YouTubers Zoe Sugg & Alfie Deyes Apologize For “Insensitive” Jokes About Intimate Partner Violence

By Teddi Welch | December 20, 2019

Zoe Sugg and Alfie Deyes are the queen and king of YouTube, but not even those two are immune to social media backlash. The couple, who has been together for around six years, were filming a video recently in which Zoella joked that she likes to shout things like “ow” and “help!” when her window’s open to concern neighbors.

“That’s not even funny, the neighbors are gonna think something weird is going on … that’s legit not funny,” Alfie said in the video.

“Guys, that’s one of my favorite games to play with Alfie when the bedroom window is open,” Zoe said.

“It’s literally not a game at all… The bedroom window is open because it’s ridiculously hot in our bedroom and Zoe will just start shouting ‘Help! Stop it, Alfie! Help!’ and I’m like, that’s not funny. Someone’s gonna think I’m attacking you,” Alfie explained.

But their fans weren’t happy that the duo was appearing to make light of intimate partner violence.

zoella joking about domestic violence and possibly [email protected] in a new video with alfie. they've blocked the comments so it isnt getting any hate, but this is SO WRONG. joking about screaming help help get off alfie??? that's not funny??

#zoella #zoe #zoesugg #alfiedeyes pic.twitter.com/LwaBbWExCg

— Amanda (@ahwell13) December 18, 2019

@Jaack just saw this absolutely horrific footage in a recent Zoe/Alfie Q&A making a joke from domestic violence. Time stamp 1:50 – couldn’t believe what I was watching. Needs to be addressed and all critical comments have been removed.https://t.co/MVjJI7XgCp@AngelikaOlesFP

— Sophie Harrison (@beeing_sophie) December 19, 2019

Both Alfie and Zoe have since apologized for the joke, saying that they “never meant to offend anyone.” Zoella posted a long Instagram Story apologizing for the error in judgment. “There was absolutely no intention of trivialising a serious issue, we were just being silly, but can totally see in hindsight how that might come across to some people! We decided to take down the video so as not to cause any further confusion or upset!” she wrote, “Sorry to those of you who felt upset about it, that was 100000% NOT my intention [and] not something we would have posted had we known.”

I've received a couple of tweets this afternoon from people letting me know that a part in my newest video was insensitive. I for sure never meant to offend anyone. I'm sorry and have just taken the video down x

— Alfie Deyes (@AlfieDeyes) December 19, 2019

This heightened sensitivity about intimate partner violence comes after Supergirl star Melissa Benoist shared her story of abuse with an ex a few weeks ago. Hopefully, Zoe and Alfie have done some research and figured out why jokes like that are *so* not funny.