Strange Things About Jacob Sartorius And Millie Bobby Brown's Relationship
It's almost impossible not to love Millie Bobby Brown, who rose to prominence as the bizarre-but-lovable Eleven in the Emmy-nominated Netflix series Stranger Things. Between slaying Demogorgons and snacking on Eggo waffles, the teen star has amassed an estimated $4 million fortune and became the youngest person to ever grace Time's list of 100 most influential people in the world. At an age where most of us were struggling with acne and buying our makeup at Claire's, Brown was featured in Calvin Klein campaigns. Needles to say, the young star can probably snag any high school crush her teenage heart desires — and her teenage heart chose Jacob Sartorius.
Who's Sartorius? He's a tween Vine star-turned-teen pop star who's already broken Brown's heart once. When he isn't posing in front of private jets or smooching his starlet on Snapchat, he's releasing gold-certified singles, amassing millions of YouTube views, and skirting sexual harassment scandals.
Fans are mixed about this tumultuous union, and watching the couple's relationship unfold kind of makes us glad we didn't have Instagram at that age. Whether you ship Brown and Sartorius or not, it's clear that young love is undeniably sweet and always kind of embarrassing. Let's examine the stranger things about Jacob Sartorius and Millie Bobby Brown's relationship.
A not-so-secret, secret relationship
Brown is barely old enough to have an Instagram account without breaking the terms of service — and you can bet she utilized this newfound privilege to cause a fan frenzy. The weird thing is that the actress didn't really confirm her relationship with Sartorius by over-sharing, a trap that entangles many teens (and more than few millennials.) Instead, the couple announced its relationship covertly through a series of social media comments and likes.
Though Brown allegedly met Sartorius in October of 2017, the tea started to spill three months later when fans noticed Brown had liked one of his tweets. The tweet said, "Just another day w [sic] you on my mind." A couple days later, Brown posted a photo holding a giant teddy bear with the caption "Thanks for the bear" and a red heart emoji. Sartorius then replied "[Of] course" with another heart emoji — and there it was.
That was official enough for fans — who had plenty to say about it on Twitter. Some asked if Brown was okay — like, mentally. Others claimed the relationship felt like an episode of Black Mirror. At this point, who knows?
They're already vacationing together
Grown adults everywhere are cringing at the idea of enduring another disastrous Tinder date. It's rough out there. Then there's Brown, who's barely old enough to attend high school yet spends her time jet-setting to extravagant vacations with her boyfriend. (Can your parents tell you who to vacation with if you can pay your own way? Brown makes more than $250,000 per episode of Stranger Things.) Yes, the waters of child stardom are apparently as murky as the Upside Down.
According to Us Weekly, Sartorius and Brown spent New Year's Eve (a total couple's holiday) with Brown's family at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. Park goers were allegedly sharing snaps of the couple before the pair had even confirmed the relationship. In other words, it's totally possible that Brown and Sartorius ignited their romance over an Epcot Dole Whip. It's the happiest place on Earth, after all.
They were shamed by Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande fans know that the princess of pop has a sassy sense of humor — and we love her for it. Apparently, Brown and Sartorius aren't big fans because the couple had some sly beef with the "No Tears Left to Cry" singer that you may have missed if you haven't brushed up on your social media detective skills.
In May of 2018, Brown posted an Instagram photo of her and Sartorius locking lips (making the rest of us feel like our teenage selves should have starred in Never Been Kissed.) The caption read, "Moonlight with him." (Um, where are her parents?) Apparently, we're not the only ones who asked that question, because Grande chimed in to say: "I wasn't even allowed to leave my house til I was 20." Many fans agreed, and Brown promptly deleted the post.
Maybe Eleven can't take a joke?
Twitter cheating rumors: fact or fiction
Jacob Sartorius has achieved many milestones in his young life. By age 15, he amassed two RIAA certified gold singles and was nominated for a Teen Choice Award in the favorite viral music artist category — all this after ironically launching a career lip-syncing on Musical.ly. If you don't know what Musical.ly is, congratulations! You've probably graduated from high school. Anyway, in his old age, Sartorius has also allegedly developed a wandering eye worse than a middle-aged man in a mid-life crisis.
Sartorius and Millie Bobbie Brown had only been publicly dating for about three months before drama ensued in one of the most teenage ways possible — social media dirt. This stuff ruins lives. Have you not seen every Lifetime Original Movie ever? A Twitter user named @rafaruls claimed Sartorius tried to solicit nude photos from her best friend. According to Girlfriend, who captured one of the now-deleted tweets in a screenshot, @rafaruls later went back on her story, saying "it was all fake" and she just wanted "some media attention and more followers." Okay, that's definitely shady, but if you dig even deeper, this whole thing gets more twisted than the Upside Down...
