The RuPaul’s Drag Race participant who was disqualified due to a predatory fishing scheme apologized in a live interview Tamron Hall show Tuesday.
Joey Gugliemelli, better known as Sherry Pie, did not deny his victims’ allegations, of which the talk show presenter said there were now ‘up to about a dozen’.
“I want to say first: there are no allegations,” Gugliemelli said in the interview. “I admit my wrongdoing and, just beyond wrongdoing, horrible behavior.”
According to five men who spoke to BuzzFeed News in March 2020, Gugliemelli pretended to be a casting agent named Allison Mossie to trick the aspiring actors into sending sexually degrading “audition videos” of themselves, including one in which masturbating a victim on camera. .
Just before the publication of the story, Gugliemelli apologized for his actions in a Facebook post. The next day, VH1 announced that he was disqualified Drag Race‘s 12th season.
In the Tuesday interview, Gugliemelli apologized again, saying, “I can not even begin to imagine the pain and trauma I caused.” He said he reached out and spoke to three of his victims, noting that one of them had asked not to be contacted again.
He said he has visited several therapists in the past year. He was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, but said according to TVLine: “I do not blame my mental illness for anything I did.”
After the announcement of the interview, Tamron Hall was widely criticized for having Gugliemelli in the program, and many accused the host of giving him a platform to possibly facilitate his image.
One of the victims, Ben Shimkus, tweeted that he was speaking to the producers of Hall’s show: “I … told them that I and the 20 victims I spoke to today do NOT want a segment with Sherry Pie send out, “but that they decided to go ahead with it anyway.
Jackie Cox, another Drag Race participant of Season 12, tweeted that the Tamron Hall show must ‘reconsider giving Sherry Pie access to the national television platform to tell their side of the story without first talking to the victims of her abuse and allowing them to weigh in on their own trauma.’
“Being an artist and public persona is not a right, it’s a privilege,” Cox tweeted. “Sherry has relinquished this privilege through their actions. It is irresponsible, immoral and wrong to give Sherry a spotlight without reaching out to the victims beforehand. I stand with the victims of Sherry’s actions.”
Hall addressed the criticism before Gugliemelli’s interview, saying the interview was not an attempt to absolve him of his offense.
‘It does not give away your platform; it’s called an interview, and people who do bad things are interviewed. R. Kelly comes up to me, ”Hall said.
Hall also added that the interview would be broadcast live and that Gugliemelli should not use it as an opportunity to plug in anything he could benefit from, such as a book or podcast.
“We believe the men who acted on Sherry Pie,” Hall said. “We believe we are fair, and we do not give free passes.”