” a often-edited screenshot of Crowder ready to debate university students.
Like Owens, Crowder identifies as a conservative Christian; the two content creators seem ideologically aligned, but began feuding back in January, after Crowder turned down a $50 million deal to join the Daily Wire, which he described as a “slave contract.”
Crowder went on to accuse the company of engaging in “big tech censorship” in a video which sparked an intense feud with Ben Shapiro, co-founder of the Daily Wire.
Candace Owens Enters The Ring
Owens, who is employed by the Daily Wire, denounced Crowder’s video as “a total bitch move,” and inserted herself into the feud by releasing a video where she repeatedly hints that she knows of something embarrassing in Crowder’s personal life, stating that “his actions are a symptom of something much larger … Steven has a lot going on, I guess is the best way to say it.”
Owens went on to urge her audience to pray for Crowder: “Sometimes people need a prayer. Sometimes people need a scripture. Steven purports to be a Christian, and I believe that he needs to lean into his faith. And I am certain that in the near future, more information will come out.”
Steven Crowder’s Divorce
On Tuesday, Crowder released a video announcing that he has been going through “what has increasingly been a horrendous divorce” since 2021. The video sparked shock and mockery on Twitter, as Crowder repeatedly implies that he is upset that Texas law allows his wife to divorce him without his consent.
“She simply wanted out, and the law says, that's how it works,” Crowder said. “One thing that is undeniable, in this case, is that it's no one's fault but my own, in that I picked wrong.”
Crowder then turned his attention to “other people” in “positions of power, influence, [and] leverage” who knew about the divorce, and said these people “knew that the safety of my children included keeping it private. So if you’re familiar with the idea of extortion. Then you know the feeling … some of these threats were so thinly veiled that I’m frankly surprised you didn’t all guess immediately.”
Crowder then played a clip of Candace Owens’ comments from January, and criticized “self-styled Christians,” hinting that he might take legal action if the YouTube drama scene delves too deep into his personal life, stating: “I’ll be handling this through the proper legal avenues and channels available as a matter of record in which I have more than full confidence.”
Owens quickly hit back, releasing a video titled “Steven Crowder Accused Me Of Extortion,” in which she threatened legal action of her own, warning that she had “contacted a defamation lawyer and I am sending Steven Crowder a cease and desist,” then stated that she was “going to demand a full-throated retraction.”
Owens concluded by inviting Crowder’s ex-wife to her platform so she could “talk about what’s actually going on.”
The messy feud kept escalating, as Owens launched an attack on Twitter, 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. Outright bizarre and concerning.”
The drama caused quite a stir on Twitter, sparking commentary from left-wing and right-wing content creators, even causing the word “divorce” to appear on the Twitter trending tab.
As for Crowder, he continued with business as usual, releasing a video mocking a happy transgender couple; it didn’t take long for Twitter users to point out the hypocrisy:
Update: Crowder’s ex-wife Hilary’s family released a statement and video footage to writer Yashar Ali, accusing Crowder of emotional abuse.
“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,” the statement read.
The family released home surveillance footage from a Ring Camera of Crowder berating his ex-wife while she was heavily pregnant. In the video, Crowder forbids his wife from using their car “because you refuse to do wifely things,” and demands she wear gloves to give his dogs medicine that she was concerned was toxic to pregnant women.
“The only way out of this is discipline and respect,” he tells her.
Later in the footage, Hilary states “I love you, but your abuse is sick.”
“Watch it. Watch it. Fucking watch it,” he replies.
The video quickly went viral on Twitter, sparking widespread condemnation. Candace Owens retweeted the video, describing Crowder’s actions as “the behavior of monsters. There is no justification— change my mind.”
In response to the viral video, Steven Crowder released a statement on Twitter on Friday. Crowder did not comment on the video directly, but said that “broken marriages are ugly. In them people do ugly things, myself of course included, and I would never claim otherwise.”
Crowder said he now plans to unseal documents concerning “finances, relevant medical records concerning mental health history or evaluations, depositions, and any motions or sanctions from the courts of Texas.”
