The controversies of 19-year-old TikTok star Zoe LaVerne, who apologized for kissing her 13-year-old fan

LaVerne's biggest platform is TikTok, where she has more than 17.5 million followers. She also has close to 3 million Instagram followers. LaVerne's early video content echoed the popular lip-sync trends on Musical.ly, and after Musical.ly became TikTok in 2018, LaVerne incorporated more dancing and humor content.

LaVerne has also explored other avenues, like a solo YouTube channel, where she has posted a few "Storytime" videos and has close to 450,000 subscribers. LaVerne also released a song in 2019 called "Lost It All." But more so than her dance moves, singing voice, or signature winged eyeliner, LaVerne is known for her many controversies.

LaVerne has developed a reputation for frequent online outbursts, including on private alternative and backup accounts. Rants from 2018 and before are still floating around on LaVerne's public backup pages, and as the influencer disappeared under mounting backlash in late October and early November, she communicated with her audience through posts on a private Instagram page (many of the posts circulated publicly through screenshots leaked to gossip pages).

Before reaching her current tipping point of controversy, LaVerne weathered other scandals, including a one-sided feud with the most-followed TikToker Charli D'Amelio and endless drama with her ex-boyfriend Cody Orlove. Like many influencers, LaVerne's career has been propped up on the drama that supports her relevancy, starting years ago when she was a rising star on the tween-dominated app Musical.ly.

LaVerne is actually Zoe's middle name. Her full name is Zoe LaVerne Pemberton. LaVerne grew up in Greenwood, Indiana, the largest suburb in the Indianapolis area. She has one brother named Eric and an older step-brother named Cameron.

LaVerne first started posting to Musical.ly in late 2015, when she still had braces and was enrolled in public school. Early on, classmates made fun of LaVerne for being active on the app, she later said. But LaVerne gained followers at a quick pace early on, she said, leading up to getting a verification "Crown" in March 2017.

"It was the best feeling in the world," LaVerne described in a 2017 Instagram post. She continued to live with her family outside Indianapolis while visiting LA to meet other influencers and collaborate.

In July 2018, the Indianapolis Star profiled LaVerne and her parents, who began home-schooling LaVerne due to increased issues with bullying at her high school as her online profile grew. LaVerne's parents said they felt she'd been robbed of a normal high school experience because of Musical.ly.

Around December 2017, LaVerne made a monumental shift in her social media brand — she started dating fellow Musical.ly star Cody Orlove. The relationship between LaVerne and Orlove would last well into 2020, but the road was rocky, including a break-up caused by LaVerne cheating.

Despite the on-again, off-again nature of their relationship, LaVerne and Orlove consistently capitalized off of it, including by going on tour together, promoting sponsorships and merchandise together, and even by releasing a joint single called "Thinking Of You" in 2019.

Most importantly, LaVerne and Orlove created a YouTube couple channel for "Zody," the name fans gave the pairing. The "Cody & Zoe" channel was the pair's most popular project together, and it currently has over 1.1 million subscribers. The channel was active between April 2018 and May 2020, and their popular videos are mostly pranks, including a cheating prank video that has more than 5.5 million views.

LaVerne even referenced the channel's success in a sarcastic October 2020 TikTok with the popular meme format "Yes I did that. And you would do it too, for a check."

As they continued to document the ups and downs of "Zody," both LaVerne and Orlove grew exponentially in terms of social media success.

While LaVerne posted pictures with fans at conventions and meet-and-greets, she was also still climbing the Musical.ly social ladder herself. In June 2018, LaVerne posted a picture with top Musical.ly star Loren Gray (who was the most-followed on the app and its successor TikTok until D'Amelio surpassed her in 2020) captioned "thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to talk to me."

She also continued to pursue modeling gigs in addition to her burgeoning social media career. As LaVerne's spotlight grew, so did her opposition. On one 2018 backup page, LaVerne documented her frustrations with a "hate page," writing "Update the hate page apologized. She did so [sic] horrible things but we are all human and make mistakes."

Laverne also expressed struggles with fitting in with her real-life peers as her online fame grew. In one February 2018 YouTube video she described herself as "really weird" and as having "no friends" offline.

In June 2020, LaVerne and Orlove again announced a mutual split. Officially, LaVerne said in a livesteam that "nothing bad happened" and that they just wanted to go their "separate ways" after falling out of love.

But privately, LaVerne had already direct messaged a fan and called Orlove an "abuser" and said he had "hit" and "slapped" her. The fan released the direct messages, and LaVerne immediately posted an apology for "lying" on her private account. In his 2019 break-up explanation video, Orlove also said LaVerne had previously lied about him "hitting" her and later admitted she was lying.

