(Article updated on October 26 with comments from Dave Portnoy.)
Taylor Swift is facing criticism for sending a thank-you letter to Dave Portnoy, despite the allegations of violent sexual misconduct against the media mogul.
Dave, who owns the sports and pop culture company Barstool Sports, attended the singer’s Eras Tour show in Miami, Florida, on Sunday (October 20).
Highlights
- Taylor Swift is being criticized for thanking Dave Portnoy after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct.
- The singer sent a letter to the controversial media mogul during one of her Eras Tour concerts in Miami.
- Six women have accused Dave of violent behavior during sexual encounters, including choking them and filming them without their consent.
In a video posted after the concert, the 47-year-old shared a handwritten letter that was allegedly hand-delivered by Austin Swift, Taylor’s brother, to the VIP section at the show.
"Dave, I'm so happy to have you at the show tonight! I wanted to say thank you for always being so supportive, so loyal, and for having my back when a lot of people didn't. I hope you have a blast tonight!!" wrote Taylor, whose stationery is signed: "songwriter/feline enthusiast."
Image credits: David Eulitt / Getty
Dave, an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump, defended Taylor when the Grammy winner endorsed Kamala Harris in September.
"As the king of the Swifties people are asking me what I think of her Kamala endorsement. I don't care at all," Dave wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) at the time.
"People can vote for whoever they want in this country. How somebody votes will never change my opinion of a person. I'm voting the other way but to each their own."
Their interaction sparked criticism on social media, with some netizens questioning Taylor—who has spoken out against and written songs about the abuse of power by men—about her kind words to Dave.
Image credits: stoolpresidente
“@taylorswift13 writing a letter thanking Dave Portnoy- a man who has been accused of violent sexual abuse by multiple women - for being ‘loyal’ and ‘having her back.’ I guess her ‘believing victims’ era was exactly that, a f**king ERA,” an X user wrote.
Another fan shared a speech Taylor gave during one of her concerts, referencing the time she had been sexually assaulted in 2013 by Colorado DJ David Mueller, who reached under her skirt and grabbed her rear end while they were taking a photo.
“I think of all the people who weren’t believed or were afraid to speak up because they think they won’t be believed. I’m sorry to anyone who wasn’t believed ‘cause I don’t know what turn my life would have taken if people didn’t believe me when I said that something had happened to me.”
The singer allegedly sent a letter to the media mogul thanking him for being "so supportive, so loyal, and for having my back when a lot of people didn't"
Image credits: stoolpresidente
Image credits: stoolpresidente
The fan wrote, “I can't understand that the woman who made THAT speech in the reputation era is now writing a handwritten letter to thank an abuser for all his ‘support’... it's surreal and disappointing.”
In 2021, an investigation by the Business Insider alleged that Dave Portnoy engaged in aggressive sexual encounters with three women and filmed two of them without their consent.
"It was so rough I felt like I was being raped. He video taped me and spit in my mouth and choked me so hard I couldn't breathe," described one of the women, who used the pseudonym Madison.
After Madison sent a private message to Dave via Instagram, he invited her to his Nantucket home. Madison described the experience as “traumatic.”
After Madison sent a private message to Dave via Instagram, he invited her to his Nantucket home. Madison described the experience as “traumatic.”
Dave read the letter aloud during an Instagram video and shared it on his BFFs podcast account
Image credits: marsh
"It was so painful. I kept trying to get away and he was like, 'Stop running away from me. Stop running away from me,’” Madison added.
She told him it was “too much” and it hurt, but Dave “just went harder."
When he started to record her during the private act, Madison feared that Dave would become more aggressive if she confronted him. “I never said anything. I was scared. He was just so mean.”
Nantucket Police spokesman Lt. Angus MacVicar stated at the time that the department was not investigating Dave.
In 2010, Dave faced backlash after writing in a blog post, "[E]ven though I never condone rape if you’re a size 6 and you’re wearing skinny jeans you kind of deserve to be raped right?"
One of them, using the pseudonym Kayla, said that the media mogul broke one of her ribs during a violent sexual encounter in his New York apartment.
Kayla said Dave slapped her across the face with “full force” and choked her.
The women were too scared to ask him to stop recording for fear he would hurt them because of his violent behavior. Moreover, they didn’t want him to share the private videos as an act of revenge.
In response to the accusations, Dave posted a letter from his attorney, Andrew Bettler, admitting that the sexual encounters took place but claiming they had been “entirely consensual.”
Image credits: Neilson Barnard / Getty
When asked about the accusations made by the women, Dave described their stories as "totally fabricated allegations made against me" in an email to Bored Panda.
"Maybe Taylor and I share a bond because we have both been outwardly lied about in the media. The people who wrote that BI article about me should in jail. BI and then the NY Times spent years investigating every ounce of my life trying to destroy me. There is a reason I'm still here. I tell the truth," the media mogul said.
In a blog post on the Barstool Sports website, Dave referred to the women as "old hookups that were never meant for public consumption." He also shared what he claimed were screenshots of conversations, suggesting they showed the women were not harmed by his actions.
"I’m sorry to anyone who wasn’t believed ‘cause I don’t know what turn my life would have taken if people didn’t believe me," Taylor said in 2018
"One of the main themes in the Business Insider article is that I video girls without their consent. This is absolutely not true. I have never done that once in my life and I never will. I'm so scarred I'll probably never video again anyway," the 47-year-old wrote.
Dave claimed the women "say I video them without consent and I'm too rough for them and then they come back over a week later and we have sex again.(...) All the while we are actively texting and dm'ing each other without them saying a word to me that they are upset."
He said Madison had a private Instagram account where she shared photos of them in Nantucket, and there was "no mention of any distress or unusual activities" from her.
Dave shared a message the woman allegedly posted, which reads, "Portnoy was a dick and lame and grumpy. He gets a 2/10 from me. If he ever pisses me off I have lots of content to expose him with. I am going to stick to the athletes.”
Meanwhile, he claimed that Kayla "liked rough sex as much as I did," that at no point did she ask him "to stop or act frightened or in distress," and that she was aware he was videotaping their sexual encounter. He also said she stayed at his apartment to have sex after the rib injury.
Additionally, he alleged that she later joked about her rib injury and sent him "unsolicited sexual messages" three years after their last encounter.
Bored Panda has contacted Taylor Swift's representatives for comment.
"As a Swiftie, I'm so disgusted," one of Taylor's fans wrote
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