BØRNS Addresses Allegations of Sexual Misconduct

"All of the relationships I have had were legal and consensual"

BY Calum SlingerlandPublished Sep 25, 2018

Singer-songwriter BØRNS (a.k.a Garrett Clark Borns) has responded to accusations of sexual misconduct made against him by multiple women online over the past week.

In a statement posted to Instagram today, Borns wrote, "I am both hurt and angered over the disturbing and false allegations that have been spread over the past few days on social media. All of the relationships I have had were legal and consensual. They ended abruptly and that obviously caused hurt feelings, but for anyone to suggest anything beyond that is irresponsible."

As Pitchfork points out, Twitter user @kaliforxnia posted a statement last week in which she calls Borns "a manipulator, horrible 'friend' and user." She recalled that they had struck up a friendship over social media after meeting each other at a concert in 2015.

Months later, she alleged that Borns asked her to "meet him for drinks" in Los Angeles, writing, "I was expecting a bar but ended up at his place." She claimed she then entered his house and was offered alcoholic beverages.

"Suddenly I became drunk and was completely taken advantage of," she continued. "Once everything happened I went to the bathroom and started bleeding. I was completely shocked from the blood and started to get it together and realized what just happened. I blamed myself for that night because I didn't say no even though I was intoxicated."

The woman then recounted a similar incident that occured in Chicago a month later. "I actually let him talk me into using me....again," she wrote. "I'd like to add in that he did not use protection and didn't care when I said I wasn't comfortable with that and was not on birth control at the time."

A second Twitter user @alyssaadaniele told her own story of Borns, which she said began after meeting him at a music festival when she was 16. After messaging each other back and forth on social media the next day, Borns invited her back to his hotel.

Once she was at his hotel, @alyssaadaniele recalled that Borns "began to touch my leg, but I didn't think anything of it...he began going further up my leg, and started skimming me in other places. I want to add that he also was aware of how old I was, 16, yet he still touched me the way he did." 

The woman wrote that she continued messaging with Borns over social media, writing, "He told me what he wanted to do to me, and wanted me to call him 'daddy.' And referred to himself as such. He asked me questions that made me uncomfortable that fed into his fetishes. He would ask me to send specific pictures and videos of myself, and I did."

She then wrote, "When I was 18, the day came where we were intimate at his place in Los Angeles. He had groomed me from age 16 for this," recalling, "He got me drunk, started touching me, and we went into his bedroom. The things he did were things I did not want, and it hurt. He was aggressive and controlling and I was so fucking scared of him."

Pitchfork also points out that Twitter user @exposing_borns has been collecting and sharing further accounts of alleged misconduct.

Borns had collaborated on a pair of tracks with Lana Del Rey earlier this year.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by BØRNS (@bornsmusic) on

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