Crumbl Cookie is at the centre of much online chatter (yet again), this time courtesy of an uber-viral rumour about its co-founder, Sawyer Hemsley.
ICYMI, the saga has been overrunning TikTok’s FYP for pretty much the entire week, and it all kicked off when Grant Gibbs — known as one-half of the popular profile, A Twink and a Redhead — shared a video questioning Hemsley’s sexuality.
In what seemed like half a skit, half sincere curiosity, Gibbs reacted to a video of Hemsley and asked his followers for “the tea with him bc I quite literally have never seen a gayer man”.
In the video — which has since been viewed a whopping 19.4 million times — Gibbs declared that Hemsley is “so gay”, adding that he didn’t “care if I’m outing a CEO with millions of dollars”.
“That’s apparently a straight man? No, it’s not, that man is so gay. That man is gay to the gods,” Gibbs — who, for the record, is gay — said.
In a follow-up clip, Gibbs admitted he didn’t think his original video would “blow up like that”, with the comments section flooded with theories also questioning Hemsley’s sexual orientation.
One especially popular theory backing Gibbs claims was that Hemsley — who founded the cookie empire with his cousin Jason McGowan in 2017 — had intentionally dropped the ‘E’ from Crumbl Cookie as a play on the gay dating up, Grindr.
The videos clearly made enough noise for Hemsley himself to respond, with the CEO later confirming the rumours with an official coming out post on Instagram.
“The truth is, over the past few years I’ve come to understand and accept that I’m gay,” Hemsley wrote alongside an image of him with his dog.
“It’s taken me a long time to really process this part of myself and even longer to feel comfortable enough to say it out loud,” Hemsley added.
Elsewhere in the post, Hemsley addressed the gay chatter head on, saying “people online [were] trying to define me, twist things, and share conversations in ways that feel harmful”.
“Instead of letting others write my story, I want to share it in my own words,” he declared.
Of course, it wasn’t long before Gibbs reacted, yesterday sharing a video that again feels either sincere or sincerely sarcastic.
“Girl, I am so happy for you and so proud of you,” Gibbs said in reference to Hemsley.
“You are hot and you are going to live your best open, out, gay life, mama.”
Addressing all the accusations he had outed Hemsely, Gibbs said he was “sorry that I clocked your tea in such a massive way”, adding that “what I did was wrong”.
While the kibosh seems to have placed on that fiasco for now, it’s not the first time the viral cookie company has caused a stir on social media.
Last year, a team of Crumbl stans landed themselves in hot water when they launched a pop-up store in Sydney, only for customers to later discover that the stall had absolutely zero affiliation with the real company.
Hemsley himself weighed in on the controversy, before announcing that Australia would be getting its own (legit) store sometime soon.
Whatever the case, all these Crumbl Cookie scandals are scrumptious enough to enjoy with a side of milk.
Lead images: TikTok and Instagram
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