In a new interview with Allure, Stranger Things actor Millie Bobby Brown reflected on her “year of healing” after her brief relationship with TikTok star Hunter Ecimovic — also known as Hunter Echo — when she was a minor. Rumors that Brown and Ecimovic, best known for making TikTok skits about relationships, were dating began in 2020 after photos of them kissing started circulating on social media. Though Brown never confirmed the relationship at the time, Ecimovic took to Instagram Live in 2021 and graphically detailed alleged sexual encounters he had with Brown when he was 20 and she was 16. “I groomed her,” said Ecimovic, who added, “I will never apologize … I have nothing to apologize for.” Shortly after, Ecimovic’s social-media accounts disappeared.
At the time, representatives for Brown called Ecimovic’s comments “dishonest” and “irresponsible, offensive, and hateful.” In Wednesday’s Allure interview, Brown addressed the “unhealthy situation,” calling Ecimovic a “blip” and saying that she’d walked away from him in 2021. “I felt very vulnerable,” said Brown, who said she coped with the trauma of the relationship by channeling it into her season-four performance as Eleven on Stranger Things, which became more difficult to do after Ecimovic went public. “No one on the set knew I was going through this,” said Brown. “So it was kind of nice to be able to just deal with that myself and no one else knew. Then it was harder when the whole world knew.”
Brown, who is 18, is now dating Jake Bongiovi, the 20-year-old son of musician Jon Bon Jovi, and says she’s deleted Twitter and TikTok following hateful messages, including NSFW ones from adult men when she was a minor. She told Allure, “When you get publicly humiliated this way, I felt so out of control and powerless. Walking away and knowing that I’m worth everything and this person didn’t take anything from me, it felt very empowering. It felt like my life had finally turned a page and that I actually had ended a chapter that felt so fucking long. Ultimately, all I wanted to do within my career is help young girls and young people out there know that I, too, go through things.”