Dave Portnoy Threatens Legal Action After Accuser Claims He Broke Her Rib During Violent Sexual Encounter
He's calling the claims a "smear job."
YouTube Months after Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy was accused of having “violent and humilating” sex in a slew of sexual misconduct allegations made in a November Business Insider article, a follow-up piece has unearthed more allegations.
On February 2, a second piece discussed allegations from multiple other women who claim Portnoy filmed sexual encounters without their consent and allegedly shared videos of other women with them.
Portnoy, who has built his personal brand image around taking down his critics, is denying all accusations against him.
What is Dave Portnoy being accused of?
Portnoy is accused of initiating violent sexual encounters with multiple women that may have breached the boundaries of consent, or at the very least, involved an imbalanced power dynamic that made them vulnerable.
Several of the women also claim they did not consent to being filmed but received videos of their sexual encounters with Portnoy after the fact.
Here is a timeline of the allegations against Portnoy and his responses.
In November 2021, 'Madison' likened her encounter with Portnoy to 'being raped.'
One of the women in the original Insider article, who used the name Madison, said that she had been messaging Portnoy on Instagram when she was only 20 and he was 43.
Portnoy had offered to pay for her first-class ticket to his home, and it was upon her arrival that Madison says she started to feel uncomfortable after he began recording her without her consent during oral sex.
The encounter reportedly escalated from there, and that Portnoy ignored her when she cried out, telling him to stop because it was “too much.”
Instead of listening, Portnoy “only went harder,” choking her so hard during sex that she couldn’t breathe.
Madison claimed she had felt like “a human sex doll” as Portnoy ignored her pleas for him to stop.
“It was so painful,” Madison said. “I kept trying to get away and he was like, ‘Stop running away from me. Stop running away from me.’”
Madison had also shared screenshots of a text message that she had sent her friend following the assault, where she likened her experience to “being raped.”
“It was so rough I felt like I was being raped . . . I was literally screaming in pain.”
Also in November 2021, 'Allison' was reportedly suicidal after meeting Portnoy.
Another woman, who was referred to as Allison, did not refer to her experience as sexual assault but instead felt as if she were being “preyed on” and that it was “really aggressive.”
Allison was 19-years-old when she began messaging Portnoy, after getting encouragement from her older sister.
In an interview with Insider, Allison said it was common for locals in New England to “try and land an invitation to Portnoy’s house” for the parties he threw.
Allison eventually landed that invitation, but her friends were reportedly not invited. After denying the first time, she was extended another invitation and felt pressured to go by her friends.
During her encounter with Portnoy, Allison said the sex was “aggressive” and that there was choking involved.
“He kept spitting in my mouth, which was really gross,” Allison said. “I was kind of scared. I didn’t want to disappoint him.”
Three days after the encounter, Allison was hospitalized after becoming suicidal and depressed.
Her mother contacted the police, but Allison stopped her, claiming she didn’t want to pursue Portnoy for fear that he would “drag me through the mud.”
Dave Portnoy responded to the November allegations.
Portnoy posted two videos to his Twitter account in which he denied the allegations, and accused Business Insider of drafting a “hit piece” against him.
“I’m scared because they’re asking for more. It’s like they’re asking the internet, ‘Tell us bad stories about Dave Portnoy,'” he said. “Well guess what? A lot of f------ people hate me. I guarantee this: they’ll never be able to prove anything. Nothing, because nothing’s ever happened. But I can’t stop a he said, she said.”
Portnoy denied Madison’s claims that she had told him to stop, claiming that during the entire ordeal it was “100 percent consensual.”
He also made a comment that he had assumed Allison was 21 after showing messages between the two in which she suggested the two meet at a bar.
He also said he had never been contacted by the Nantucket police regarding the incident, but that he felt “awful” that Allison was depressed after the encounter.
“To me that’s pretty black and white... it’s such a strange area to be in because it’s a sensitive issue and these allegations are horrific,” Portnoy said. “But they’re saying she’s so depressed by me, suicidal almost. But she was continually hitting me up to hang out.... I don’t know.”
In Febuary 2022, 'Kayla' claimed she was left with a broken rib after having sex with Dave Portnoy.
In the most recent slew of allegations, a woman identified as 'Kayla' recalled first being in contact with Portnoy over Instagram when she was 21.
She recalled two violent sexual encounters with Portnoy in which she claims was left unable to breathe and had a 3 inch long rug burn on her back.
"I always think back to it," she said, "like, 'Yes, it was technically consensual sex, but that was not the sex I consented to.'"
Insider shared images of the alleged injury.
She claims Portnoy attempted to have anal sex without her consent and she had to refuse him multiple times before he complied. She also claims he broke her rib by forcibly squeezing her.
She adds that at one point she saw Portnoy recording her on his phone and felt to intimidated to tell him to stop.
When she later saw the video, she says he had actually started recording before she'd even seen the phone.
Other women claimed Dave Portnoy shared videos of himself having sex.
One woman, who also claims to have been recorded without her consent, says Portnoy would send unsolicited videos of his other sexual encounters.
Another woman, who never met Portnoy in person, says he would send similar videos to her.
Dave Portnoy announced he is suing Business Insider.
Portnoy has long stood by the claims that the Insider articles are a direct attempt to disrupt his business and tweeted as much in the lead up to the second article.
Upon its release, he again denied the allegations in an article on Barstool and shared multiple screenshots of messages with his various accusers that he claims took place after their sexual encounters.
Portnoy implies that their claims lack validity because they continued to message with him after the violent sex occured. He insists all encounters were fully consensual.
In the response, Portnoy announces that he will be suing Business Insider and the writer of the article, Julia Black.
“This isn’t journalism. This is a crime. The only thing I’m guilty with is sexting with chicks and thinking they wouldn’t tell their friends about it," he writes.
He also shares screenshots of messages to several reporters in which he offers to be interviewed on video if he can also record footage or have them on "The Dave Portnoy Show," it doesn't appear that anyone has accepted the offer thus far.
Barstool Sports is known for controversial, sexist content.
Portnoy’s company, Barstool Sports has a heavy reputation of being extremely misogynistic, and racist, with the man running the business acting no differently.
Portnoy has defended his use of racist comments against Colin Kaepernick, supported a co-workers use of blackface, and used a racial slur in a video that surfaced last year.
He has also had a past of using rape jokes as well as making sexually degrading comments that are equally as disgusting.
In 2010, Portnoy had published a blog post in defense of an Australian man who had been acquitted of rape due to his victim wearing skinny jeans and therefore it must’ve been hard for him to get them off.
“Even 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?” Portnoy wrote.
In May of 2021, he expressed regret for his comment, but not in the way that people had expected.
“Where I failed,” he said in an interview with Tucker Carlson, “I thought size 6 was like a size 20.”
In his videos, nowhere did Portnoy take accountability for the incidents with the two young women, nor has it seemed that he has ever taken accountability for any of the offensive and derogatory comments he has made during his career.
Instead, Portnoy paints himself as the victim, concluding his video by saying: “I’m scared now. Woke cancel culture wants to cancel me.”
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Follow her on Instagram.