It always starts with an incriminating Snapchat
Snapchats may disappear, but crafty teens can work their way around anything. Though the aforementioned random Twitter user recanted her allegations, another user apparently had the receipts.
Shortly after @rafaruls posted her story, a fan filmed a video of a video that allegedly showed Sartorius asking a girl for naked photos. Sartorius also allegedly requested nudes from his music video co-star Morgan Cryer. In a since-deleted Instagram post, Cryer claimed her Snapchat was hacked and apologized for making making a "private situation...public." (What does that even mean? Did someone hacked into her very real messages?) At best, Sartorius' allegations are totally fake and people should be ashamed of messing with a kid. At worst, he should probably be grounded for the foreseeable future.
One more thing: These allegations may seem like they emerged out of nowhere, but Sartorius was involved in a similar controversy in 2016. According to screenshots captured by Clevver, a then-13-year-old Sartorius slid into a fan's Facebook DMs and pressured her for naked photos. Some fans later claimed the girl was being catfished, and Sartorius' reps said the screenshots predated the creation of the singer's Facebook page.
Whether it's a disturbing pattern of misbehavior or a disturbing pattern of getting framed for misbehavior, it's definitely a disturbing pattern.
She deleted him faster than the Demogorgon
After all of the cheating allegations, Sartorius is lucky Brown doesn't possess Eleven's powers in real life, but that doesn't mean she can't eradicate him with the click of a button. According to Girlfriend, she deleted every trace of him from her social media accounts after the cheating scandal broke. That was apparently a short-lived moment of strength (and we're guessing she suffered from a tiny, delicate nose bleed immediately after) because Brown lifted the Sartorius Instagram blackout about a week later. She announced their reconciliation by posting an adorable picture of him giving her a piggyback ride.
Some fans didn't find that very cute and called for Brown to know her worth. According to Babe, one concerned follower asked "Do you even realize you're a 13-year-old millionaire." Brown has since shied away from social media. She even deleted her Twitter account amidst a bizarre #TakeDownMillieBobbyBrown cyberbullying campaign. Yes, the internet stooped low enough to torment a teen girl, but are we really surprised?
They've been known to rock a duet and play Fortnight
We already know that Eleven can spit rap verses like Nicki Minaj, but her musical talents aren't limited. In fact, she may even outshine her pop singer boyfriend. Before those nasty cheating allegations were leveled against Sartorius, the happy couple gifted fans with an Instagram duet. Brown sang along to Sartorius' single, "Nothin' With You" as he accompanied her on guitar. They both eventually break down in laughter, and it's all kinds of adorable.
This teen power couple seems shockingly normal (when the private jets land and they're hanging out at home.) In fact, Sartorius even got his girlfriend totally hooked on Fortnight. In a social media Q&A, Brown admitted that she was so obsessed with the video game that she had to stop playing because it was hurting her eyes.
The moral of this story is that the person beating you in Fortnight may very well be a teenage celebrity. They're just like us!
She crashed a concert to declare her love
It kind of puts a damper on the mood when you realize Jacob Sartorius may have been cheating during this tender moment, but it's clear that MIllie Bobby Brown goes above and beyond for the people she loves. Then again, are things getting a little too serious for stars who've barely graduated from the eighth grade? Should we be shipping this? Decide for yourself:
Brown surprised fans on Valentine's Day when she crashed Sartorius' Salt Lake City. In the middle of his performance, the actress popped up on a giant video screen and urged fans to give her beau some extra love. She even said those three little words (and here we are begging our very adult boyfriends to finally just admit it out loud.) Whether or not Sartorius and Brown playing adult is totally strange is up for debate, but you can't deny the gesture was as cute as a baby demogorgon.
They've both got a thing for actors
Millie Bobby Brown and Jacob Sartorius have a lot in common. They're talented, they're famous, and they're richer than most adults. They also apparently have a thing for actors.
Brown isn't the only actress Sartorius has been romantically linked to in the past. He was rumored to have dated Luna Blaise, who starred in his "Sweatshirt" video, and Jenna Ortega, who starred in his video for "Chapstick." Maybe Brown will be his next video vixen (but we're guessing he doesn't have the budget.)
