TikTok Drama: Did Sienna Mae Gomez Sexually Assault Jack Wright?
There's no end in sight to the latest TikTok drama.
There are probably some upsides to living out your adolescence in front of 15 million+ TikTok followers, but it mostly sounds like a great way to guarantee all the trauma of being a teenager is magnified by 15 million.
**Trigger warning: Discussion of Sexual Assault**
In the latest example of a literal child being cancelled by anonymous adults on the Internet, 17-year-old TikTok star Sienna Mae Gomez is facing backlash for allegedly sexually assaulting her ex Jack Wright. Sienna, know for her body positive posts, and Jack, known for his viral dance challenges, have been surrounded by rumors of a romance since early 2020. The two are also co-stars on the new Netflix documentary following the members of the TikTok creator conglomerate known as the hype house.
But that all ended May 30th, when fellow influencer and friend of Jack Mason Rizzo posted a notes app screenshot to his Twitter account accusing Sienna of abusive behavior towards Jack. The post read, "I struggle with seeing a girl getting praised after telling my best friend to kill himself and sexual assaulting him numerous times after he set boundaries and then repeatedly wonder why 'he doesn't like you back.'"
Jack's brother, James Wright, who also boasts millions of followers on TikTok, retweeted Mason's tweet with the comment, "this is why I 'couldn't just let it go and stay out of it.'"
Gomez responded via her Instagram account on May 31st, denying the allegations and saying the matter was going to be resolved out of the public eye. "Friends fight and relationships sometimes change, but allegations of a criminal act are not to be thrown around loosely," the statement read. "Making an untrue sexual assault claim is never okay. I'm beyond saddened by this situation. In order for us to all move forward, I will be taking this offline with Jack. Thank you to all who have reached out with love and concern."
But that didn't last long, as the 17-year-old posted a 7 minute long YouTube video the next day entitled "addressing false allegations."
In the video Gomez states, "I unequivocally deny the allegations that I sexually assaulted Jack Wright. I'm not making an apology video; this is more of a statement." She doesn't stop there, going on to outline a generally unhealthy relationship between her and Wright. "If I wasn't around for the TikTok kiss or the TikTok video, I wasn't important to him."
She goes on to say, speaking directly to Wright, "You know I did not sexually assault you." From there, she apologizes for sharing his experience. "We both know what happened and we both know who it was and we both know that I was not at that gathering that night," she says. She goes on to state that Jack was only ever using her for internet clout, and also says that her and Wright "never had sex." She continues: "For so long I was strung along and mislead by Jack, it's honestly really embarrassing for me because I gave my entire heart and all of my love for nine months so vulnerably on the internet and everyone can go and look at these videos and see how invested I was in our relationship."
Finally, on June 2nd, Jack Wright chimed in himself, posting a statement to his 1.3 million instagram followers.
While the post did not directly accuse Gomez of assault, it did say, "I truly encourage my childhood friend Sienna to get the support and help that she needs."
To add to the fire, on June 3rd, another friend of Jack Wright's, Lachlan Hanneman, posted and deleted a TikTok that supposedly showed footage of Gomez groping and kissing an unconscious Wright. Soon, the footage was re-uploaded by influencer drama account @DefNoodles.
Hanneman claims Gomez was groping and kissing Wright while he was passed out at a party. He went on to say that he pulled Gomez off of Wright and she attempted to "justify" her actions. Gomez then responded with another YouTube video on June 4th entitled "addressing the false allegations 2." In it, the teen Influencer claims that the footage Hanneman shared was taken out of context and edited to make it seem like Wright was passed out prior to Gomez kissing him, when in reality he fell asleep after she kissed him.
She also says her hand, which Hanneman implied was groping Wright in the video, was actually resting on his thigh. She specifies: "Within the boundaries of our relationship, this was normal." In the video, Gomez continued to insist that the accusations are purposefully meant to cast her in a poor light and that all involved "have now been served cease-and-desist letters."
Of course, it's impossible for anyone to truly know what happened between the two teens, but that won't stop millions who feel like they know Gomez and Wright from speculating and drawing their own conclusions.