UPDATE: The Regrettes’ Lydia Night Accuses SWMRS’ Joey Armstrong Of Sexual Misconduct
The Regrettes frontwoman Lydia Night has accused Joey Armstrong, SWMRS drummer and son of Billie Joe Armstrong, of sexual misconduct and other predatory behavior.
UPDATE: Joey Armstrong has released a statement on Instagram regarding the allegations saying:
“I want to address Lydia’s Instagram post about our relationship. While I don’t agree with some of the things she said about me, it’s important that she be allowed to say them and that she be supported for speaking out…I was selfish and I didn’t treat her the way she deserves to have been treated both during our relationship and in the two years since we broke up. I have apologized to her privately and I hope she can forgive me, if and when she is ready to do so.”
Read the entire statement below.
View this post on Instagram
Night came forward with her story after SWMRS posted “an unbelievably hypocritical statement” on social media regarding abuse. She said, “The band’s delusional positioning of themselves as woke feminists is not only triggering for me as a victim, but is complete bullshit and needs to be called out.”
In a detailed Instagram post, Night recounted her two-year relationship with Armstrong which started when she was 16 and he was 22. She said over time Armstrong became more sexually demanding and would often change the “rules” of their relationship.
“Because of our age difference, Joey would continually ask me to keep our relationship as hidden as possible and I did,” Night noted. “We had multiple conversations where he would say something along the lines of ‘I want to move at your pace’ and ‘I don’t want to have sex until you’re 18,’ but then would act in completely contradicting ways, pressuring me into sexual situations.”
“Every time we took a step sexually it was because he wanted to and made it clear by either putting my hand on his crotch or shaming me for saying I wasn’t comfortable, gaslighting me or ignoring me when I didn’t give my consent,” she added.
“Two months before my 18th birthday, he flew me to New York to spend a few days together. Right before the trip, he told me he was there to rehearse, so I would be seeing him almost only in his bed at night. One of these nights, he changed the ‘rules’ he had prefaced our entire relationship on,” she said. “He now said ‘let’s not pay attention to my exact time frame.’ This conversation was really eye opening. His timeline and promise of a ‘real’ relationship was the thing that strung me along but once we got closer to the thing he would call the finish line, it was apparent it was bullshit all along. I knew I was done and chose to end it.”
Once their relationship ended, The Regrettes toured with SWMRS and were “treated like strangers from a band I had previously considered to be some of my closest friends.”
Night ended her post saying “My goal here isn’t to ‘cancel’ anyone, but to further the conversation on the intricacies of power abuse, grooming, and manipulation that not only exists in the music industry, but in so many other industries.”
Read her full post below.
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