The New York Post says Zoe Laverne, a TikTok star, is in trouble after she and a much younger boy kissed in a video shared online. In response to the backlash, Laverne claimed she and Connor, who has his own TikTok account with 350,000 followers, just wound up “catching feelings.”
Zoe, who has 18,000,000 followers, used a Livestream recording this week to apologize after a swath of social media users accused her of “grooming” her much younger friend. The Post confirmed they were unable to reveal the 13-year-old boy’s surname due to his status as a minor.
Business Insider was the first to pick up on the Livestream in which Zoe said “it just happened.” Laverne says they were both struggling emotionally when they first met, and over time, they wound up becoming great friends.
However, she says they slowly started to develop more romantic feelings. While admitting the age gap between them was inappropriate, Laverne claimed that on the whole, their relationship “was not a bad thing.”
Reportedly, Connor has 350,000 followers on TikTok and he frequently works with her on her own channel. As a result of the controversy, however, Laverne and Connor are no longer friends.
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As it was previously reported, a leaked message exchange between an old friend of Laverne and her ex-boyfriend showed that they had referred to Zoe’s relationship with Connor as “pedophilia.” Later, videos made their way onto the internet in which they looked like they were kissing.
As for Connor’s response to the controversy, he came out on his own Instagram Stories to say that Laverne never sexually assaulted him. Furthermore, screenshots show that Laverne spoke to Connor’s mother about what happened between them.
According to the screenshots, Laverne said his mother wasn’t happy about it but she understood that it’s normal for two people to like each other, even though it may be inappropriate. In her own Livestream, Cox’s mother came out to say they were “best friends” and it was ok for them to kiss.
Just a couple of days prior, Connor poked fun at the scandal by posting a video of him strutting as if “nothing happened.”