Popular content creator accused by multiple women of allegedly trying to leverage his influence for sex: 'He misled me'
Creator Ben Tarrolly, better known by his username @BenTellect, is being accused of DMing and texting multiple women asking to make OnlyFans content with him. The adult film star Jordan Maxx was the first woman to make her allegations against Tarrolly public, in a series of tweets and screenshots in late July.
Tarrolly started posting on TikTok in 2020, while working full-time as an insurance salesman for GEICO. His TikTok presence, which was mostly reaction videos that racked up millions of views, became so large that he eventually pivoted to being a full-time content creator by 2021. He now has over 11 million TikTok followers and over 3 million YouTube subscribers.
On July 29, Maxx uploaded a series of text screenshots to her Twitter account that allegedly showed a conversation between her and someone she called a “pretty popular TikTok creator,” without giving a name. Maxx prefaced the screenshots with a note saying, “3 hours before we were supposed to record he asked me if I wanted to make an OnlyFans video with him, which I declined, and 1 hour before we were supposed to meet up, he cancelled.”
Maxx does not initially name Tarrolly, nor show his name in the text screenshots. Maxx also mentioned a podcast in the tweet — Tarrolly does not have a podcast — but in a follow-up tweet, clarified it was supposed to be a “pickle taste testing mukbang video podcast.”
In one message, the person texted Maxx, “I was just thinking you’re helping me with doing a video for my YouTube so maybe I could help with your only fans.”
“I’m good thanks,” Maxx responded.
Then the person told Maxx that they were going to film “the pickle video” with someone else. When Maxx asked why, they replied, “To be honest, I thought it would be fun to film and see where things go, but I get it.”
Two hours after she first posted the screenshots, Maxx tagged Tarrolly in the thread. On Aug. 9, Maxx updated the thread with what she alleged was a screenshot from a DM she had received from Tarrolly that said, “You need to take this tweet down or I will sue you.”
In the following days, Maxx shared more screenshots, claiming that she had received them via DM and had been told they were conversations between Tarrolly and other women. The screenshots are attributed to a contact saved as Ben Tarrolly and include discussions about “filming a podcast.”
In one screenshot from Snapchat, an account attributed to Tarrolly wrote, “I do think I could probably make us a f*** ton on only fans … Bentellect f**** crazy [censored] into oblivion. If you come over, I’ll give you $1000.”
Maxx continued to share screenshots on her Twitter account until Aug. 14.
Tarrolly did address the allegations in a since-deleted tweet on Aug. 13. The tweet was saved in a video that Maxx subsequently uploaded to prove she was DMing with Tarrolly, and a screenshot of it was also featured in YouTuber Nick Green’s recap of Maxx’s allegations.
“I’ve recently been accused of some heinous actions and would like the opportunity to share my disgust at these accusations,” the note said. “I grew up in a home with three sisters and no brothers so I learned very early on the importance, power, love and abilities women have.
“I do not condone the statements or accusations that have suddenly been hoisted upon me and I hope to speak to anyone who feels they have been wronged,” Tarrolly concluded.
It’s not clear when he deleted the tweet, but, as of reporting time, his Twitter account’s most recent tweet is from November 2020. In The Know reached out to Tarrolly for comment.
On TikTok, Tarrolly has been posting as usual — sharing his reaction videos and memes. But the comments have changed since Maxx started publicizing allegations against him.
His most recent video, which was published on Aug. 16, is flooded with viewers asking, “what typically performs best on your account” — referencing one of Tarrolly’s alleged texts to Maxx. Other TikTok users joked “ukelele video incoming,” referring to Colleen Ballinger’s poorly received apology video from June, and wrote more straightforward comments like, “Yea we all read the texts.”
Maxx, who is open about being a sex worker on her platform, has had to defend the conversation from Twitter users who argued that Tarrolly had not done anything wrong in her case.
Sex work — particularly for women and especially for women of color — is “one of the most stigmatized professions in the world.”
“You literally do porn, is this supposed to be shocking?” one person tweeted at Maxx. “I’m sure you get people trying to have sex with you all the time, what makes this different?”
“He misled me to believe he wanted to record a podcast for his YouTube channel, then changed up and offered to do an OF video, and when I said no, he canceled the podcast recording,” Maxx replied. “Am I taking crazy pills? How is this so difficult to understand?”
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