German YouTuber and filmmaker Joshua Wesely announced his now-wife Isabelle’s 18th birthday on Nov. 17, 2020. Over a year later, a screenshot of his Instagram birthday post for Isabelle has gone viral following a tweet from @haitiandvorce.
“Finally 18,” Wesely wrote in his Instagram post for Isabelle’s birthday. “You’ve been my best friend for four years, you are my girlfriend.”
Isabelle is now 19. The Daily Dot could not verify Wesely’s age; a Reddit post from u/aspiringcopywrite states that he is 24. (Wesely did not immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via email.)
User @haitiandvorce tweeted cheekily this week that they were “doing some quick math” after reading Wesely’s caption. The implication of Wesely’s post seems to be that he and Isabelle began dating when she was 14. The age of consent in Germany is 14.
Wesely is best known for his 2021 film 2025 – The World Enslaved by Virus, which imagined a world after COVID-19 that includes widespread communism and the prohibition of “meetings,” traveling, and Christianity. Wesely stars in the film, which he co-produced and co-directed with his brother, Simon.
Both Wesely and Isabelle’s Instagram accounts are now private. Other accounts from Wesely were still public at time of publishing. On his account @weselybros, Wesely and his brother describe themselves as a “Christian movie company” that is “4 heaven not Hollywood.” The pair also create Christian Youtube, Instagram, and “live” content.
“We believe that if Jesus were on this earth today, he would be on YouTube and Insta and that’s why we’re here,” the Weselys write on their website. “We base all our statements on the Word of God, on the Bible.” (Statements from Wesely’s website were originally in German and have been translated.)
Other Twitter users posted screenshots of Wesely’s Instagram posts showing the dates of his three-year anniversary with Isabelle, their engagement, and their wedding. Their three-year anniversary was on Feb. 18, 2020, and the pair were engaged on Dec. 19, 2020—only a month after she turned 18. They were married in August 2021.
“He posts their 3 year anniversary 9 months before her 18th birthday. A month later they are engaged. Then 8 months later they’re married,” tweeted @sam_strikes in response to a tweet calling Wesely a “chaser.” “He isn’t even trying to hide it.”
Replies to u/aspiringcopywrite’s Reddit post labeled Wesely’s relationship with Isabelle pedophilic, disturbing, and an example of child grooming.
Trolls aware of Wesely and Isabelle’s history contributed to the now-barren trivia section of Wesely’s IMDb page with false statements referencing pedophilia.
“50% of the film had to be shot by a different team of camera operators due to filming occurring within 500 feet of an elementary school,” one statement falsely claimed.
“Profits from this film were donated to charity, the majority of which went to the legal defense of Ghislaine Maxwell and the foundation of the Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Pageant Academy,” another false statement said.
All of the false trivia statements had been deleted from Wesely’s IMDb page at the time of publishing.
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