Final Thoughts
I am not trying to “cancel” Pete. I don’t think he’s an irredeemably evil person, I am sure he has grown and matured. I just want to bring attention to this because I think it makes me sad how many teenage girls and young women still idolize him and see themselves in him to this day, and how violently they react when you criticize him.
You can be a fan of Pete and appreciate his art, but you should be able to be critical of him, WITHOUT downplaying what he did or trying to brush it under the rug.
The majority of celebrities are awful people and they don’t deserve to be treated like innocent angels or heroes just because they are good looking men who’ve experienced mental health problems that the majority of people have also gone through. Mental illness was not an excuse for what he did.
It’s ok if you feel like Pete’s music helped you or you see yourself in him. He undoubtedly has many good qualities. But he should not be a role model. He took out his issues on the vulnerable people around him while profiting off lies and abuse, and has not only never addressed his past, but also actively tried to cover it up. That’s not accountability.
Pete is a successful, popular millionaire surrounded by friends who probably know about this and don’t care, just like they didn’t care to intervene and protect jeanae back then. None of them are innocent either, including the other members of FOB who stood by him the whole time.
The 2000s scene was an unsafe and awful place for young girls and women in general and as much as things have improved, they’re far from perfect. I want young girls to be safe and not treat older men like gods and not see everyone around them doing the same thing and defending them from the consequences of their own actions. If I can do anything at all to help change people’s attitudes about this then I will.
Do not try to track down jeanae or contact her for any reason. It disgusts me how people to this day refer to her as pete’s crazy ex who put him through hell and somehow manipulated him. Yes, she was obsessive and behaved erratically, and yes, she cheated on him. But she was a young, mentally unstable teenager when they started dating, and he was terrible to her too, constantly cheating on her, yelling at her and becoming violent when they fought. Again, she was a teenager and young adult during that relationship, while he was 25-28. I don’t blame her for anything she did during it.