It seems David Dobrik may be hanging up his YouTube hat.
For months, fans have speculated that the creator might be retiring his iconic vlogs after an unexplained hiatus, a few hints from his inner circle, and a hefty lawsuit involving a former Vlog Squad member and friend.
David, who was publicly “cancelled” in 2021 after an exposé alleged that he was complicit in Dom Zeglaitis’ sexual assault of a college student, last posted a vlog on March 29th, 2022. Around that same time, longtime colleague Jeff Wittek severed ties with David and began speaking out against him.
ICYMI, Jeff was seriously injured back in 2020 during a stunt he was filming for David‘s channel in which several members of Vlog Squad spun around on a rope attached to an excavator. David was driving when Jeff crashed into the excavator.
While the two seemed to be on good terms following the accident, in early 2022 David publicly revealed that the excavator stunt was allegedly Jeff’s idea— something Jeff had apparently asked David to keep private.
David later claimed he went public with this information because he felt all the blame was being put on him.
David apologised to Jeff on his podcast in March of this year and addressed Jeff’s claims that he was a bad friend following the accident.
Jeff responded to David’s apology shortly after, threatening legal action against his former friend.
“I appreciate [the apology], Dave, after the last hour of slander,” Jeff said on his podcast. “I’m not going to beat you up anymore. I’m just going to take this the right way, the smart way, and just let the courts decide, you know. You’re making a lot of statements here that are very untrue, that are so easy to disprove. So, let’s just let the courts decide.”
David stopped posting to his YouTube channel two weeks later and stopped publishing his podcast in mid-April.
Months after David abandoned his channel with over 18 million subscribers, TMZ reported that Jeff filed a $10 million lawsuit against David for “general negligence and intentional tort” related to the accident— sparking speculation that David was advised by his legal team to cease posting YouTube content for the time being.
However, Vlog Squad members Zane Hijazi and Heath Hussar recently let it slip that David’s break from the platform might be permanent.
In the latest episode of their podcast, Zane and Health: UNFILTERED, the duo recapped their European holiday, saying that David wouldn’t let them look out the window in Paris until they reached the Eiffel Tower because he wanted to see their reaction.
“David was gatekeeping the Eiffel Tower until we got there, like, ‘Stop looking out the window! Don’t look, don’t look!’,” recounted Heath.
“Like the vlogs are done,” said Zane. “The vlogs are over, why are we still being surprised?”
While this may be the first time that members of the content collective have confirmed that David is will no longer produce his award-winning vlogs, it likely comes as no surprise to fans who have followed his professional shift since his 2021 cancellation.
David has not addressed the future of his YouTube channel or podcast at the time of writing.