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A bombshell Ring video was leaked last week of influential conservative commentator Steven Crowder berating his wife, Hilary.
In the footage from June 2021, he tells her to “f–king watch it” and accuses her of refusing “to do wifely things” while telling her he doesn’t love her.
At the time, she was eight months pregnant with their twins.
Her family released a statement saying she had been hiding his “mentally and emotionally abusive behavior” from her friends and family.
The pair, who married in 2012, have been locked in a contentious divorce since 2021.
Crowder claimed the disturbing footage, which was released on journalist Yashar Ali’s Substack, was “misleadingly edited.”
But numerous former employees of the provocateur alleged these types of unhinged tirades were commonplace inside the “Louder with Crowder” office.
“I’m not shocked, but it was pathetic what he did to Hilary,” a former employee told The Post. “That might not be the Steven you see on his show, but that was the real Steven.”
The Post spoke to 10 former employees who claim Crowder ran an “abusive” company, where he often screamed at his employees — including his own father — exposed his genitals, sent out directives to arbitrarily fire people and made underlings wash his dirty laundry.
The former staffers worked for the show at different times, from its inception in 2016 through 2022.
The vast majority had left the company voluntarily.
They requested anonymity because they either feared retaliation or had signed NDAs.
All said they felt compelled to speak out about the media personality after the sickening footage was made public and his former co-host Dave Landau called him a “bully” in an interview last week.
“We don’t want Steven to suffer. We just want the abuse to stop or at least let future employees know what they’re getting themselves into,” said one former employee.
(The Post reached out to Crowder via his lawyer, as well as “Louder with Crowder” CEO Gerald Morgan, multiple times about the allegations brought forth by former employees, but did not receive a response.)
The 35-year-old American Canadian right-wing content creator, who bills himself as a devout Christian, was a child actor who started doing stand-up at 17.
In 2009, he became a Fox News contributor, writing essays in defense of abstinence, and in 2014, he started doing a weekly podcast broadcast by a conservative radio station in Michigan and gained a larger following.
In November 2016, Crowder moved to Texas, hired a small team and turned “Louder with Crowder” into a full production arm, creating comedic sketches, a podcast and his popular “Change My Mind” videos.
Crowder, who has 1.3 million Instagram followers and 5.9 million on YouTube, became wildly influential among conservatives, who were dazzled by his brash contrarian takes, irreverent approach and crusades against big tech.
“People thought he was funny. And he could be, especially if you were watching from the outside,” said an early staffer.
But inside the Dallas-based Crowder universe, many said he was “like a yo-yo.”
Charismatic and kind at times, a “volatile” Crowder could also be controlling and “capable of working every angle of your emotions.”
With long hours, unrealistic expectations and emotional outbursts, he often burned through staffers — many of whom were young, starry-eyed fans who had never worked in traditional media and relocated to Texas for the opportunity to work with their hero.
And while the “Louder with Crowder” ethos was politically incorrect, his antics crossed the line.
He was known to expose his genitals to staffers, many ex-employees told The Post.
Six sources said they witnessed such lewd behavior firsthand.
A former staffer recalled driving back from Illinois in a van after a college show in March 2018, when former producer Jared Monroe, whom Crowder dubbed “Not Gay Jared,” was targeted.
“Jared was asleep in the last row. Steven was in front and he was joking about what he was going to do,” the staffer recalled. “He climbed over and dropped his junk on top of Jared’s shoulder.”
That same person also claimed Crowder exposed himself to Jared in 2017, while they were in the green-screen room filming a parody of “Ghost.” (When asked about both allegations, Monroe told The Post, “No comment.”)
And during a 2018 flight with six people from the company, another former employee said they witnessed Crowder put his testicles on his assistant and childhood friend John Goodman, who shook off the incident. (Goodman, who still works for Crowder, did not return The Post’s request for comment.)
A fourth ex-employee said Crowder exposed himself to former co-host Landau at the conference table with others present. (Landau did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.)
“It was childish. But then I found out this was something he did. At first, I took it as him trying to be friendly or one of the guys. Now I see it was a power play,” the witness said.
“If your manager at Red Lobster did this, it would be national news.”
Numerous sources noted these incidents were not part of any sketches, many of which could be bawdy and off-color.
But Crowder, sources said, is often known for blurring the lines of professionalism.
