UPDATED 2:19 p.m. ET: Deadline reports that Chris Hardwick was been scrubbed from the Nerdist website, which he founded. Legendary Entertainment, which has owned Nerdist Industries since July 2012, said in a statement that “Hardwick had no operational involvement with Nerdist for the two years preceding the expiration of his contract in December 2017.”
“He no longer has any affiliation with Legendary Digital Networks. The company has removed all reference to Mr. Hardwick even as the original Founder of Nerdist pending further investigation,” the statement continued.
Read the original story below.
Actress Chloe Dykstra published an emotional essay on her personal Medium account on Thursday in which she opened up about an ex-boyfriend’s long term emotional and sexual abuse and attempts to derail her career. Although she does not name him, many have speculated that she is referring to Chris Hardwick, known for being host of Talking Dead and the Nerdist podcast, as well as the former host of Comedy Central’s @Midnight.
Dykstra’s essay mentions an older man who she dated during her early 20s who established rules about what she could or couldn’t do in their relationship. The rules included reserving all of her nights to spend time with him, not having close male friends and removing photos of male friends from her apartment, not drinking alcohol, not speaking in public places, or take photos of the two of them together. Dykstra says she was also “pressured” to take an on-camera job at her boyfriend’s company, even though she didn’t want to work for him (she's co-hosted Nerdist's cosplay show Just Cos).
Dykstra also accused him of sexual abuse. She writes that she was expected to “be ready for him” regardless of how she felt. One night, she was too ill to have sex, and he said: “I just want to remind you, the reason my last relationship didn’t work out was because of the lack of sex.”
“Every night, I laid there for him, occasionally in tears. He called it ‘starfishing.’ He thought the whole idea was funny,” she wrote.
The two were together for three years, and after she broke up with him for someone else, she claims he blacklisted her. She says the ex-boyfriend called several companies she regularly worked with and threatened to stop working with them unless they fired her. As a result of his abuse and how it affected her own sense of self-worth, Dykstra says she developed anorexia and had suicidal thoughts.
Dykstra said she wrote the essay for closure, but did not promote it in anyway. On Twitter, she wrote she is “overwhelmed” by the support she's received after publishing it.
I quietly posted an article today, unlisted on Medium. It clearly made the rounds. I’m overwhelmed and I want to thank all of you for your support and kind words- they mean so much to me. I may take some time off the internet, please know your support means everything to me.
