Michigan pop star Børns responds to allegations of sexual misconduct, underage manipulation

Indie pop star Børns responded to sexual misconduct allegations via his Instagram account on Tuesday after several women leveled detailed accounts that include grooming teenagers through social media, manipulation, sharing illicit photos, and painful and unprotected sex.

"I am both hurt and angered over the disturbing and false allegation that have been spread over the past few days on social media," the 26-year-old Børns, real name Garret Clark Borns, writes in a statement on his Instagram. “All of the relationships I have had were legal and consensual,” he continues. “They ended abruptly and that obviously caused hurt feelings, but for anyone to suggest anything beyond that is irresponsible.”

"He told me what he wanted to do to me, and wanted me to call him ‘daddy.'”

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Twitter user kaliforxnia was among the first victims to share her story detailing her relationship with the Michigan native, which started in 2015 after his concert where they exchanged numbers. She says the two struck up a friendship and kept in contact for several months. Following a concert in Chicago, the 19-year-old fan declined Borns' invitation to his hotel and said she would continue to decline his invitations to "Netflix and chill" and his requests for her to "send pics" even though she admittedly was attracted to her new friend.

Things escalated during a Los Angeles visit months later when Borns extended yet another invitation, this time for drinks. She says she was surprised when her Uber driver dropped her off at his residence, where Borns proceeded to serve alcohol. It was after this point that she felt "taken advantage of."

“Once everything happened I went to the bathroom and started bleeding," she writes. "I was completely shocked from the blood and started to get it together and realized what just happened. I blamed myself for that night because I didn’t say no even though I was intoxicated.”

She would later encounter Borns the following month in Chicago where she alleged to have sex with the singer in his hotel room, despite expressing discomfort.

“Also, I’d like to add in that he did not use protection and didn’t care when I said I wasn’t comfortable with that and was not on birth control at the time,” she writes.

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A post shared by BØRNS (@bornsmusic) on Sep 25, 2018 at 10:52am PDT

For Twitter user Alyssaadaniele, her relationship with Borns began when she was just 16 after she met the singer at a music festival where he allegedly asked her to his hotel room and touched her leg and "other places."

"...he also was [aware] of how old I was, 16, yet he still touched me the way he did," she writes.

She explains that he "ghosted" her before again meeting up in Texas the eve of her 17th birthday. It was after this meeting that they struck up communication through Instagram direct messages and eventually Snapchat, during which Borns' became more demanding of the type of explicit photos he wanted from her.

“I don’t remember when things transitioned from being normal conversation to him wanting me to send him things I’d never sent anyone before,” she reveals. “But it happened. And he began sending me pictures, and I began sending him pictures. He told me what he wanted to do to me, and wanted me to call him 'daddy.'”

This type of communication would continue for a year and a half, during which she felt as though she was treated like a "toy" as he would only initiate conversation "when he was lustful."

Following suit with Borns' alleged pattern of grooming young women, the two met at his Los Angeles home where things, once again, escalated. This was shortly after the accuser had turned 18.

“He got me drunk, started touching me, and we went into his bedroom,” she says. “The things he did were things I did not want, and it hurt. He was aggressive and controlling and I was so fucking scared of him.”

While both of the aforementioned women would go on to clarify on their personal Twitter accounts that the sex they had with Borns was consensual, do not constitute rape, and that these encounters occurred when they were of age, what they bring to light is an alleged dangerous cycle of gaslighting and using power, stature, and social status to command sexual intimacy and putting young women in compromising positions that they might not otherwise find themselves in.

In one of the most heartbreaking moments expressed by Twitter userkaliforxnia, she admits her feeling guilty about her involvement.

"I kept telling myself I could've stopped it no matter what he kept saying and it's all my fault," she writes. "When I blamed myself, I still tried to make myself trust him because I didn't want to think he was a manipulator or not a friend. I was stupid for that."

She concludes, "The purpose of this is not to tear Garrett down or intentionally hurt him. I'm trying to grow more from this and become a bigger, better person."

Detailed accounts from these women and others can be read on the exposing_borns Twitter account. Børns is scheduled to perform at Royal Oak Music Theatre on Monday.

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