Dave Portnoy is facing new allegations of sexual misconduct, including filming women without their consent
Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images Months after an Insider report by Julia Black alleged that Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, had “violent and humiliating” sex with women as young as 19, another article has been published expanding on even more allegations against him.
Another woman in Insider’s report, referred to as Allison, did not call her encounter with Portnoy as sexual assault but described it as “really aggressive” and recalled feeling “very preyed on” after she left. Allison was 19 when she reached out to Portnoy and agreed to meet up at his Nantucket house. Three days after they had sex, she became suicidal and was hospitalized.
Portnoy posted a video the day the report came out responding to what he called a “hit piece” painting him as a “sexual deviant.” “I know I’ve never done anything weird with a girl ever,” he said, before addressing both the incidents described in the article, purportedly against the advice of his lawyers. After stating that he was able to identify both women based on the details in their stories, he claimed they were still interested in him after the encounters.
The letter quoted messages supposedly from the women who were accusing Portnoy of misconduct. Notably, he responded to two women who accused him of filming their sexual encounters without consent, writing, “[Portnoy] can say emphatically that he has never filmed any sexual encounter surreptitiously or without the full knowledge and participation of his partners.” The letter also included a blanket denial of any sexual misconduct: “Every sexual encounter that Mr.
Kayla further claimed that she also noticed Portnoy filming her on his iPhone, which she described as “odd and creepy.” Still, she agreed to meet up with him a month later, but she said that this second encounter was much more aggressive than she had imagined. “I always think back to it,” she said, “like, ‘Yes, it was technically consensual sex, but that was not the sex I consented to.
Along with this new article, Business Insider also published a separate Editor’s Note from Nicholas Carlson defending the pieces, perhaps in anticipation of Portnoy’s inevitable response. “It is wrong to film someone during sex without asking. This article and Insider’s November report have credible allegations from five women who say Portnoy did that.