Lowest of the Low? Controversial YouTube Star Accused of Faking His Cancer Diagnosis for Nearly 2 Years
One of the most enduring films in American history that most people have never heard of is the 1950 drama “All About Eve.”
Without spoiling too much, that film effectively delves into a somewhat dark question: Just how far and low will someone stoop for fame and adulation?
According to the movie, people will seduce, blackmail and otherwise destroy another person’s life for that share of the spotlight.
Fast forward over 70 years later, and the timeless tale of “Eve” has sadly reared its ugly head again, thanks to the controversy surrounding YouTube star Steven “Boogie2988” Williams.
To offer some background, Williams has had a winding YouTube career rife with controversies (yes, his Wikipedia page has its own section for “Controversies”) and successes (his channel boasts a whopping 3.97 million subscribers).
Through it all, he has nestled into a niche role as one of the bigger and more notorious pop-culture content creators on YouTube.
Over the past couple of days, however, Williams has seen a new surge in notoriety — and none of it for good reasons.
Appearing on the July 10 episode of “LolcowLive,” Williams was pushed on the topic of a cancer diagnosis he had revealed on his own channel back in November 2022.
At the time, Williams claimed that he had “a rare form of cancer,” which he revealed was polycythemia vera, a type of blood cancer that (in grossly oversimplified terms) causes one’s body to produce too many red blood cells.
Fast forward to Wednesday’s “LolcowLive” episode, when Williams was approached by fellow online content creator Steven “Destiny” Bonnell.
(Bonnell is a well-known leftist who, apart from his debates with conservatives and streaming video games, is perhaps best known for having his wife leave him after engaging in an “open” relationship.)
WARNING: The following clip contains language that some viewers may find offensive or disturbing.
“When Boogie was talking about the polycythemia, he mentioned a couple of things that I thought were interesting,” Bonnell noted at the beginning of his interrogation. “The first was that taking an exogenous hormone, TRT, testosterone, that that caused an increase in him developing this condition. So taking testosterone will not cause you to develop a cancer.
“Not for this particular cancer. It won’t.”
Bonnell would continue: “It will cause you to develop secondary polycythemia. The second thing that he mentioned was that his doctor ordered a sleep study.
“That’s because one of the things that can cause your body to produce more red blood cells is if you have hypoxemia, which is a low amount of oxygen in your blood for an extended period of time.
“And the reason he ordered that sleep study is probably because Boogie either has pulmonary obstructive something or he has, as he mentioned, sleep apnea.
“And sleep apnea, which is a decrease in oxygen overnight, can lead to a decrease in oxygen in your blood, which can lead to an increase in the production of red blood cells.
“All of the things that Boogie described, both the things that caused this and the treatments for it, are consistent with secondary polycythemia.”
(Williams looked positively nonplussed during this whole questioning.)
When Williams finally did speak up, the conversation — understandably — grew extremely contentious.
Williams fervently defended himself, but when the show’s other co-hosts and Bonnell pushed back on him, particularly about medical records, he shut the conversation down.
“You can see [my medical records] when I f***ing die,” Williams said.
Bonnell eventually left (but not before offering money to Williams in exchange for Bonnell privately and securely reviewing the records. He even offered to donate $5,000 to Williams’ treatments if he could produce definitive documentation of his cancer diagnosis) but Williams was still pushed a bit more on this suddenly hot topic.
It is also worth pointing out that Williams, despite the best prodding and veiled accusations from Bonnell, has not admitted to faking his cancer diagnosis.
This ugly incident has caused Williams to take a break from social media (his X account is deactivated, though his YouTube and Twitch channels are still up), but the backlash has been fierce regardless. A quick search of “Boogie2988” on X yields a torrent of angry voices.
YouTube star Daniel “KeemStar” Keem, who also hosts that “LolcowLive” show, took to social media to shed some light on how Williams is currently doing — and that he would be making his medical diagnoses public at an undefined later date.
I just got off the phone with Boogie2988 , he not suicidal. No need for wellness checks.
I can’t say too much without leaking private information, but I will say that he has agreed to do test for cancer at some point in the future that will be available to the public .
— KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) July 11, 2024
“I just got off the phone with Boogie2988 , he not suicidal,” Keem posted. “No need for wellness checks.
“I can’t say too much without leaking private information, but I will say that he has agreed to do test for cancer at some point in the future that will be available to the public.”
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