Percy Hynes White of ‘Wednesday’ Facing Assault Allegations
Percy Hynes White is the new breakout star from Netflix’s Wednesday series, which follows a teenaged Wednesday Addams (played by Jenna Ortega) in her adventures at Nevermore Academy. White plays Xavier Thorpe, a psychic artist who befriends Wednesday when she arrives at Nevermore. The show was an instant hit, becoming Netflix’s third most popular English-language series of all time, with 752.52M hours viewed since its premiere on November 16th. White’s stardom is looking to be short-lived, because on January 18th, Twitter user @milkievich tweeted “knowing that me and my friend’s shocked, sick to our stomach reactions to seeing Percy Hynes White in our new favorite show is finally and my experience at his party in high school being justified cus yall are LISTENINGGGG. thank you.” This sparked an uproar of tweets, articles, and allegations coming out about Percy Hynes White, all while he, his costars, and Netflix remained radio silent.
After the initial tweet, user @milkievich continued her thread, bringing to light the stories of other people who had reached out to her through social media. She posted many more tweets and screenshots, such as those that told of White and his group of friends from Toronto, Ontario being known for manipulating girls into sexual acts and sending explicit photos. Many people White had known in high school were vouching for the fact that he would throw parties in his basement and invite women who he wanted to get intoxicated and take advantage of. Multiple individuals told their own stories of how he assaulted them while they were drunk at these parties. One person who spoke out said that from the time White was 17 to the time he was 20, he sexually abused a girl who was 13 until she was 16. There were countless other claims posted in this thread, saying how White would share girls’ explicit photos online against their wishes, tell people to kill themselves, send explicit photos to group chats full of minors, say racial slurs, and more. People took to other forms of social media like TikTok to share their allegations against White, providing proof of having known him with old pictures and yearbooks. This many people coming out against White and doing so without the shield of online anonymity, showing their faces and sharing their names, is what makes these claims so striking and noteworthy to fans of Percy Hynes White, media outlets, and possibly even his costars.
As for how Percy Hynes White himself is responding: well, he isn’t. One tweet in user @milkievich’s thread was a screenshot of one alleged victim DMing White on Instagram asking for an apology, but being met with him “typing” for around five minutes and not responding. This confirms that he’s aware of the accusations circulating about him and is choosing not to speak about them. Another thing that people have noticed is him limiting his comments on Instagram, presumably to avoid people spamming him with hate about these allegations. His Wednesday costars, such as Jenna Ortega, Hunter Doohan, and Joy Sunday have yet to comment on White’s situation. Fans of the show are speculating that Ortega may have experienced some of the same abuse from White that is being alleged online, due to a video of her and him at the Golden Globes in which he repeatedly touched Ortega’s chest. Despite this, she has not commented on the allegations against White.
Netflix hasn’t commented on the situation or made any attempts to distance themselves from White either, despite the outcry from Wednesday fans to remove him from the show. Many people think that Netflix is waiting for this to blow over, but after everything that has come out about the actor, that happening is unlikely. It’s still up in the air as to what will come in terms of White being kicked off the show, any legal action that either party may pursue, and how his costars will react.
Regan is a senior and this is her second year being part of the Gator's Eye. In her free time, she enjoys writing (of course), spending time with friends,...