As sexual misconduct allegations mount against a popular YouTube star and budding documentary filmmaker, at least one alleged victim is doubling down on her story—and pushing back against how he’s defending himself.
Andrew Callaghan, whose YouTube series Channel 5 and HBO documentary This Place Rules features interviews with American extremist counter-cultures, is at the center of several young women’s claims of sexual coercion. These include incidents where the 25-year-old allegedly pressured women into sexual acts, usually after drinking heavily with them.
“After we got to my car, he started advancing toward me, started touching my inner thigh, and pulled me forward,” one alleged victim said of Callaghan in a TikTok regarding a 2019 incident, in which she claims Callaghan tried to pressure her into sex after a bad date. “He proceeded to put his hand down my pants, and I told him to stop [and] get off me multiple times.”
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Another woman alleged in a TikTok that, in 2020, she and Callaghan went back to her house after a night of drinking at a Los Angeles bar. “I remember repeatedly telling him that I just wanted to be friends and that I didn’t want to take it to that point anymore,” she says in the video, “and he repeatedly asked me and pressured me into having sex and into giving him a blowjob. He pressured me to the point where I did give in.”
And in interviews with The Stranger—based in Seattle, where Callaghan is from—multiple other women shared similar experiences that they allegedly had with the filmmaker.
“I was under the impression that Andrew had nowhere else to stay that night. I now realize that was naive,” one alleged victim said of an incident in 2021. “At the time, I thought my only option was to cave in to what he was repeatedly asking of me and ignoring all of my different versions of ‘no’—‘No, I’m tired,’ ‘Sorry, I have to be up early, is it okay if we just go to sleep? I’m really tired.’ I thought I just had to make the night end. Frozen in fear, I thought that [sex] was my only option.”
In a statement released through his legal representation to TMZ on Thursday, Callaghan neither confirmed nor denied the allegations. Instead, the statement introduced a possible financial angle, implying that the accusers may be coming forward for monetary gain.
“While every dynamic is open to interpretation and proper communication is critical from all those involved, repeated requests for money should not be part of these conversations,” Callaghan’s rep told TMZ. “While even one concerned partner is too many, there are always multiple sides to a story.”
But a text sent to Callaghan from one of his alleged victims, reviewed by The Daily Beast, did not necessarily indicate a shake-down.
In a Dec. 30 text message sent to Callaghan’s number (which The Daily Beast was able to confirm), one alleged victim wrote of her “trauma” as a result of “the night [he] coerced” her into sex. The timing of the message, the alleged victim wrote, was related to the then-upcoming release of This Place Rules.
“I don’t really want a response from you because I already know your skewed version of what happened the last time I saw you,” the text reads. “I just want you to know that seeing friends of mine promote your new show, which I’m not discounting came with a lot of hard work, hurts me in ways I wish you could feel sometimes.”
The part referencing money comes next: “Anyways. If HBO cuts you a fat check, and you in any way feel like helping contribute to the massive amount of therapy bills I have accrued from the night you coerced me and the resulting trauma, my Venmo is [redacted.]”
The Daily Beast did not see evidence of further or repeated exchanges about money between Callaghan and the woman.
A source with knowledge of a second woman’s accusations told the Beast that the woman had no contact with Andrew recently, and that she did not want money. The woman “came forward to support the other woman and hopefully stop any others from being hurt,” the source said.
Callaghan did not respond to the text message, or to The Daily Beast’s requests for further comment.