Numerous former employees said his production assistants wash laundry in the office, including Crowder’s dirty personal items.
Many describe Crowder not as a tough boss but an “unreasonable micromanager” who would send out unrealistic assignments after hours and “set people up for failure.”
“It was like a cult where you were all in,” said one ex-employee, adding that Crowder “did not want you having a life outside of it.”
In 2017, he commissioned his small team to create a 30-minute “A Christmas Carol” parody on top of their regular workload. A few ex-employees, none of whom were paid overtime, said they logged over 100 hours in the week leading up to the release of the special and slept in the office, according to multiple sources.
In the midst of this project, Crowder sent a group text message telling them to sleep in and come into the office a bit later one day. One employee remarked, “sleep lol.”
Crowder shot back, “Be a little grateful buddy.”
The exchange, seen by The Post, angered the team, who turned it into an oft-repeated joke when they felt undervalued and overworked.
And when shows or projects fell short of his expectations, Crowder piled the blame on his staffers. “We’d tell him things wouldn’t work,” said one ex-staffer, who recalls a massive live show in 2018 not going as Crowder had planned.
“I thought, ‘Surely Steven, who micromanaged the whole thing, is going to take some responsibility here,'” they continued.
Instead Crowder put the onus on his staff. His assistant handed each employee a copy of Jocko Willink’s leadership and performance book, “Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy Seals Lead and Win.”
“We all thought we were going to get an apology but we got a book. It was like a sitcom,” the former staffer cracked.
Back in late 2020, while on a tear, Crowder sent out a directive to arbitrarily “fire someone. Don’t care who,” read the Discord message, viewed by The Post. The source said Crowder often dropped threats to fire people into the company’s Discord chatroom.
His irrational outbursts even extended to his father, Darrin, who works as his booker. Numerous ex-staffers said he’d lash out at his dad in front of other employees. (Darrin, who still works with his son, did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.)
“He did it regularly. And it was usually about failing to book someone he wanted on the show. Steven would say, ‘I’m supposed to get stars,'” recalled one ex-staffer who said he was approached by two other underlings who said Crowder’s behavior toward his father made them feel “uncomfortable.”
Last week, Crowder’s ex-co-host Landau called his former boss a “bully” on an episode of the podcast “Your Welcome with Michael Malice.“
“Whatever he has, and whatever he’s going through, I think he was bullied at some point in his life,” Landau said, adding, “He’s become the bully and he doesn’t realize it.”
Landau detailed how Crowder installed a ” ‘Dave don’t talk’ button” in the studio and always had to get the last word in.
But perhaps the most bizarre incident came after Crowder, who was scheduled to miss a show, signed off on comedian Matt McClowry to fill in with Landau.
When Crowder’s assistant later said no to McClowry’s appearance and Landau asked Crowder about it, the conservative personality unleashed on his co-host.
“He told me he owns me … It was venomous … I saw a different person that I had heard rumors about,” Landau told Malice.
Even before his recent divorce drama, Crowder had raised eyebrows by going after fellow conservative media titans. In January, Crowder, whose contract with the Blaze was up, launched the “Stop Big Con” initiative, in which he accused another conservative outlet, later revealed to be Ben Shapiro’s the Daily Wire, of offering him a $50 million “slave contract.”
In March, he signed on free speech platform Rumble and in an interview with Megyn Kelly he said his crusade was “not about me … It’s about the next creator.”
“We all laughed when he said stuff like that. If you were funny or talented, he squashed you,” said a source.
One former employee said they weren’t doing the sketches they wanted to do, so they teamed up with Landau to create a sketch comedy pilot released last December.
“Steven freaked out and threatened to fire people over it. It was viewed it as a mutiny,” said the ex-employee. Another source noted it was made on their own time with their own equipment and did not use company resources.
“Dave was told, ‘This is your fault. We have to fire them now.'” Eventually, the original source said, Crowder backed down. In April, Landau announced he left the company and is going to the Blaze.
“That doesn’t seem like someone who is trying to build up content creators,” said the source.
Many blame this public unraveling on his habit of purging anyone who challenges him.
“These terrible ideas and moves have always been in his nature but over time he has surrounded himself with only yes men, and his family who works for him. They don’t tell him otherwise,” said an ex-staffer, adding, “There is no one there to hold him to account.”
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