Chris Hardwick Defended as a Gentle Soul by Adam Carolla

Last week, Chris Hardwick was accused of sexual and emotional abuse by ex-girlfriend Chloe Dykstra. Now, Adam Carolla is coming to his defense.

On Wednesday’s episode of his podcast, “The Adam Carolla Show”, Carolla called Hardwick a “gentle soul” and then dismissed Dykstra’s claims as well as those of others in abusive relationships.

“First off, he’s a gentle soul of a guy,” Carolla said, acknowledging that people have been asking him about Hardwick on social media. “Chris has always been a very thoughtful, sort of just gentle guy… Also, there’s no such thing as being in a relationship where somebody couldn’t compose something that said ‘I felt threatened.’”

Last Thursday, Dykstra published a candied personal essay entitled “Rose-Colored Glasses: A Confession” on Medium in which she recounted her experiences of sexual and emotional abuse at the hands of a long-term boyfriend. Dykstra did not directly name Hardwick in the essay. However, the piece quickly went viral resulting in Nerdist, which Hardwick co-founded, distancing itself from him in a statement. Hardwick’s television series, Talking With Chris Hardwick was also removed from the air by AMC. Hardwick has been removed from several San Diego Comic-Con panels as well.

However, Carolla seemed to take issue with the fallout from the allegations — as well Dykstra’s allegations that Hardwick refused to allow her to have male friends, take photos with him, or even speak at parties.

“Here’s our problem,” Carolla said. “We live in a world where we don’t know if Chris Hardwick said — ‘When we go to a party, bitch, you zip it… Or he did what I do at parties, which is forget the person’s name, never introduce him to my wife, get drunk and talk everyone’s ear off… Because everyone is making allegations about everything all the time, we don’t know which is the problem with everyone making allegations all the time.”

AJ Benza, a columnist who appeared on Carolla’s podcast went even further about how the allegations were impacting Hardwick.

“Now he’s known as a real a-hole who pushes around chicks,” Benza said. “And, by the way, she was with him because it behooved her in this cosplay world that she’s in to have the nerd husband and — you know, it worked together.”

For her part, Dykstra has kept quiet on social media since her post went viral only breaking her silence today to thank people for their support in a message she posted to Twitter.

“Thank you all so, so much,” Dykstra wrote. “The outpouring of support and love I’ve received over the past few days has been incredible and unexpected. The people who have come forward with both stories validating mine, and stories of their own personal experiences, have helped me immensely with my own healing process. After years of therapy and rebuilding, your support has done so much more for me than all of it combined.

[ H/T: The Wrap ]