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Who is Jessi Smiles? YouTuber drops call records to show Gabbie Hanna sided with her alleged rapist

'Her continued lying about my trauma has officially broken me and I don’t know what else to do,' Jessi Smiles said about Gabbie Hanna

YouTuber Jessi Smiles, who had a public fallout with fellow influencer and former friend Gabbie Hanna in 2019, has released a set of phone call records with her. The call records proceed to show how Hanna had supported and sided with Curtis Lepore, despite Jessi Smiles accusing him of raping her. Smiles, who is currently pregnant with her second child with husband Nassim Ssimou, dropped the call records on Twitter with the caption, "Gabbie and I had a phone call last summer. I never planned to release it. In fact, there’s nothing I want more than to never talk or think about Gabbie ever again. But her continued lying about my trauma has officially broken me and I don’t know what else to do."

Smiles released the calls from June 2020, recorded with mutual consent, after BuzzFeed News published an in-depth feature on Gabbie Hanna recently. There, Hanna mentioned apologizing to Smiles and other people she offended but insists that she has never received an apology from anyone. "It feels like I’m always dishing out apologies and I’ve never once received one, and that to me feels a little chaotic," Hanna shared. Twitter users are now furious at Hanna and have dubbed her a 'toxic and manipulative bully'. 

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Who is Jessi Smiles?

Jessi Smiles, whose real name is Jessica Vasquez, is a Vine star-turned-YouTube celebrity, much like her once good friend Gabbie Hanna. At one point, the duo used to make videos together but slowly, their friendship fizzled out without fans getting a hint of the reason.

In 2019, the truth came out through a nasty public feud between the two, when Smiles shockingly revealed how Hanna had sided with Curtis Lepore, Smiles' former boyfriend who allegedly raped her.

The incident of the sexual assault dates back to 2014 when Smiles and Lepore were two Vine stars who started dating. However, they broke up soon after Lepore reportedly raped her during sleep. According to her police complaint, she had hit her head on a chair and suffered a concussion, when Lepore offered to take her to his home. Smiles fell asleep at his place but woke up to Lepore having sex with her, without her consent. The assault traumatized her and she filed a police report soon after, leading to Curtis Lepore's arrest.

Later, Lepore pleaded guilty to felony assault and rape charges were dropped. Smiles stated at the time, "Curtis plead guilty to a felony assault today in court. It is no longer going to trial. I am okay with this and thankful for it to be over."

'Jessi, Curtis' friends didn't rape you'

In 2019, influencer Gabbie Hanna became embroiled in controversy after Jessi Smiles confronted her for continuing to hang out with Curtis Lepore and his friends, ignoring the fact that he was charged with raping Smiles. Hanna reportedly also showed her support to Lepore during his trial through a series of tweets, which were unavailable now.

Jessi Smiles published a video titled 'Gabbie Hanna needs to be stopped', addressing all the controversies. She revealed there how Hanna's support for Lepore spoiled their friendship. She added that Hanna told her, "Jessi, Curtis' friends didn't rape you," when confronted. "One of the things that I believe you never do, even if you hate someone now, is hang out with their rapist and their friends," Smiles emotionally shared in the video.

Gabbie Hanna received a barrage of internet hate as a 'rape apologist' following the release of Smiles' video, but eventually, the matter died down with time. Now, in her latest BuzzFeed interview, Hanna stated that he was never friends with Curtis Lepore and always believed in Jessi Smiles' rape allegations against him. 

"You have to really try to not give a fuck what people say if it’s not true. Every time I put out a project, it’s instantly, completely shut down by people starting a new rumor that day. Am I going to live like that forever? Or am I going to do whatever the fuck I want because you’re going to hate me anyway?” Hannah told BuzzFeed.

Soon after the article dropped, Jessi Smiles made her old call records with Gabbi Hanna public in a shocking Twitter thread. "I know I made a public video calling Gabbie out in 2019 - I understand that. I don’t, however, understand how that warrants Gabbie being able to bring up my rape/rapist consistently in order to “defend herself” against things that she...actually did. It’s beyond triggering," she tweeted about Hanna's latest statements. 

In the call records from 2019, Hanna can be heard pressuring Smiles to release a public statement apologizing to her for making the video with their private conversations. She also visibly lied about hanging out with or supporting Curtis Lepore, as Smiles shared side-by-side photographic evidence and screenshots that disproves her claims. See the entire conversation below:

Twitter users came out in support of Smiles and condemning Gabbie Hanna for using 'selfish' and 'manipulative' tactics. "I can’t tell you what a relief it is for people to know how truly vile gabbie is," tweeted actress Meghan Rienks, adding, "please watch all of these videos in their entirety. the shit gabbie pulled last summer and CONTINUES to pull - is f**king disgusting. and gabs, I know i’m blocked but F**K YOU"

"Biggest takeaway for me is that Gabbie finally admitted in this phone call that she really did tweet that Jessi was lying about being raped. Finally. That was the crux of the issue all along," tweeted reporter Kat Tenbarge. Influencer Trisha Paytas wrote, "So let me get this straight @BuzzFeed - Gabbie Hanna lost sponsors because SHE told ppl *I* had herpes in 2017 and I made a video addressing that I don’t ? Make it make sense." Earlier, Gabbie Hanna had wrongfully claimed that Paytas had Herpes.