On October 6, Helen Donahue, who previously worked as a social media editor for Vice and also wrote for the website, posted photos of bruises on her upper body, neck, and face to Twitter. “sux men in media hate women yet write abt feminism n masquerade as allies but its sadder this happens,” she wrote. “2015 i screamed @ my own reflection.”
Shortly after, another writer named Deirdre Coyle quoted Donahue’s tweet, writing “these bruises came from the same guy who physically forced me to do cocaine during sex.” And yet another woman known on Twitter by her first name, Dilara, quoted Coyle’s tweet, writing: “This is the same guy who choked me at the foot of his stairs until I passed out and then repeatedly punched me in the face.”
All three women confirmed to each other privately that the man they were referring to was writer Michael Hafford, a former freelance columnist for Broadly and freelance writer for outlets like Refinery29, Rolling Stone, T Magazine and more. The rapper ka5sh, a friend of Donahue’s, also tweeted that Hafford was the man Donahue’s tweet was referring to.
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