Following their sudden exit from the Frenemies podcast, Trisha Paytas has made some serious accusations against former co-host Ethan Klein.
The pair joined forces in September 2020 to launch the Frenemies podcast about their tumultuous friendship. Despite a rocky start to their relationship (hence, “frenemies”), the podcast was a massive success for Trisha and Ethan (also known as h3h3) both personally and professionally— playing a huge role in reviving Trisha’s damaged reputation and bringing both co-hosts back into relevancy online.
Frenemies ended after a dispute over uneven wage distribution
Last week, the 33-year-old YouTube star announced they would be leaving the show in a vidoe posted to their channel titled, ‘stepping down from frenemies.’ The news came after a fight between the co-hosts related to an uneven wage distribution.
According to those who viewed the episode, Trisha admitted to having an “episode” over a segment that was created by a new h3 producer which upset that producer. This led to a discussion about Trisha’s contribution to Frenemies where Trisha took issue with Ethan saying they don’t contribute to the show.
Frenemies is filmed, edited, and produced by Ethan’s production company, h3h3Productions.
The two then got into a discussion about the financial breakdown of the show. While Ethan and Trisha allegedly split the paid membership revenue 50/50, Ethan makes 50% of the AdSense revenue for the Frenemies channel— which falls under h3h3Productions— and Trisha takes home 45%. The remaining 5% goes to pay the crew.
Trisha allegedly complained that the crew’s cut comes out of their split of the AdSense. These comments reportedly upset the crew, who were present for the conversation.
Trisha Paytas accuses Ethan Klein of triggering them for views
This series of events, coupled with Trisha’s controversial social media posts following their exit, have seen star fall out of favour again with fans.
Now, in an effort to defend their decision to leave the podcast, Trisha has accused Ethan of purposefully triggering them for content, including bringing up their past sexual assault and sexual health history.
“I put up with Ethan purposefully triggering me, trying to trigger me, on multiple occasions,” they say in a new YouTube video before explaining instances when Ethan brought up traumatic experiences from Trisha’s past.
Trisha goes on to recount a trip to Disney when Ethan brought up Trisha being sexually assaulted as a prostitute in front of their mother. They also mention an episode of Frenemies when Ethan pressed Trisha for information on the rumour they have herpes.
Ethan Klein responds on Twitter
Off the back of Trisha’s video, Ethan took to Twitter, saying the video “is extremely upsetting and disturbing” and that he is “still processing it”.
“This is a person who I considered one of my closest friends a week ago who is now making videos accusing me of sexual harassing [them]. Its too much,” he writes before adding, “Trisha said I was sexualizing [them] in the workplace which is the textbook definition of sexual harassment.”
Trisha made comments in their video about Ethan “sexualising” their new skincare range.
Trisha Paytas responds to Ethan Klein’s tweets
In response to allegations that Trisha accused Ethan of sexual harassment, Trisha says that Ethan “did not watch my video” and claims his tweets have incited “more unwarranted hate” towards the star.
I assure you Ethan did not watch my video, inciting more unwarranted hate towards me. I don’t even know what to do at this point. I take responsibility for wrongs that I did on the show but I’m also allowed to speak on what made me uncomfortable regarding my sexual health/history https://t.co/OEqSZkJbPy
— Trisha Paytas (@trishapaytas) June 14, 2021
Trisha continues, claiming they did not accuse Ethan of sexual assault. “I’m not sure if twisting everything I say this week is intentional to drive more hate my way or not but it’s disheartening. Starting with me wanting to ‘fire a crew’ to now ‘accusations of sexual harassment when it’s ME talking about MY sexual health/ history,” they tweeted.
Trisha notes that they attempted to set boundaries with Ethan surrounding discussions of their sexual assault and sexual health which they felt were not respected. They go on to acknowledge that they made Ethan “uncomfortable” with jokes about his Tourettes syndrome and his Jewish faith. Trisha has made several anti-Semitic remarks towards Ethan in the past.
Trisha then posted numerous alleged lies that Ethan has told at their expense before tweeting that “this whole thing was blown out of proportion” and they, too, “just want it to stop”.
Ethan has not yet responded to Trisha’s tweets at the time of publication.