Yesterday afternoon, Instagram influencer Sumner Stroh posted a TikTok alleging that last year she had an affair with Adam Levine, who is married to Behati Prinsloo, and after not hearing from him for a few months, he contacted her again via DM. (We will get to that DM in a minute.)

@sumnerstroh

embarrassed I was involved w a man with this utter lack of remorse and respect. #greenscreen

♬ original sound - Sumner Stroh
 

Rock stars (like professional athletes and other famous men) are constantly caught cheating, it is pretty much assumed that they all cheat. This is extra scandalous because Behati is expecting their third child. Reading through comments about this, the consensus is that Adam was and is a dog. 

According to reports, Sumner is either 21 or 23, depending on what website you refer to. Page Six has spoken to Sumner and lists her at 21. By her account, they had an affair for a year, when she graduated college in 2021, and then stopped talking for a number of months. She said she felt “exploited” and “easily manipulated” and mentions that “my morals were unknowingly compromised.” A few years ago, Sumner would have been called a homewrecker and a slut and everyone would move on, but the conversation has slightly shifted. (Of course there are people who will still blame her, but there’s a lot more pushback than there was in the past.) Is it cool to f-ck around with a married person? Nope. But the responsibility is on him even though he did give her a plausible explanation (more on that below). I think there are many celebrity marriages that operate on an arrangement (and cheating is rampant in those circles in LA) - add in the fame/money/power dynamic and it is a lopsided situation. 

It might be hard to find empathy for her but let’s go from the baseline that she is not the one who is married. Her first TikTok statement lacks contrition (she also addresses that in the second video) but in the grand scheme of the celebrity ecosystem, Sumner has no power or clout. She is not a big grown age like Adam is. She is not famous in the same way he is (and has been for years). She has not spent years and years dating celebrities (like he has). If she makes her money as an influencer, this will affect the type of work she gets. Whether or not she is evading accountability for her part in the affair and using words like exploitation as a shield for her own sketch behaviour is a whole other debate I will leave to Twitter.

Sumner says one of the reasons she was compelled to come forward is because Adam DM’d her because he WANTS TO GIVE HIS NEW BABY THE SAME NAME AS HER. Seriously! Seriously!!!! Seriously!!!!!! What kind of psychotic deranged serial killer behaviour is this? Who would do that to their spouse?!?!?!?!?!??!?

 

But the DM isn’t what tipped her over the edge – Sumner shared the DMs with friends and one of them tried to sell to the tabloids (who then likely went poking around, which is how Sumner found out). So, yes, she was being sloppy but this is the kind of scenario you’d share with close friends. Here is her second video in which she responds to comments about him being married and the timeline. 

@sumnerstroh

Replying to @alanasanders89 addressing a few things I wish I had said in the first video

♬ original sound - Sumner Stroh

As mentioned above, many famous people cheat. In the second video, she says he told her the marriage was over; there are couples (celebrity and not) who quietly separate and keep it under wraps until they are ready for divorce because it’s a tumultuous time. We know celebrities do it to avoid scrutiny.

It’s not hard to see why Sumner believed him. And if we are going to go down the “they were over” route, remember that big splashy house they showed off in Architectural Digest as their forever home in August 2021, only to list it in March 2022? Celebrity real estate can be the surest sign that something is going on in the marriage and on May 11, 2022 in Celebrity Social Media, I wrote: 

“At the time of the AD tour, it seemed like this was a long-term home and not a flip, but maybe the market got too hot for them to sit on it. Sometimes, a celebrity couple will feature their home in AD so that they can sell it and get divorced but I don’t think that’s the case here. They haven’t posted each other on Instagram since February, but he surprised her on Ellen which I don’t think they would fake. It would invite too much scrutiny.”

 

Sorry to quote myself (asshole move!) but the timing is interesting as Sumner said the affair started in 2021 when she graduated from college (let’s assume spring/summer) and lasted a year which would bring it into spring/summer 2022–maybe the selling of the house was prompted by marital troubles? It might have been purely financial (they buy and sell homes pretty frequently) but between that, Adam surprising Behati on Ellen for Mother’s Day (grand gesture) and the pregnancy, there could definitely have been issues at home. Or, Behati had no idea and was just living her life like her husband is a scummy cliché. 

I feel so, so, so, so, so bad for Behati if this is something she found out about with the rest of the world. Even if she knew, the shock and embarrassment (regardless of how their relationship is structured) must be so stressful. If the tabloids were tipped off, his PR team was probably furiously trying to make it go away behind the scenes. (Which, as we know, is impossible in the age of social media and when information is not controlled by a handful of magazines.)

On top of that, she is pregnant which puts her in an even more vulnerable space. Now she will be chased by the paparazzi for weeks and when the baby is born, everyone will know that their dad wanted to name the child after his sidepiece!!!! When that child Googles themselves in 15 years, this story will come up.

Adam has taken his side to TMZ and denies a physical affair. Sumner is comfortable dropping receipts so if he is lying, he is taking a huge risk. Sumner said the affair was “physical” and she has all the motivation in the world to provide proof of that. Tabloids will pay her and she does not want to look the dumb girl who got sucked into being a DM side-piece. Also, Adam is not equipped to deal with a generation of online sleuths. 

 

Clearly, besides the affair (online or IRL), something is seriously wrong with his thought process. It is Adam who went and poked the bear by DM’ing her again. Like WHY would you DM someone that holds a secret that could blow up your life after a long period of no contact? Why would he put it in writing? That kind of reckless behaviour screams that there’s a deeper issue – ego and arrogance for sure. But not even the most coddled celebrity would think getting caught cheating on his pregnant wife is OK. Not even a narcissist would think that, right? It’s an extra layer of scummy, even from someone not held in particularly high esteem. 

Update: he's just posted this to his stories: 

Adam Levine's Instagram Story