Dave Portnoy starts “TikTok war” with Nessa Barrett & Chase Hudson fans

Alice Hearing
Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards pose beside a selfie of Nessa Barrett.

Barstool Sports’ president Dave Portnoy has claimed he is “in the middle of a TikTok war” after the release of his new podcast with Josh Richards sent fans into a frenzy.

On Tuesday, Dave and Sway house member Josh Richards released the first episode of their new podcast BFFs in which they spoke about TikTok and many of the app’s biggest stars.

The hosts were quick to slam and shade other creators including Chase Hudson who Dave said “dressed like an a**hole,” and Nessa Barrett who, Dave claimed, found her fame through dating Josh Richards.

Fans of Nessa Barrett were very quick to come to her defense after Dave’s comments, and fired a barrage of insults his way, some of which Dave shared to Twitter. One comment Dave received on Instagram said: “You’re a disgrace to the world & you belong in a graveyard with your president. You’re literally bored and look like a r**ist so I guess you just hate on random girls that are 18.”

Josh Richards Nessa Barrett
Portnoy claimed that Nessa Barrett used Josh Richards for clout

Another fan direct messaged Portnoy and wrote, “Are you tired of waiting for someone to pick you up and take you to a nursing home?… You are like 60-70 trying to start beef with an 18-year-old girl, sit down.”

Portnoy made light of the situation, tweeting a video of a comic fight from a film with faces of the personalities involved superimposed onto the characters. He added “They are coming at me from all angles! I don’t even know what they are mad about but my a** is in the jackpot.”

Hype House member Alex Warren also came in with an attack via Instagram, saying “What is wrong with all these interviewers? Says Chase dresses like an a**hole, then proceeds to be an a**hole.”

In the midst of the drama, Nessa Barrett’s former manager at Talent X, Michael Gruen, weighed in with his own opinion on an Instagram fan page for the star, defending Josh and writing “there’s this thing called a joke… a thing that someone says to cause amusement or laughter, especially a story with a funny punchline.”

Micheal later added, “I must’ve missed the memo that Nessa – or anyone for that matter – deserves ‘the world’. The earth is inhabited by ~7B people…last I checked Nessa is just one of them (along with myself and everyone else).”

Nessa has not spoken out about the drama surrounding the podcast, but she has unfollowed Micheal Gruen on Instagram.

About The Author

Alice is a former writer at Dexerto based in London, covering online entertainment. Alice specialized in influencer culture on TikTok and YouTube as well as news and trends across prolific online platforms.