Jesse Ridgway — the YouTube “influencer” who sparked a national firestorm after revealing he and his wife terminated their pregnancy because the baby had Down syndrome — has a skeleton rattling loudly in his closet.
Nine years ago, the social media star posted a video where he gleefully impersonated a person with Down syndrome, complete with a mocking voice and crude physical mannerisms. TMZ obtained the footage, and it’s not pretty.
The clip comes from Ridgway’s old series “The Devil Inside,” a 45-minute production in which his character is forced at gunpoint to rapidly cycle through different personalities. Near the end, when his character’s brain supposedly “fries,” Ridgway slips into a stereotypical caricature of someone with Down syndrome — the exact condition that would later lead him to abort his own child.
When confronted about the clip, Ridgway went full artiste, insisting, “I play a character named Isaac Kalder who has hijacked Jesse Ridgway’s life. My family is pissed so they hold me at gunpoint and force me to switch characters rapidly. The identity switches happen too fast and it fries my brain.” Translation: It’s not mockery; it’s cinema.
Credit: McJuggerNuggets
The revelation lands like a sledgehammer given what came later in Ridgway’s life. Just days ago, the YouTuber — who boasts over four million subscribers — announced on X that he and his wife, Ashley, terminated their pregnancy after a trisomy 21 diagnosis. He said he initially hoped he could “make it work” if the baby was just “a little slow intellectually,” but concluded the condition would be too hard on the child and family. He capped the announcement with a pointed “Thankfully, we had a choice.”
The internet erupted. Pro-life advocates, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), and thousands of others blasted the couple. Johnson declared that “every single person has inestimable dignity and value” regardless of health condition. Former ESPN anchor Sage Steele was more blunt: “You CHOSE to abort your baby … You ARE NOT A VICTIM. This is narcissism at its finest.”
The death threats followed — which Ridgway has been vocal about — but sympathy has been hard to come by, particularly after his response to critics who asked what if his parents had aborted him. His response? “But, I’m normal.”
Normal. That was his word. The same guy who mocked Down syndrome on camera, then aborted his child for having it, wants you to know he’s the normal one.
Worth noting: between 350,000 and 400,000 Americans currently live with Down syndrome — and studies show they report high levels of life satisfaction. At least 67% of Down syndrome diagnoses in the U.S. end in abortion.
Jesse Ridgway has not backed down.
Neither has the backlash.
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