Sorry to Nicholas Braun fans, but the internet’s adorable “babygirl” is not as doe-eyed and pure as his portrayal of Cousin Greg has led us to believe. In fact, some people claim he is just as problematic (read: creepy) as every other man in Hollywood.
The rumours kicked off when a video posted to TikTok under the username @stvnspielberg unearthed icky claims that the Succession star, who is 34 years old, had hit on a woman when she was underage and he was in his 20s.
In the now-deleted video, the woman shared images of herself at Coachella when she was 16 and claimed the man she was sitting on the shoulders of was Nicholas Braun. The pics are pretty blurry so there’s no way to verify whether this was indeed him, but there’s definitely a striking resemblance.
“Basically, when I was 16 years old this man tried to f-ck me,” she claimed in the video.
“I told him I was in high school,” she said, but claimed “He gave me his number and he invited me back to his hotel room” anyway.
uhhhh…what the fuck pic.twitter.com/a3mfBN0vml
— i can be your long lost pal (@PallaviGunalan) April 6, 2023
The woman said she declined his offer but claimed she later heard he allegedly slept with a friend of hers that same day who was also in high school and underaged.
It’s important to point out that the woman didn’t accuse Braun of sexual assault or coercion. She said she felt compelled to speak out and voice the allegations because of the internet’s infantilising of Braun as a “babygirl” — AKA a sweetie pie in need of protection — which was surprising to her given her own experience of him as an actual young girl.
The video has since been deleted, but claims of Braun being sleazy have gained further life on a Reddit megathread where people discussed the TikTok video.
One screenshot from the thread claimed Braun would DM girls aged 17 to 18 as recently as 2020, when he was around 32. By then, he was already known as the beloved Cousin Greg.
Another screenshot attached to the original post showed claims that Braun would approach young women at the bar he co-owns with Justin Theroux.
“He routinely seeks out young women at his bar and follows very young IG models,” Reddit user queenbee433 wrote.
“It’s super weird given his ‘wholesome’ vibe and honestly feels generally skeevy given how he now has a reputation for sliding into DMs and sleeping around. At 35, I think it’s weird for him to be seeking late teens/early 20s out!”
Obviously, rich white Hollywood men in their 30s (and 40s, and 50s) dating women in their teens and early 20s is hardly new information — Henry Cavill dated a teenager when he was in his 30s, Chris Evans came under fire for dating a 25-year-old when in his 40s, and Leonardo DiCaprio is notorious for dating women with large age gaps.
Allegedly dating someone who is underage, though? With the power and influence that comes with being a world-wide celebrity? Especially when the world has a parasocial relationship with you that allows you to get away with skeevy behavior because you are perceived as cute and awkward? If there’s any truth to these rumours, this is fucking gross.
Of course, there’s not nearly enough information about these accusations to know whether there is any truth to the claims of icky behaviour Braun is accused of — all we know is that people reckon he isn’t as wholesome as we think.
Parasocial relationships really let people get away with all kinds of shit, huh?