Brown also might have a thing for actors, but it could be just platonic. The young starlet admitted in 2017 to having co-ed sleepovers nearly every weekend with Stranger Things co-star Noah Schnapp. At the time, they were 13 and 12 years old, respectively, which seems kind of inappropriate, but who are we to judge? Brown said the pair enjoyed staying up late and watching scary movies on Netflix like teen BFFs tend to do.
Summer loving ended so fast
Three months after Sartorius gave Brown the infamous Instagram piggy back, the teen power couple called it quits for good. According to People, the pair announced their split in the most Gen Z way possible — a joint Instagram Stories post. The couple claimed the decision "was completely mutual. We are both happy and remaining friends," but can a teen breakup really be that drama-free?
Brown and Sartorius were only dating officially for seven months — a near-eternity when you're barely old enough to graduate the eighth grade. Nonetheless it seemed like Brown wasn't sweating their split. Capital FM reports that the Stranger Things star was shaking it off, literally. Just days before publicly announcing the dissolution of their blessed teen union, Brown was singing "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift to her fans on Instagram (really, does anything important happen anywhere but the social network?).
There's no word yet if the pair's split was triggered by Drake, who for some reason thinks it's totally appropriate to give the teen girl dating advice, but Instagram Stories only do last for 24 hours. In other words: their breakup could very well just disappear.
Did Sartorius pen a Drake diss track?
We already know that Drake and Brown have a peculiar relationship. In an interview with Access Hollywood, the young Stranger Things star admitted she texted the then-31-year-old rapper about boy advice — but she wouldn't say what advice he actually gave her. "You know, that stays in the text messages," she said in an off-hand statement that made the collective Internet desperately hope her parents were monitoring her phone usage. One fan even called the friendship "very gross." Perhaps they just bond over their shared knack for rapping, though?
Fans weren't the only ones calling out the adult rapper's friendship with the teen girl. Some believe Sartorius kicked some shade towards the "In My Feelings" singer with his song "We're Not Friends." He sang: "Girl, I wanna give you more than good advice / We're not friends, we're not friends / You already know I got enough of them." Wait: we thought they were "remaining friends?"
According to US Weekly, the majority of the seven songs Sartorius released in November 2018 were about his on-and-off romance with Brown.
Is Sartorius thirsty?
Since rising to fame as Eleven on Stranger Things, Brown has become quite the hot ticket. In an old edition of W Magazine (via Babe), the actress was listed among the reasons "TV is sexier than ever." Not only is this mildly embarrassing for a girl publicly going through all the awkward phases of puberty (which seem a lot less awkward on Brown than they were for the rest of us), but it also (rightly) brought a decent amount of criticism. For real: let's let children be actual children. Okay?
Nonetheless, Brown has been trying out more mature looks in recent years, at least compared to having a crew cut and carrying around Eggo waffles like they're the hottest accessory. In January 2019, the starlet drummed up some controversy after posing in a skintight snakeskin midi-dress on Instagram. According to Girlfriend, fans criticized the star, calling her pose "inappropriate for a 14 year old," and slammed her for "trying to grow up too fast." Brown clapped back in a Story that read, "It's my Instagram, and if I choose to post that picture, and you don't like it ... scroll past it."
There was one person who loved Brown's mature look: her recent ex. Sartorius wrote "stunning" with a black heart emoji. So, are the pair back on or is the teen singer a little thirsty? Someone get Sartorius a glass of water before he passes out or slides into her DMs.
Maybe they never even called it quits
Much like the Demogorgon, Brown's relationship to Sartorius never seems to die. It's ever-present, even if you think you've finally gotten rid of it and cut off every toxic part. This time around, Brown inconspicuously gave their reunion away in — where else? — her Instagram Stories. The January 2019 Insta post in question (via Capital FM) tells us two things: Brown is a fan of the late Mac Miller and she might be low-key back with the social media star. How do we know that? Brown wore a Mac Miller shirt that allegedly belonged to Sartorius in the post. The timing seemed so suspicious that fans even speculated whether or not the couple staged a breakup to keep their relationship private, but... who would dare lie in an Instagram story?
Truth be told: We've got no real answer about if the pair remain an actual item. They could just as easily be friends (the kind who shout each other out on their Sweet 16s) or own the same t-shirt. Either way, it's certainly eyebrow-raising considering Sartorius has been sliding into Brown's Instagram comments and conveniently revealed on Logan Paul's podcast (via J-14) that he had a secret girlfriend. We're guessing Brown has a secret boyfriend, too.