Between 2011 and 2014 Nerdist founder Chris Hardwick dated model and actress Chloe Dykstra. According to Dykstra, she was young and ended up with Hardwick who had some hard rules for her, including having to give up her male friends, not talking to him in public, and also having to be ready for him to have sex whenever he wanted it. Dykstra claims that the times they had intercourse when she didn’t want it or wasn’t in the mood was sexual assault.
The lengthy Medium post was published on June 14th, 2018. It was originally unlisted, but the article spread rather rapidly thanks to social media. The post talks about how emotionally abusive and distant Hardwick was during their relationship, and how he oftentimes just used her for sex. Dykstra wrote…
“Regularly. I was expected to be ready for him when he came home from work.
“How did this happen? At the beginning of our relationship, I was quite ill often due to my diet, something I’ll get to in a bit. One night he initiated, and I said, “I’m so sorry, can we not tonight? I’m feeling really sick.” He responded, “I just want to remind you, the reason my last relationship didn’t work out was because of the lack of sex.” It was a veiled threat. I succumbed.
“Every night, I laid there for him, occasionally in tears. He called it “starfishing”. He thought the whole idea was funny. To be fair, I did go along with it out of fear of losing him. I’m still recovering from being sexually used (not in a super fun way) for three years.”
Dykstra also discusses the surgery she went through following a miscarriage, and how the only thing Hardwick was concerned about was how quickly she would be ready to have sex again.
After three years she eventually broke up with him.
Hardwick is currently the host of Talking Dead and has a couple of other shows in production. He originally founded The Nerdist back in 2012, but according to The Hollywood Reporter the executive staff over the site have scrubbed all mention of Hardwick from the website. A spokesperson for the parent company, Legendary Entertainment, told Hollywood Reporter…
“”Chris 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,”
Surprisingly, Chris Hardwick does not have a pedigree of being an outspoken male feminist ally. He also doesn’t have a digital footprint of having ragged on #GamerGate. This is despite the fact that Malik Forte from The Nerdist actually did rag on #GamerGate back on September 9th, 2014.
The three minute video did not stay up on the site for long, as it was deleted from the archives.
Now that Hardwick is being scrubbed from the creative ventures he helped create, it’s likely that his future endeavors will also likely be put in jeopardy as well.
(Thanks for the news tip Neo Thanos)
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