Comedian Chris D’Elia Claims He ‘Never Knowingly Pursued Underage’ Girls After Accusations Surface On Twitter

Comedian Chris D’Elia denied “knowingly” pursuing underage girls after accusations of unwanted sexual advances surfaced against the comedian on Twitter.

D’Elia apologized for his previous behavior, but denied he knew the girls weren’t 18 in a statement published Wednesday by TMZ.

Chris D’Elia Denies Pursuing Underage Girls After Allegations Surface https://t.co/UoSKHckW1N

— TMZ (@TMZ) June 17, 2020

“I know I have said and done things that might have offended people during my career, but I have never knowingly pursued any underage women at any point.” Chris goes on to say, “All of my relationships have been both legal and consensual and I have never met or exchanged any inappropriate photos with the people who have tweeted about me.”

“That being said, I really am truly sorry,” the comedian added. “I was a dumb guy who ABSOLUTELY let myself get caught up in my lifestyle. That’s MY fault. I own it. I’ve been reflecting on this for some time now and I promise I will continue to do better.” (RELATED: Comedian Chris D’Elia Accused Of Unwanted Sexual Advances By Minors, Others)

The denial comes after multiple women accused D’Elia of coming onto them online when they were underage. Two girls, Simone Rossi and Abby Grills, shared their experiences on their Twitter accounts and included screenshots.

imagine being 16 and being groomed by a stand up comedian twice ur age and the only reason you never met up and never got physically m*lested was because u had just gotten a boyfriend ur own age pic.twitter.com/xq7XDrat8i

— simoné (@girlpowertbh) June 16, 2020

“imagine being 16 and being groomed by a stand up comedian twice ur age and the only reason you never met up and never got physically m*lested was because u had just gotten a boyfriend ur own age,” Rossi tweeted alongside screenshots of emails allegedly from D’Elia.

Grills claimed D’Elia reached out to her when she was 17 and he was 30.

Alright y’all, I went back to my 2011 Facebook messenger and found the DMs from Chris D’Elia being creepy and persistent to me when I was 17 (more in thread) pic.twitter.com/mGr0IikcJT

— Abby Grills (@AGrillz) June 17, 2020

“What’s really weird to me looking back at these is that in my head, he didn’t know I was 17 until I told him to stop messaging me,” Grills said in one of her tweets. “But I now see I told him several times. I had been giving him the benefit of the doubt all these years.”