Candace Owens condemns "horrific" Steven Crowder "abuse" video (2024)

Candace Owens has condemned fellow conservative commentator Steven Crowder, following the release of video footage that appears to show him berating his then-pregnant wife, Hilary Crowder, for not performing her "wifely" duties.

On Thursday, Ring video footage, dated June 2021, was released by journalist Yashar Ali on his Substack, showing Steven Crowder, 35, warning his wife to "f****** watch it," during what appeared to be a disagreement over her wishes to drive their car.

In the more-than-three-minute-long footage, Steven Crowder was seen sitting on a porch while smoking what appeared to be a cigar as he voiced his objection to her not adhering to the "boundaries" he had set for her.

"You are not taking the car, because if you refuse to do wifely things then I will go pick up the groceries," he told Hilary Crowder—who was eight months pregnant with their twins at the time—as she attempted to leave their home.

While Hilary Crowder countered that no groceries were needed, and that she would pick up anything else her husband required while she was out, the political influencer shot back: "I can't go to the gym. I can't go to my parents. I can't call my friends... Hilary, just think of how boxed in you've made me."

As his wife appeared upset and exasperated, Steven Crowder told his now-estranged wife that "the only way out of it is discipline and respect."

Owens, who has been engaged in a public war of words with Steven Crowder, played the footage on Thursday's installment of her podcast, describing it as "horrific" and "very difficult to watch... [Hilary] is alleging that he has been emotionally abusive to her and this video all but confirms it."

In the clip, Hilary Crowder told her husband that she needed "some space," adding: "I love you—I love you very much."

"I don't love you, that's the big problem," replied Steven Crowder. "And the fact is, when I go, 'Look, I need you to do A, B, C and D,' you should be disciplined about it, you go, 'No!'"

"I love you. I'm committed to you," said Hilary Crowder, to which her husband responded: "Put on some gloves. Are you committed enough to do those things?...walk the dogs and put on some gloves. Are you committed enough to get the medication?"

According to the report, Steven Crowder was referring to treatment for the couple's dogs that the expectant mother feared would be toxic for her unborn children.

At one point in the video, Hilary Crowder told her husband, "I love you... but your abuse is sick," prompting him to say: "Watch it. F****** watch it."

Per the report, Steven Crowder, who this week revealed his impending divorce, admitted to threatening his wife inside the house, telling her: "I will f*** you up."

Newsweek has reached out to Steven Crowder via email for comment.

After playing the clip, conservative media personality Owens, 33, lashed out at Steven Crowder, accusing him of misleading his audience when he had this week implied that he didn't want to divorce his wife, but had to go along with it as they lived in a no-fault state.

"What is the truth here? I don't know," said Owens. "Obviously, right now we have his wife's word versus Steven's word, but given my personal experience with Steven, I am very much inclined to believe his wife."

Speaking of her personal observations of Steven Crowder—who rejected an offer to join her employer The Daily Wire earlier this year, before publicly attacking the company—Owens said that "there just seemed to be a lot of signs that he is not able to control his emotions."

"And so the question that I will ask is how many people are going to allege abuse from Steven Crowder before we listen, before we [conservatives] stop saying he's one of us because he says things that we agree with?" Owens asked.

"We purport that we are the party of family values. How can you look at that video and defend him in any way? How can you look at that video and not roundly condemn this and say this is not something that actually represents the things that we believe?"

"I personally believe that he is a monster," Owens went on. "Steven, if you're watching, I'm not trying to extort you. I am just simply telling the truth. There was a lot of things that are going on and I am glad that his wife found the strength to speak out.

"I'm calling upon everybody to roundly condemn this; to reject this firmly and not to somehow come up with an excuse and say, 'Oh, well, it's a divorce so we shouldn't talk about it. We should mind our own business.' No, the way that we represent ourselves privately and publicly should be the same, the same.

"If you purport to care about family values, then you should care about this situation, and you should condemn it."

Extortion Claims

Owens' extortion comment was in reference to claims that Crowder made on his show, Louder With Crowder, as he spoke for the first time about his divorce, which was confirmed by Hilary Crowder.

On Tuesday, Crowder revealed on the show that he has been going through "what has increasingly been a horrendous divorce" since 2021. After sharing the news, he spoke of "other people" in "positions of power, influence, leverage" who were aware of the breakdown of his marriage.

"They also knew that the safety of my children included keeping it private. So if you're familiar with the idea of extortion. Then you know the feeling well," he went on. "Now, some of these threats were so thinly veiled that I'm frankly surprised you didn't all guess immediately."

He then played a clip from January of Owens on her eponymous Daily Wire show, in which she said: "Steven has a lot going on, I guess is the best way to say it."

After urging her audience to "pray" for Crowder, Owens was shown saying: "I am unsure, at this moment, if it is my place to say more than that. Maybe if I feel in further defense something should be said, or maybe if I feel that the public has a right to understand certain circ*mstances..."

Soon after Crowder's comments went public, Owens hit back on her own show in a video entitled "Steven Crowder Accused Me Of Extortion."

"I am not going to take somebody going onto his platform and alleging that I either harassed, threatened or did anything that would put his children at risk," Owens said.

Owens added that she "contacted a defamation lawyer and I am sending Steven Crowder a cease-and-desist and I'm going to demand a full-throated retraction to the idea that Candace Owens threatened him or extorted him and not that I simply did a little math. One plus one equals two."

'Absolute Monster'

Addressing the matter on Thursday, Owens told her audience that a lawyer for Steven Crowder, sent her a statement that said their client's opinions "fall short of any defamation. At most, he has merely opined comparatively, the feeling of certain misconduct to his own present state of being."

"The subsequent use of the word 'threats' is not in and of itself an accusation of crime, even within the larger context in which it was used," the lawyer's statement continued.

After sharing the lawyer's statement, Owens said: "In short, as I have said, I believe Steven Crowder is an absolute monster, and I encourage all the other people that he has victimized to find their strength to speak out now.

"By the way, his lawyer offered to me that we can both agree to a ceasefire if I agreed that I would never speak about Steven Crowder again. And to him I would publicly like to say, your client doesn't have that kind of money to keep Candace Owens from speaking out about things that I find to be absolutely despicable. And that's all I'm going to say about that."

While Steven Crowder has yet to comment on the allegations and video, Owens read out what she said was a statement from Hilary Crowder's family on the matter.

"Hilary is currently living alone in Dallas, apart from her family and support system in Michigan, and is focused on taking care of her young children," read the statement. "She is not prepared at this time to speak about her divorce becoming public or the misleading statements made by Steven about their relationship.

"The truth is that Hilary spend years hiding Steven's mentally and emotionally abusive behavior from her friends and family while she attempted to save their marriage. She was the one who was asking to work on their relationship to keep the marriage intact for their unborn children."

It is also stated that Hilary Crowder in June 2021 urged her husband to "get the help he needed and address his abuse with the hope that their marriage could be saved and they could peacefully live together as a family."

"Instead, Steven refused to do so and chose not to be with his wife during the birth of their twin children," the statement continued. "After the birth, Steven bought a townhouse and left their home permanently. Hilary was unaware that Steven had hired a divorce attorney and asked his assistant to cut Hilary off financially. There is significant documentation substantiating these facts.

"We hope that Steven will cease speaking publicly about these personal matters in an untruthful manner. We also look forward to there being full transparency in the legal process so there is fairness and accountability for the actions that caused the divorce, and to ensure the outcome is what is in the best interests of the young children."