Updated: August 31st, 2023.
TikTok singer Rodger Cleye has been accused of predatory behaviour towards a teenage fan.
Rodger is a 56-year-old creator who amassed over 3 million followers singing covers of popular songs on TikTok live. Rodger went viral in 2022 when users turned him into a POV meme— using his singing bits to indicate they were unbothered, blissfully ignorant, or purposefully delusional about stressful situations.
This meme solidified Rodger’s reputation on TikTok as a wholesome grandfather figure and his young fanbase grew.
Over the past week, however, TikTok’s perception of Rodger has shifted after aspiring singer Olivia McCraw spoke out against the creator for fostering an inappropriate relationship with her.
Rodger and Olivia collaborated on TikTok live last week where they sang together in a hotel room. The setting and their physical closeness during the live concerned some viewers, who later discovered that Olivia had only just graduated high school in 2022.
Rodger took to Instagram in a now-deleted post to address these concerns, writing that users should be “ashamed” of themselves for questioning his relationship with Olivia. He also claimed that Olivia is 21 years old and insinuated that she graduated high school at an older age.
Olivia also addressed questions about their collaboration. In a TikTok video posted one day after their live, Olivia asked fans to “stop spreading rumors” that she is dating Rodger and called their live a “fun experience.”
“It really hurts to be called like, a whore, when you know, people see you singing on a live with someone else,” she said.
On August 14th, Olivia returned with a follow-up video. This time, she spoke out against Rodger and his alleged inappropriate behaviour towards her.
“The reason why I changed my perspective with both TikToks was because of the interactions and accusations,” Olivia tells Centennial World. “People were accusing me of dating him which wasn’t true. I never wanted to hurt his career. It was the last thing I wanted… I posted the video for women that encounter him or people like him.”
Olivia started her video by confirming she is, in fact, 19 years old and said that she posted the video defending her collaboration with Rodger “to stop the excessive comments being made.”
She went on to detail how her collaboration with Rodger came to be.
Olivia said she randomly joined one of Rodger’s TikTok live streams and saw he was asking someone to attend the Taylor Swift Eras Tour with him. Olivia put her hand up for the opportunity and Rodger allegedly messaged her saying she was beautiful and that if it “wasn’t for his daughter [going with him] last minute, the person he chose would have been me.”
Rodger then allegedly told the teen he wanted to visit her. She agreed to his visit and they planned the singing collaboration. Olivia claimed he also said he would take her out for a “fancy dinner” where the two “could dress up.”
Olivia said that Rodger flew to her hometown and they went to Texas Roadhouse. “In the midst of conversation, he made me aware that he had a vasectomy,” she said.
After dinner, Olivia wanted to grab her guitar for their TikTok live. She claimed that Rodger asked if he could go to her house with her to pick it up. “We got to my house and as we arrived, he wanted to take a picture of my beautiful backyard and asked me to get in the picture. I accepted, but didn’t know it would be posted,” she explained.
Olivia claimed that back at his hotel room (where they planned to film the TikTok live), Rodger went to the bathroom with the door open. She also noticed that Rodger had allegedly put a photo of Olivia as his phone background.
During the live, Olivia said they had to get quite close to fit in the camera. “Moments later, he started to rub my back continuously, which I was uncomfortable with. Eventually, I scooted away from him but that did not help anyways, so he continued,” she explained.
Not only did Rodger try to get close to her on the livestream, but also off-camera.
“I didn’t address [it] in my TikTok [but] he kept trying to hold my hand as we walked. I held it until I could find a way to not to. I said I needed both of my hands to grab my phone and walked a bit further from him,” she tells Centennial World. “His family member [also] joined a live and stated they had been trying to get him to stop what he’s been doing but he didn’t.”
Olivia also alleged that Rodger tried to kiss her after the live. The 19-year-old explained why she kissed him back in the TikTok, saying she was “alone and I felt obligated.”
Olivia told Rodger that she could not handle the comments and felt uncomfortable collaborating again. She claimed that Rodger started guilting her, saying she had “abandoned” him.
“He continued to pursue me,” she said. “Some mornings, I would wake up with 45 messages. A video of him singing in the bathtub.”
Olivia said he later called her a “predator” on another account and a “manipulative little girl.”
Hours after posting her emotional video, Olivia shared screenshots of public comments that Rodger wrote about her after their TikTok live.
In one comment, Rodger said that Olivia “posed as a 21 year old,” has two children, and called her “extremely manipulative and attention seeking.”
Olivia has no children— something she confirmed with Centennial World.
In another comment, Rodger said Olivia was “extremely flirtatious” before he visited her.
In response to Rodger’s claims, Olivia posted screenshots of their alleged messages that show Rodger pursuing her.
In these messages, Rodger called Olivia “beautiful” and “cool,” talked about how his followers will perceive their “age gap” relationship, and referred to her as his “sugar baby.” Many of these messages appeared to go unanswered by Olivia.
While Olivia has tried to cut personal contact with him, he reached out to one of her family members. After this, Olivia and Rodger briefly discussed the situation.
“I blocked him after the repetitive messages. It was just too much for me after the incident as well,” Olivia says. “Rodger stopping speaking to me for a while. Which is what I had hoped for. However, he reached out to my aunt and stated ‘I heard you were on my side’ and that he needed help as a moderator. So I reached out after and we started talking and I addressed what he did was not right but there had to be something to stop the hate.”
With the internet standing by Olivia, Rodger has now disabled his TikTok account.
Rodger did not respond to our request for comment.