Will Adam Levine be the latest victim of cancel culture? Photo: AFP
First an Instagram model accused Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine of cheating. Soon after, two other women reportedly highlighted flirty messages they said they had exchanged with the singer.
Now, a third woman has come forward. The yoga instructor’s story, from more than a decade ago, started with Levine’s flirtation and ended in a much darker place — albeit through no fault of the Moves Like Jagger singer.
Alanna Zabel, who said she was Levine’s instructor from 2007 to 2010, wrote on Instagram that the performer sent her flirty text messages during that time, before he met Victoria’s Secret model Behati Prinsloo and married her in 2014.
“One day he texted me saying ‘I want to spend the day with you naked',” she wrote in a since-deleted Instagram stories post (via Fox News). “I was in the bath but my jealous ex saw it and went into a rage.”
She continued, reportedly writing, “I assured my ex that I was sure it was meant for Adam’s then girlfriend, Becky, and was a mistake. I texted Adam to ask if that was the case. Adam didn’t reply ... and my ex became violent, breaking my wrist.”
It was unclear whether the “ex” was a boyfriend or an ex-boyfriend at the time of the incident.
Late Tuesday, she added context around her initial comments, writing in a different Instagram post, “Firstly, Adam’s text was not wrong, IMO,” and adding, “Secondly, Adam was not responsible for my abusive ex boyfriend, or his actions.”
She said that what disappointed her about Levine was how he responded afterward.
The wrist-breaking incident was a "[m]assive life changing, destructive moment,” Zabel said, causing her to lose her yoga practice and her home.
She had to deal with fallout after her ex’s emotional abuse turning physical. When she told Levine what had happened, according to the Sun, she said, he “ignored it, never apologised, removed me from the upcoming tour and iced me out during one of the most devastating times of my life ... all from his one flirtatious text.”
Zabel noted in a comment on her Instagram post that she hoped, in light of the current situation, that moving forward Levine could be “honest and real” and “an example to men as how to treat women, because babes be hot! But that doesn’t mean that women are objects and should be treated that way.”
She wrote that she knows Levine has a good heart and hopes he can prepare his young daughters “to be empowered, intelligent and respected young women some day.”
As for Levine’s apparent history of online flirting, a source who spoke to People on Tuesday may have nailed down the cause.
“Why would he do this? He liked the attention,” the source said. “He likes it more than most.”
The source said Levine craves “female attention” but is insisting to people around him that “nothing physical happened” with any of the women he flirted with.
Instagram model Sumner Stroh posted a video Monday on TikTok in what she later said was an attempt to kill a tabloid story that was spinning up about her interactions with Levine. She described flirtatious DMs from the singer and said they had been “having an affair” for about a year — an affair that she had ended. Stroh later told Page Six that the affair had been “physical”, something Levine denied.
“At the time I was young, I was naive,” Stroh said in a video. “Quite frankly, I feel exploited. I wasn’t in ‘the scene’ like I am now, so I was definitely very easily exploited.” She blamed her naivete on her age — she’s now 23 — and on the fact that she didn’t yet live in Los Angeles.
Levine chose to “clear the air” Tuesday in a since-disappeared Instagram stories post.
“I used poor judgment in speaking with anyone other than my wife in ANY kind of flirtatious manner. I did not have an affair, nevertheless, I crossed the line during a regrettable period in my life,” he wrote, explaining that “in certain instances it became inappropriate.”
He continued, “My wife and my family is all I care about in this world. To be this naive and stupid enough to risk the only thing that truly matters to me was the greatest mistake I could ever make. I will never make it again. I take full responsibility. We will get through it. And we will get through it together.” – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
