Ethan Klein, a longtime YouTuber and H3 Podcasthost, has been accused by his wife, Hila Klein, of having an affair.
Though the news is seemingly niche personal drama among content creators, outrage and schadenfreude have reverberated beyond their fan ecosystem, trending on Google Search and X.
In a lengthy statement posted on Instagram early Friday morning, Hila said she’s separated from her husband, whom she’s been with for nearly 20 years. Her post came hours after Ethan posted on his Instagram story that the H3 Podcast would be going on “indefinite hiatus.”
“I am living a nightmare I can’t wake up from. My husband has been having an affair. I have been fed lie after lie after lie for months. Here is the truth,” she wrote.
Hila said she caught Ethan in a lie. “But the lies continued. ‘It was just a kiss’ became ‘it was emotional cheating,'” she continued. “After I dragged these lies from him, he finally admitted he’d been in an affair for over 6 months, the extent of which I’m sure I still don’t know.”
Hila and Ethan are also business partners who have been collaborating as content creators since 2011, when they first launched a YouTube channel, H3H3 Productions. They started the H3 Podcast in 2016, and it currently has 5.4 million subscribers.
“The betrayal I feel is immeasurable. The person I loved and trusted for 20 years evaporated overnight. He was my safe place, my partner in marriage, parenting, and business,” Hila said. “My only family on this side of the world. How do I even begin to make sense of this?”
The production crew of Ethan’s H3 Podcastalso issued a statement on Instagram, saying they “stand with Hila” and are “disgusted by Ethan’s actions and the hurt he caused.”
“We are all shocked, angry, and heartbroken to learn about Ethan’s ongoing affair,” the H3 team wrote. “As soon as we found out, we all agreed: we would not continue working with Ethan involved or profiting in any way. We don’t yet know what that means for the future. There’s a lot to work through, and we wish we had more answers for you.”
Over the years, Ethan has built a considerable fan base — and earned a number of detractors — by positioning himself as both an arbiter and instigator of internet drama. The news has been hitting hard on both sides.
Yahoo has reached out to involved parties for comment.
