Steven Crowder's feud with Candace Owens intensifies as he accuses her of 'extorting' him amid divorce with wife Hilary
TENNESSEE, NASHVILLE: Political commentator Steven Crowder was recently at a bitter war of words with fellow conservative speaker Candace Owens where he accused her of “extorting” him amid his ongoing divorce. The 35-year-old YouTuber announced his divorce from his wife Hilary after nearly a decade of marriage during an episode of his popular podcast, 'Louder with Crowder' on Tuesday, April 25, 2023. Crowder admitted to going through a "horrendous divorce" since 2021 while also complaining about Texas' no-fault divorce law.
The pair's feud reportedly began in January after Crowder declined a $50 million deal to join Owens at the Daily Wire as he believed that the media company is guilty of "big tech-like censorship." However, Owens defended the conservative firm and said Crowder had “a lot going on” in his personal life at the time. She then proceeded to request her viewers to pray for Crowder despite not explicitly mentioning that the media host’s wife Hilary Crowder was in the process of leaving him.
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Crowder does not mention Owens' name
In his podcast on Tuesday, Crowder made a cryptic attack on "other people" in "positions of power, influence, leverage," who were aware of his marital issues. He added that the "safety of [his] children" was at risk because the information was supposed to be kept private. Crowder then went on to accuse these unnamed people of "extortion." Although Owens' name was never mentioned, Crowder made it clear who he was referring to as he said, "Well, now some of these threats were so thinly veiled that I'm frankly surprised you didn't all guess immediately." before replaying the clip of Owens from earlier this year, as per Mediaite. “I’ll be handling this through the proper legal avenues and channels available as a matter of record in which I have more than full confidence,” he added as he emphasized that his “children have a right to privacy.”
'I will not take that lightly'
Owens has since responded, slamming down Crowder's extortion claims and threatening the comedian with a defamation suit. “He’s now upping the ante and suggesting that I extorted him. I will not take that lightly,” Owens said on Tuesday night, as per The Sun. “I am not Hilary Crowder. I am not anybody in his family. I am not going to take somebody going on to his platform and alleging that I either harassed, threatened, or did anything that would put his children at risk.”
'A crazy man'
She further added, "That is very serious stuff that he is saying,” adding, “And so what I did this morning after this clip was sent to me is I contacted a defamation lawyer and I am sending Steven Crowder a cease and desist and I’m going to demand a full-throated retraction to the idea that Candace Owens threatened him or extorted him and not that I simply did a little math. One plus one equals two." Owens also added, "A crazy man doing these sorts of things to his friends obviously means that something is going on personally. Honestly, this time, I’m not even going to suggest anybody should pray for him. I’m going to hope that he does the right thing, that he does another one of his live feeds on the exact same platform via the exact same medium and offers me an apology and takes back every single word that he says."