Earlier this week, I wrote about BeauTuber Jeffree Star allegedly acquiring millions in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, created by the federal government to help small businesses keep employees on payroll during the covid-19 pandemic, for his merchandise and makeup companies—despite having just dropped $14 million on a castle-house, and despite the fact that real small businesses really could’ve used that money. Naturally, I wouldn’t fault anyone who views today’s news as karmic retribution: Star has allegedly been robbed by his new (ex-)beau, basketball player Andre Marhold.
On Wednesday, HIP Magazine tweeted a screenshot of a comment Jeffree Star allegedly left on Marhold’s Instagram account, which read: “Hey! Since you can’t answer the phone right now, can you give me all the stuff back you stole from my house?? What kind of lowlife fucking scum does that? Give it back!!!! If you need a return label, just ask.” As Vulture points out, in the—weeks?—Marhold and Star have been dating, a few women around Marhold have claimed that he is only dating Star for money, which Star responded to with a subtweet: “I don’t give money to anyone I’m dating or anyone who is fucking me.” Maybe he didn’t have to?
According to Page Six, the couple has been together since at least since August, when they first went public on Instagram. At the time, Page Six’s Jessica Bennett wrote that Marhold was “(allegedly) a CEO” of “the Belle modeling agency,” but the “company’s skimpy Instagram presence—which only dates back to March—mostly features content of Marhold, though a recent post shows he and Star posing for a photoshoot.”
Anyway, after the screenshot of Star’s Instagram comment made the rounds online, he attempted to control the narrative, like all great villains do. He hopped on his Instagram Story to speak in the third person and confirm that the guy he was hanging out with did actually take some of his expensive shit.
“About a week ago, Jeffree Lynn discovered a lot of things and this person, secretly, [had] no job, no money, not even a bank account—and we’re talking, this person is 30 years-plus. All these things I was told were all false,” Star says directly to camera, a golden highlight filter distorting his face. “And I was like, ‘Okay, I was lied to. Bye, sweetie. It was really great meeting you, thanks, bye!’ And then, all of the sudden, there’s some Louis Vuitton luggage missing, there’s some backpacks missing and there’s a few sunglasses missing. So. ‘Jeffree Star got robbed’? No. Someone just stole a few things.”
Of course, knowing that this is Jeffree Star, it’s easy to pose a few conspiracy theories. Was he actually robbed, or dumped? Or is this his way of getting out of a very public hookup, fast? (If the latter is the case, accusing someone of “stealing” is incredibly damning, especially given their racial dynamics: Star is whiter than Casper the Friendly Ghost, and Marhold is a black man. Some followers seem to think that Marhold received those items as a gift, and Star is lying about the thievery.) If Marhold really did just grab a few pieces and bounce, does he accept fan mail?
I’ll reserve my tinfoil hat for the commenters on YouTube gossip channels, but let it be known: Star is single, and out of some very, very expensive luxury goods.