In a new video, the 19-year-old TikTok personality claims that she and Connor Joyce 'just ended up catching feelings for each other' and immediately stopped after they realized that it was wrong.
- Nov 5, 2020
AceShowbiz - TikTok star Zoe Laverne was under fire after footage of her kissing a young boy emerged online. The said video saw the 19-year-old, who has nearly 18 million followers on the app, kissing 13-year-old Connor Joyce on the lips, prompting others to slam Zoe on social media.
She eventually caught wind of the backlash as she addressed the matter in a livestream. She offered an apology over the inappropriate action in addition to setting the record straight after she was rumored to be arrested because of it.
"I am sincerely sorry, like genuinely sorry. It is a mistake that I will never make again and it was a choice that was not the best choice in the entire world to make," she said. "And it was something that bothers me still to this day, I'm really sorry again."
She then denied grooming Connor, who is six years her junior. "I wouldn't do that. He's a kid and I'm aware of that. It just happened," she explained. "We both were in a dark place when we first became friends and we both just ended up catching feelings for each other. And friends do that, they catch feelings for each other. That's not a bad thing. Yes, the age is a bad thing. Yes, it's wrong. Yes, it's not good. We both realized that and we stopped."
Connor also previously addressed the matter on his Instagram account, saying that Zoe "did not rape" him. He claimed that Zoe came clean to his mother about the kiss. While "she wasn't happy obviously," Connor said that his mother "understood that we are both teenagers and that feelings can be caught."
Zoe's mother also jumped to her daughter's defense. "Anybody can reach over and kiss somebody. They're best friends," she said in a video.
