ThelifeJeff Wittek said he is "done" being friends withDavid Dobrik , calling him a "scumbag."- Wittek sustained serious injuries after a 2020 incident with an excavator Dobrik was controlling.
Jeff Wittek gained a huge social media following when he started appearing in David Dobrik's vlogs in 2018, but over the past few days, he has publicly cut ties with the YouTube star.
Dobrik, who has 18 million YouTube subscribers, rose to fame by posting videos with his group of friends, known as the Vlog Squad. He came under public scrutiny in March 2021 after Insider published an investigation into allegations that another former Vlog Squad member — Dominykas Zeglaitis, known online as Durte Dom — sexually assaulted a woman who appeared in a video. Dobrik addressed the allegations in an apology video on March 16. In April 2021, Zeglaitis said that as far as he was concerned, the encounter was consensual.
Over the course of 2020, Vlog Squad member Wittek gradually stopped appearing in Dobrik's vlogs, and many videos that featured Wittek have now been deleted.
In the past weeks, Wittek, who was 3 million YouTube subscribers, has called Dobrik a "fake friend" and suggested he no longer wants to be associated with the vlogger.
After much speculation, Wittek revealed the reason for his comments, saying he believed Dobrik was planning to release a documentary that blamed Wittek for an accident that occurred in June 2020 while Wittek swung from an excavator controlled by Dobrik. Wittek has previously said the stunt nearly killed him and left him with permanent injuries.
Dobrik has now addressed Wittek's comments in a podcast episode, saying he was "sorry" about the accident, but that it was a "combined" decision between him and Wittek to do the excavator stunt, so he shouldn't be the only one who accepts blame.
Here's a timeline of how the end of friendship appeared to unravel.
Wittek appeared to unfollow Dobrik on Instagram on February 21
On February 21, social media news account DefNoodles shared a post on Instagram saying Wittek had unfollowed Dobrik on Instagram for reasons that were unknown at the time.
Commenters speculated this was related to Wittek's injury, which happened in June 2020 when the Vlog Squad took turns swinging from an excavator they put in a lake. As Dobrik controlled the crane and Wittek swung from it, Wittek crashed into the excavator and his left eye was permanently damaged.
In an April 2021 episode of his documentary series, "Don't try this at home," Wittek explained his side of the story for the first time, saying he started to "resent" Dobrik and it made him "not want to go online."
Later that day, Wittek said he's 'done' being friends with Dobrik
Later that same day, Wittek appeared in an Instagram livestream in which he spoke about the excavator incident, saying that his friendship with Dobrik was finally over.
Wittek explained that he had to have another surgery on his injured eye, but Dobrik didn't contact him when he was discharged, "not a text or nothing," and added, "I'm done being fake friends with that motherfucker."
In a video from April 2021 where the two spoke face to face about the incident, Dobrik said the whole thing was an "accident" and he "obviously didn't do it on purpose."
Wittek has continued to mock and insult Dobrik online and said he was pulling out of a YouTuber event because of Dobrik
Following the livestream, Wittek has continued to make critical remarks about Dobrik on social media, particularly taking swings at his appearance.
On February 18, Vlog Squad member Jason Nash posted a teaser for "The Roast of Bryce Hall," a live comedy event he had hosted on February 2 which featured a number of influencers performing sets themed around insulting TikTok star Bryce Hall. Both Wittek and Dobrik featured in the teaser.
On February 23, Wittek tweeted that he asked to have his set removed, writing, "I'm no longer a part of the roast of Bryce hall. My entire set will be cut due to censorship, and David Dobrik being involved. I refuse to be a part of anything that scumbag is involved in from here on out."
In a second tweet, Wittek said producers told him to remove "half" his jokes, saying, "This is all because that coward was there and he can't take jokes."
—Jeff Wittek (@jeffwittek) February 23, 2022
—Jeff Wittek (@jeffwittek) February 23, 2022
On February 25, Wittek said Dobrik blames him for the excavator accident in an upcoming documentary
On February 25, Wittek uploaded a podcast episode with the title, "Dear David," in which he said he started making public comments about Dobrik because he found out David was trying to blame him for the excavator incident.
Wittek said the "real reason" he was upset was not just because Dobrik did not text him, but because a producer for Dobrik's purported documentary showed him a clip addressing the incident.
"David blamed me for the crane. He insinuated that I was crazy, I was the one to push it, and I'm the reason that this happened when that's complete bullshit," he said.
He went on to say that this made him "lose all respect" for Dobrik, and any "hope that he could become a better person."
Dobrik did not respond to Insider's request for comment about the existence of such a documentary.
Dobrik responded to Wittek's comments about the incident in a podcast episode
In a March 8 episode of "Views," a podcast hosted by Dobrik and his friend Jason Nash, Dobrik said he wanted to address the posts Wittek made about him. Nash said they invited Wittek to speak on the podcast with him but he denied their request.
Dobrik said, "The Jeff thing is the fucking worst." Speaking about the excavator incident, he added, "That day is the worst thing that has ever happened to me and I would fucking do anything to take that day back."
Dobrik said he was willing to take "80% of the responsibility or 90 or 100 percent of the responsibility for the accident, whatever he needs me to do," but added that "it got to the point where it started to feel like I was taking 150 of the responsibility" due to a public perception that Dobrik "forced" Wittek to perform the stunt.
Dobrik said, "This is not what happened. It was a combined decision we made and it was a complete accident."
Dobrik also said in the episode that he was unaware that Wittek was going into another eye surgery until Wittek unfollowed him on Instagram and started making posts about him.
He told Nash that he has offered to pay for Wittek's ongoing surgeries, but said Wittek's assistant has not gotten back to him.
Jeff Wittek did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.