However, days after the June 2020 breakup, audio was leaked that sounded like Orlove physically restraining LaVerne against her will while she screamed at him to "let go." Following the audio leak, LaVerne went live on Instagram and said Orlove "hit" her and "grabbed" her during the argument in the audio.

Orlove responded to the audio leak in a lengthy Instagram caption in which he said there were never any "marks or physical damage" as a result of arguments between the two. He apologized for hurting LaVerne.

"The suggestion that I abused her has be [sic] skewed and misrepresents everything I am and everything I believe as a person," Orlove wrote. "As teens, we found ourselves in a toxic relationship where we both participated in unhealthy behavior that at times went too far on both of our parts."

In July 2020, footage leaked of LaVerne reacting to D'Amelio about to surpass her in followers. The viral clip showed LaVerne crying, calling 15-year-old D'Amelio a "b----," and insisting she was "the star of TikTok."

While the leaked audio wasn't received favorably, it proved to be the type of controversy LaVerne could leverage for social media engagement. A TikTok she posted in September 2020 parodying her own rant received 4 million views, which is several times more than LaVerne's average TikTok view count.

However, in November 2020, additional audio of LaVerne talking about D'Amelio leaked.

In the newer audio, LaVerne can be heard saying "If you're gonna defend a f------ stinky ass wh---, don't f------ ring me in the car. I'm not gonna sit in there, and act like I like Charli D'Amelio, okay?"

D'Amelio commented "@zoexlaverne this you?" on the post. In an apology livestream, LaVerne said she was "just mad" and that she has since sent "paragraphs and paragraphs" of apologies to D'Amelio, which LaVerne said D'Amelio didn't respond to.

In late October 2020, Orlove claimed that all of his social media accounts had been hacked. As a result of the "hack," Orlove's direct messages were leaked to TikTok Room, a "shaderoom"-style Instagram gossip page for TikTok stars that has close to 2 million followers.

Amber Van Pelt, a smaller TikToker who LaVerne started publicly hanging out with in 2018, wrote Orlove a direct message saying "I left because of her interactions with connor. They got very intense and it's something I do not stand by what so ever. It's pedophilia."

Days after Van Pelt's direct messages with Orlove leaked, video footage of LaVerne and Connor, 13, appearing to kiss one another also leaked, sparking massive outrage. Afterward, LaVerne, 19, denied being in a "relationship" with Connor and said she never "groomed" or "raped" him, but confirmed the kiss happened and said the two "caught feelings" for each other. LaVerne also said the two mutually ended their feelings because the "age is a bad thing."

The last pictures LaVerne posted on Instagram with Van Pelt also include Connor. LaVerne captioned a July 2020 post with Van Pelt and Connor "My second family," and she captioned August 2020 photos with each of them "Love those who love you."

Connor also appeared on LaVerne's TikTok as her "bestie" multiple times in the weeks leading up to the kissing video leak. LaVerne posted the two dancing to the song "Bestie" three times starting September 26, 2020 with the caption "Duetting every time we see each other."

In her apology, LaVerne said she cut contact with Connor and that she had told his mother about the kiss prior to the video of it getting leaked. Connor has also since posted on his own accounts asking people to stop bringing up LaVerne.

LaVerne turned off all her Instagram comments in during the controversy and briefly deactivated her TikTok account. Upon returning to TikTok, and after her initial apology, LaVerne tried to stage a sarcastic comeback by poking fun at her own "cancellation."

"Me coming back to tiktok after i got canceled for the 100th time," the video says, and it shows LaVerne dancing around in a cat costume, covering her face in mock shame. Between seemingly trying to laugh the situation off and posting fan-made edits of her own apology livestream, LaVerne's attempted return seemed to do more harm than good for her reputation. She quickly shut TikTok comments off and stopped posting across all platforms.

Soon after the kiss tape leaked on TikTok Room, LaVerne appeared in a livestream with her mother Debbie Pemberton. In it, Pemberton appears to shut down LaVerne's step-father's request to have the camera turned off while LaVerne cries behind her.

Pemberton also broadcast a statement in response to the kiss downplaying the severity of the accusations. In it, she said "Anybody can reach over and kiss somebody. They're best friends. This needs to stop you guys — why are you doing this?"

In late October, shortly after the video of LaVerne and Connor kissing leaked, a prank news site posted the false claim that LaVerne had been arrested. In her apology statements, LaVerne shut down comments about her getting arrested or going to jail, responding that you couldn't be arrested for "kissing someone."

There's no evidence to suggest that LaVerne has been contacted by law enforcement or that she has been arrested, but the hoax spread quickly on social media.

However, LaVerne did step away from the internet indefinitely and hasn't been posting since November 2, when she published to a known backup Instagram account of hers that she was checking herself "into a hospital for a while."

"She should check herself into jail," the top comment on TikTok Room's post about LaVerne's hospital statement says. LaVerne has yet to post anything else on social media since.