Six months ago, Cody Ko began an unofficial hiatus from his YouTube channel following allegations that he had sex with internet personality Tana Mongeau when she was 17 years old and he was 25. His channel, which boasts 5.76 million subscribers, has laid dormant since July. Now, the YouTuber has broken his silence — in a 21-minute video uploaded to his side channel with 272,000 subscribers that only spends around two minutes explaining his recent absence from the internet.
“Obviously, I understand I’ve been offline for months, haven’t made videos for that whole time,” Ko said. “I also understand if your opinion of me has potentially changed over the last few months. I spent the first half of my career criticizing people and judging people online, so I don’t begrudge your judgement of me by any means.”
Ko was once the host of the podcast Tiny Meat Gang alongside Noel Miller. On the show, the duo uploaded comedic takedowns of cringey social media users and influencers alike. Miller took over as the sole host of the show following Mongeau’s allegations, which were revealed on her own podcast Cancelled. The claim came during a live recording of the podcast, where she stated that she “was literally 17” when they slept together.
“I just think all I can do right now moving forward is just try to be the best person I can be for myself and for my family and just continue putting the best shit out there that I can,” Ko continued in the video, which largely focused on his preparation for a marathon. At the beginning of the year, the creator welcomed his first child with his wife, Kelsey Kreppel, who often appeared on his YouTube channel. Ko and Kreppel have both stepped away from social media over the year.
“If you stick around to watch it, I very much appreciate it from the bottom of my heart, truly,” Ko concluded. It is unclear whether he plans to return to his primary YouTube channel in the future.
Following the live podcast taping, Mongeau further addressed her statement during an episode of Cancelled. “To be 100 percent truthful, when I look back at the Cody situation, I definitely am, like, ‘Why was he doing that?’” she said in June. She also recalled an event where influencer Gabbie Hanna informed Ko that Mongeau was only 17. They left the event together and hooked up, anyway. “I can look at that and be like, ‘Why the fuck were you doing that?’” Mongeau said.
During an appearance on Trisha Paytas’ podcast Just Trish around the same time, Mongeau addressed the response to her allegations. “The thing that was actually really heartbreaking to me, and kind of crazy to me, is after it started going viral, seeing so many people not believing me,” she said. “Being like, ‘It’s Tana, so who cares.’ And then I started feeling bad for so many other girls who maybe look up to me and want to speak their truth and see the way that people just don’t believe people.”