Malka has not publicly commented on the allegations, but in a series of email exchanges with me over the weekend, he pushed back against the story. The two have not spoken in years, according to Malka. He called Leupp "a deeply disturbed, malicious individual," a characterization Leupp, in an interview with me today, attributed to Malka's attempts to gaslight people over his own behavior.
"It's been a perfect storm of misanthropy and opportunism," said Malka, who described the accusations as "totally ridiculous and baseless."
As for the incident described by Leupp, Malka called it "totally harmonious and consensual."
Leupp, however, said she made no indication the night was to turn sexual.
"I pretty clearly remember closing the door," she said, "maybe not closing it all the way, but closing it enough so that I was protected. I wasn't getting naked in front of him and then going 'Oh, I'm going to puke. You wanna come in the shower with me? That's fucking gross."
She called his insistence that such an advance was consensual "delusional."
Malka further criticized Leupp for reportedly taking down her Facebook post, after the allegations began circulating, as evidence she was making the story up or exaggerating certain details of the encounter. Leupp told me that's not the case; instead, the post was made private so people would stop screen grabbing it and sharing it around online, as her profile also included other posts detailing other sexual misconduct she'd experienced.
"I didn't delete it out of shame or anything, I just got afraid," she told me. "I never meant to out him publicly. I never meant to have any of this happen. It was a story that had come up. Instead of just reposting a hashtag, I thought if I described some more details of certain situations that it would become more real for friends in my life."
he never had any intention of speaking with (or about) Tyler again, but she also hasn't been to work since the allegations became public; she's been concerned for her safety.
Leupp said that, at the time, she was polyamorous and in an open relationship with a boyfriend, but the open part of her relationship was exclusive to women, not men. Leupp said her boyfriend knew and trusted Malka.
The two continued to hang out, according to Leupp, because she attributed the incident to him "being drunk that one night." They talked about how what happened was "not okay," and he seemed receptive to the feedback.
"I had no reason not to trust him still," she said. "It was a creepy thing, but I tend to give people second chances. He had already invited me to go to E3."
Malka and Leupp did have consensual sex one time after the shower incident.
Their next major interaction came later that year, during their E3 trip to Los Angeles. Malka rented an AirBnB for friends to stay at during the week, and claims that their mutual acquaintances knew Malka's and Leupp's relationship was sexual, as they were sharing a bed. But Leupp disputed the sexual nature of the relationship, and while they were sharing a bed, they never had sex at E3.
"I think he felt rejected, and started pursuing this other girl," she said.
According to Malka, he was upfront about a "mutual romantic interest" also coming on the trip, and it "might lead somewhere." He claims an early interaction between the other woman and Malka proved explosive, and resulting in Leupp becoming "increasingly hostile and bitter. He claims she had "two separate public mental breakdowns" before the trip was over. These breakdowns, insisted Malka, were related to a "history of serious mental illness."
Leupp called both of these insinuations "bullshit." Her confrontations with Malka over the weekend were, according to her, because Malka became aggressive towards her. Leupp was also increasingly uncomfortable over how he was pursuing this other girl, by "trying to get her drunk, being really hands-y, taking her away from the group a lot, and isolating her."
Malka argues that her accusations against him are a product of the hostility that developed over this E3 trip. "This Facebook post allegation she posted a few days ago is the story she first invented for startlingly petty and malicious reasons during that whole love triangle situation years ago," he said.
Their relationship splintered at the end of the E3 trip, while at the airport and heading home. The tensions from the past week surfaced, and Leupp called Malka "rape-y" and described his actions as "inappropriate." The two blocked one another on social media soon after.
