If you’re rich and famous, what could be worse than a single sexting scandal? Why, that would be five separate sexting scandals all breaking at the same time!
That’s what has been happening lately for Adam Levine. The Maroon 5 frontman and former coach on The Voice is currently married to Victoria’s Secret model named Behati Prinsloo. They already have two children (Dusty and Gio) and are expecting a third.
Levine’s marital status turns these sexts from unfortunate to downright scandalous. But who did he text, and what did he text them? And has the internet been laughing nonstop at his messages? Keep reading to find out!
The initial texting scandal
We only know about the sexting scandals because of a woman and Instagram model named Sumner Stroh. As Newsweek reports, she took to TikTok to discuss a recent text from Levine she took offense to. “I was having an affair with a man who’s married to a Victoria’s Secret model. At the time, I was young, I was naive and, I mean quite frankly, I feel exploited,” she said.
Continuing, Stroh said she saw Levine for about a year, but that they hadn’t interacted in months. Then, he suddenly slid into her Instagram DMs with an unexpected question: “Ok serious question. I’m having another baby and if it’s [a] boy I really wanna name it Sumner. You ok with that? DEAD serious.”
This kicked off the initial scandal. The idea of Levine naming his child after a mistress raised quite a few eyebrows, as did the casual revelation of his affair. And once Stroh came forward, other women felt empowered to share their stories.
The OTHER other woman
Once Stroh shared her story, a comedian named Maryka came forward as well. She provided alleged Instagram messages from Levine via her Stories using the hashtag #ExposeAdamLevine.
His initial message to her was “I’m now obsessed with you,” and he had some charming follow-ups such as “Holy ****ing ****. The body of yours is absurd. How are you such an hourglass?”
As Page Six reports, she eventually asked him the natural question. “Dude aren’t you like married.” Levine’s response was as brief as it was distressing: “Yes but it’s a bit complicated.”
Put on blast via TikTok
This scandal kicked off on TikTok, and it eventually came full circle with another woman using TikTok to put Levine on blast. The woman in question is Alyson Rose, and she shared these messages in a TikTok video that she has since deleted.
According to Us Weekly, one of these messages from Levine contained a bit of introspection. “I shouldn’t be talking to you you know [that] right 😤?” As for Rose, she claims to have a lot more dirt on Levine, but she didn’t want to post everything due to some of it being more inappropriate than she wished to share.
Rose did, however, hope that her story might inspire other women to come forward. “I guess if any other girls have experienced this with him … I just think they should post it ’cause I feel really bad for his wife, and nobody deserves this.”
A different kind of yoga posing
Most of the women Levine texted seem to be people he only met online. One exception, though, is Alanna Zabel. She is a yoga instructor, and she actually trained Levine between 2007 and 2010.
As Newsweek reports, she shared some alleged texts from Levine via Instagram Stories. These included messages about how she had the “best a** in town and it was cute” and “I want to spend the day with you naked,” the latter message leading to a physical altercation with her then-boyfriend.
Zabel later posted a video of them practicing yoga together. That video had the following caption: “Firstly, Adam’s text was not wrong, IMO. Secondly, Adam was not responsible for my abusive ex boyfriend, or his actions.” This caption may sound like she was exonerating Levine, but according to Page Six, she was disappointed in him as both a human being and a friend. “This isn’t about a love affair or a salacious text, it’s about being a decent human being,” she said.
“Friends don’t treat each other like used trash, and that’s how he treated me.”
The true meaning of disrespect
The fifth woman to come forward about Levine’s texts is Ashley Russell. She runs a fitness account on Instagram, and this is where Levine found her and began interacting with her.
These interactions mostly came in the form of replies to her stories. According to Us Weekly, Russell said, “I would check every time I posted a story, which was every day, and it was always viewed by him. He would like mainly like booty stories and would always reply with something to do with leg or booty day at the gym.”
Eventually, Russell told him point-blank that he would get caught. “When I told him he was going to get caught DMing girls like me, he stopped texting me.” This caused Levine to stop talking to her, but he kept on watching the videos. “I think this is the true meaning of disrespect towards a woman,” Russell said. “It makes me very sad that he is married and does this immature thing.”
Levine’s response to the scandal
After Stroh first came forward, Levine put out an official response. He has not yet commented on the claims made by other women. He is, however, very interested in clarifying that he did not have a physical affair with Stroh.
As Newsweek reports, Levine claims that he used an Instagram Story to make a large post about the matter. “A lot is being said about me right now, and I want to clear the air. I used poor judgment in speaking with anyone other than my wife in ANY kind of flirtatious manner.”
Continuing, he wrote, “I did not have an affair, nevertheless, I crossed the line during a regrettable period in my life. In certain instances it became inappropriate; I have addressed that and taken proactive steps to remedy this with my family.”
Finally, he brought focus to the matter everyone was talking about: violating the trust of his family. “My wife and my family is all I care about in this world. To be this naive and stupid enough to risk the only thing that truly matters to me was the greatest mistake I could ever make. I will never make it again. I take full responsibility. We will get through it. And we will get through it together.”
When bad sexts become a meme
The idea of a famous, married celeb flirting with all these women online was bad enough. However, there is another angle to this story that nobody can stop talking about: the texts in question are utterly and hilariously bad!
As Buzzfeed reports, some of the alleged texts go right past cringe and into bizarro world. “Watching your ass jiggle on that table will permanently scar me. I’d do anything for it. I’d buy it a steak dinner and whisper sweet nothings into it,” is one such text
In another text, he allegedly writes, “I may need to see the booty,” followed by the F-word stretched out into nineteen letters. As you can tell, Levine was clearly hoping his star power would do a lot because these texts are unlikely to do anything for the intended recipients.
Still, these texts led to many conversations online about whether everyone sexts this badly or if Levine really is worse than average. But we’re pretty confident if you never vowed to buy somebody’s ass a steak dinner before whispering to it, you’re doing better than Levine is.
And who has time for sexting? We’re too busy catching up on all of the memes related to these texts!