The Liver King, an influencer who eats raw meat and preaches a primal lifestyle, admits to lying about steroid use
The Liver King has garnered roughly 5 million followers by proselytizing a primal lifestyle.
This includes eating raw liver and bone marrow, taking freezing showers, and doing intense workouts.
But the influencer admitted he lied about using steroids this week.
The Liver King, an influencer who rose to renown by proselytizing a raw meat diet and other primal habits to achieve a "healthy and happy" life, has come clean about his use of steroids.
Per a recent YouTube video titled "Liver King Confession... I Lied," posted Thursday, the creator – whose real name is Brian Johnson – described suffering from pervasive self-esteem issues, which led him to start taking steroids last year.
"When I talk about the 85% of the population that suffers from self-esteem issues – that's me. This is why I fucking work myself to death in the gym, this is why I do twelve to fifteen blood-burning workouts a week – just to feel like I'm okay," he said in the video.
The confession wasn't made voluntarily. It arrived days after emails Johnson allegedly sent to a bodybuilding coach in 2021 came to light. Those emails, shared by another fitness and self-improvement YouTuber who goes by More Plates More Dates, claim that Johnson was on roughly $11,000 worth of the growth hormone Omnitrope a month.
Johnson also outlined a cocktail of other drugs he was on at the time, including steroids like Testosterone Cypionate, Deca-Durabolin, and Winstrol. Today, he said in his YouTube video that he's on 120 mg of testosterone per week.
The admission was particularly charged as Johnson has predicated his image on a natural-minded eating and workout regimen.
On his website, Johnson outlines nine so-called "ancestral tenets," which include wearing UVEX glasses to block the "non-native light spectrum," taking freezing showers, walking around barefoot, and eating a raw meat diet (namely liver, bone marrow, and bull testicles).
While he previously lied about using steroids for fear it would undermine his brand – which comprises roughly five million followers across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube – he said in his most recent video that there's room for modern medicine within his ancestral ideology.
"I believe there's a time and place for pharmacological intervention, monitored and managed by a trained hormone physician," he said.
Johnson did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
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