Over the weekend, Joss Whedon’s ex wife, Kai Cole, published an essay with the Wrap in which she alleges Whedon cheated on her regularly, beginning with an affair on the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. On Monday, popular Whedon fan site, Whedonesque, announced an end to operations.
Cole’s essay covers her experience of living with a man who was lauded as a feminist hero in media while he was “taking away my right to make choices for my life and my body based on the truth.” The post announcing the end of Whedonesque makes no mention of Cole’s essay as a catalyst for the decision, but Entertainment Weekly reports that the site’s owner, Caroline van Oosten de Boer, gave them a statement saying, “I have been toying with closing down the site for various reasons for the last five years or so.”
However, she denied that claim on Twitter:
She also tweeted this:
Whedonesque is not completely done. Though it will be turning into a read-only site, the Twitter account will remain active, though in what capacity remains to be seen. As of a few hours ago, it was still tweeting quotes and gifs from popular Whedon works, so some aspect of fandom remains:
Jezebel has reached out to van Oosten de Boer for comment, and will update if we hear back.