Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine says he did not have an affair with Instagram model Sumner Stroh but admits that he “crossed the line” by having “flirtatious” exchanges with someone who was not his wife, Behati Prinsloo.
Stroh made her allegations Monday in a TikTok video that went viral, in which she said she had been “having an affair with a man who’s married to a Victoria’s Secret model.
“At the time I was young, I was naïve,” she said. “Quite frankly, I feel exploited. I wasn’t in ‘the scene’ like I am now, so I was definitely very easily exploited.”
After saying that Maroon 5 was “practically elevator music at this point,” she admitted that the man was Levine. “Adam and I were seeing each other for about a year,” she said before presenting DMs she described as “how he came back into my life” after she ended things.
“Ok serious question,” Levine’s alleged direct message to her read. “I’m having another baby and if it’s [a] boy I really want to name it Sumner. You ok with that? DEAD serious.”
Stroh said she was “in hell at this point,” with her morals “unknowingly compromised.” She said she was “completely manipulated.”
The 23-year-old told Page Six on Tuesday that the relationship was “physical” and that she hadn’t spoken to Levine, 43, in months.
Behati Prinsloo and Adam Levine together in Miami Beach in February 2022.
(Scott Roth / Invision / Associated Press)
Levine denied having an affair in a statement Tuesday.
“A lot is being said about me right now and I want to clear the air,” Levine said in a post to his Instagram Stories. “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.”
The singer said that “in certain instances it became inappropriate,” but that he had “addressed that and taken proactive steps to remedy this with my family.”
Levine and Prinsloo, who have two young daughters together, got engaged in July 2013 and married in Mexico a year later with actor Jonah Hill, the singer’s childhood friend, officiating.
Prinsloo posted a baby-bump picture on Instagram a few days ago, heralding that their third child is on the way. People had confirmed the news a couple of weeks back.
“My wife and my family is all I care about in this world,” Levine continued Tuesday on Instagram. “To be this naïve 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.”
However, hours after Levine posted his statement, TMZ reported that two additional women had come forward with screengrabs allegedly showing their own flirtatious private messages with the singer.
Stroh said in a “Part 2″ TikTok video Monday that she believed Levine’s marriage was over and that she thought he and Prinsloo were keeping things quiet to avoid bad media coverage.
“I was new to L.A., so I just assumed that celebrities of that caliber that that’s just how it was,” she said. “That’s why I feel exploited, because he knew I believed everything that he said, because of my vulnerable position of being new to L.A.”
Stroh accused Levine of manipulating her by DMing her directly from his verified Instagram account and “hiding in plain sight.”
Stroh said that she came forward only because she had “recklessly” sent some screengrabs to friends and that one so-called friend attempted to sell the story to a tabloid. She said she realized what had happened the day before, when the tabloid reached out for comment, and went public herself in an attempt to kill whatever story the unnamed tabloid had.
“In retrospect, I wish that I would have questioned things more. I wish I hadn’t been so naïve, but, you know, being naïve is not an excuse for the role I played in this,” Stroh said. “Again, in no way was I trying to gain sympathy, and I realize I am not the victim in this. I’m not the one who’s really getting hurt here. It’s Behati and her children, and for that I am so, so sorry.”