Millie Bobby Brown opens up about Hunter Ecimovic ‘grooming’ claims: ‘I felt vulnerable’
Millie Bobby Brown. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
Millie Bobby Brown has spoken about her “unhealthy relationship” with TikTok star Hunter Ecimovic
The Stranger Things star was 16 in 2020 when she reportedly began dating then 20-year-old Ecimovic. While the pair never confirmed they were together, they were pictured kissing and cosying up to each other on social media.
Ecimovic was accused of grooming Brown (the age of consent is 16 in London and Georgia, where Brown has homes, but 18 in California, where Hunter is reportedly based).
In July 2021, during an Instagram live, Ecimovic addressed the accusations and said he “had nothing to apologise for”.
After responding to one commenter who called him a groomer by saying “I know, I groomed her” he went on to say: “Everything that I did was completely legal… You guys don’t know anything. You guys are just following after one person saying one thing… I have zero things to apologise for. You guys do not know a single thing at all.”
Ecimovic later rescinded his comments on his Instagram live, saying: “I never groomed her. I never put pressure on her to like me.”
In a new interview, Brown told Allure that she had broken off the “unhealthy situation” in January 2021.
Of the aftermath, she said: “I felt very vulnerable. Also, no one on the [Stranger Things] set knew I was going through this. So it was kind of nice to be able to just deal with that myself and no one else knew. Then it was harder when the whole world knew.”
Millie Bobby Brown and current boyfriend Jake Bongiovi. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
Brown reflected: “It was a year of healing. When you get publicly humiliated this way, I felt so out of control and powerless.
“Walking away and knowing that I’m worth everything and this person didn’t take anything from me, it felt very empowering. It felt like my life had finally turned a page and that I actually had ended a chapter that felt so fucking long.
“Ultimately, all I wanted to do within my career is help young girls and young people out there know that I, too, go through things. I’m not this perfect person that is selling skin-care products and [who is] in Stranger Things. I absolutely have made wrong decisions.”
Brown has been in a relationship with Jake Bongiovi since summer 2021.
Millie Bobby Brown has opened up previously about her experiences of being sexualised as a young woman in the acting industry. In February she spoke on The Guilty Feminist podcast about the “gross” comments she has had to read.
“I have definitely been dealing with that,” she said, “more within the last two weeks of turning 18. Definitely seeing a difference between the way people act and the way the press and social media have reacted to me coming of age,
“I think it’s just a very good representation of what’s going on in the world and how young girls are sexualised. And so I have been dealing with that, but also have been dealing with that for forever.”
