Gay weatherman breaks silence after being fired for performing on NSFW webcam site
Erick Adame said “sexual predators” had “exploited” the webcam incident. (YouTube/ Erick Adame)
Beloved gay New York weatherman Erick Adame has called for trolls to “leave me alone” after screenshots of him performing on an adult webcam site were sent to his mother and workplace, costing him his job.
The meteorologist, who worked for Spectrum’s NY1 show Mornings on 1 and had been nominated for two Emmys, was fired in September 2022 after screenshots of him camming were leaked.
He apologised at the time to his employers and viewers for “any embarrassment or humiliation I have caused”, adding that he wanted to “share my truth rather than let others control the narrative of my life”.
Adame then spoke out publicly for the first time since September, posting an update on Instagram on Monday (2 January) to explain that what he described as “sexual predators” had “exploited” the incident and gone out of their way to seek out images and videos of him.
“That news gave what I can only call sexual predators the idea that I wanted to be exploited and humiliated as if it were something I enjoyed,” he said in the Instagram video.
“I never wanted any of those images or videos to ever be recorded or kept or saved or shared in any way… I don’t want any kind of this attention that I’ve been receiving.”
He added that it had been a “rough couple of months” since the incident.
Erick Adame added that he didn’t realise people and bots could record live-streams without the streaming party’s permission, and that he had been unaware of the video being recorded.
“Those video sessions were recorded, by people and sometimes these bots,” Adame explained.
“And these bots are scripts that automatically run on a computer or website that record those webcam sessions and post them on a website, and that’s all done without your knowledge or permission… many of these websites then have a download available to download the entire video, for a fee.
“Someone out there makes money off you doing sexual activity on camera without you even knowing.”
He added: “I did not want any of these pictures or videos out there, and I don’t want them shared.
“What I do want is for these people to leave me alone.”
The meteorologist said in his initial statement that Mornings On 1, where he had worked since 2017, had been his “dream job”.
He added that while he was sorry to have caused any “embarrassment”, he would not apologise for being openly gay and sex-positive.
“Despite being a public figure and being on television in the biggest market in the country in front of millions of people five days a week for more than a decade and a half, I secretly appeared on an adult webcam website,” Erick Adame told his Instagram followers in September.
“On this site, I acted out my compulsive behaviours, while at home, by performing on camera for other men. It was 100 per cent consensual on both of our parts.
“I wasn’t paid for this, and it was absurd of me to think I could keep this private. Nonetheless, my employer found out and I was suspended and then terminated.”
He added that he “absolutely loved” his job, and that “being a part of your day for years was an absolute honour”.
“Please judge me on the hundreds, thousands of hours of television that I am so proud of and that my employers have always commended me for, and not the couple of minutes of salacious video that is probably going to soon define me in our ‘click-bait’ culture,” he said.
