A TikTok influencer known for preaching the benefits of eating raw meat has admitted to using steroids to achieve his muscular physique.
Brian Johnson – better known by his online alias “Liver King” – admitted in a six-minute video on Friday that he has a history of taking steroids and continues to take 0.6 milliliters of testosterone each week.
Johnson, 45, rose to internet fame late last year when he started posting fitness videos, often shirtless, that showed off his badass physique and odd eating habits.
The influencer has repeatedly denied using steroids in interviews, saying he “stays away from that stuff” while amassing a huge following and a multimillion-dollar empire.
Instead, he attributed his physical and financial success to his liver-eating lifestyle, billed as “life of the ancestors” by the millions who subscribe to his faith.
But he struck a different tone on Friday when he apologized to his fans for years of deception when he tried to explain that he has self-esteem issues.
Brian Johnson – better known by his online alias “Liver King” – admitted in a six-minute video on Friday that he has a history of taking steroids and continues to take 0.6 milliliters of testosterone each week
In Friday’s video, Johnson openly admits he lied to the public about his drug use – although he praised the benefits of taking supplemental testosterone.
“I’m making this video to apologize for screwing up, for embarrassment and ashamed for lying,” he begins.
He then goes on to explain why he lied to the public: “I said this is a bloody complicated subject, at least for me, because before social media I was rich and anonymous and after social media , I’m still rich , but no longer anonymous.
“I never expected that kind of publicity to be in the public eye,” Johnson continued. “It was damn difficult to find your way around.”
“Well, I clearly got it wrong, and I’m here now to set the record straight: yes I’ve been on steroids, yes I’m on steroids, monitored and managed by a trained hormonal doctor,” he revealed.
Johnson then began talking about why he created the Liver King persona, calling it “an experiment to get the message across.” [and] Raising awareness of the 4,000 people who kill themselves every day, the 80,000 people who try to kill themselves every day.
“Our people are suffering from depression, autoimmune diseases, at record rates [issues]Fear, infertility, low ambition in life,” he says, claiming: “Our young men suffer the most, they feel lost, weak and submissive.
“So I made it my mission to model, teach, and preach a simple, elegant solution called Ancestor Life, so that our people no longer have to suffer and together we can express our highest and most dominant form.”
“This is my fight,” he said. ‘That’s why I exist.’
Johnson is notorious for his videos showing him feasting on raw liver while promoting extreme training techniques that have been described as those of a modern-day caveman warrior
He repeatedly claimed his appearance was “all natural” and the result of following his ancestors’ “nine principles”: Sleep, Eat, Move, Protect, Connect, Cold, Sun, Fight, and Connect
Johnson has amassed millions of dollars and paid subscribers since late last year when he regularly posted videos showing him feasting on raw liver while promoting extreme training techniques that have been described as those of a modern-day caveman warrior.
He repeatedly claimed his appearance was “all natural” and the result of following his ancestors’ “nine principles”: Sleep, Eat, Move, Protect, Connect, Cold, Sun, Fight, and Connect.
These accomplishments helped fuel internet figure Ancestral Supplements’ online business, where users can purchase capsules of bovine organs, fish eggs, bone marrow, and other exotic animal products touted as key to its success.
All the while, he said in the video posted Friday, he was convincing himself that his steroid use “had nothing to do with the ancestral message.”
“I told myself I’m not a competitive athlete, so who the hell am I cheating on?” he said. “I convinced myself that this is the vocal minority that usually leads to unproductive conversation in the fitness category, and I convinced myself that that would be the wrong message for 15-year-old boys.
“So I kept shrugging it off and just digging myself into a bigger and deeper hole,” he said, adding, “It’s my own fault.”
These accomplishments helped fuel internet figure Ancestral Supplements’ online business, where users can purchase capsules of bovine organs, fish eggs, bone marrow, and other exotic animal products touted as key to its success
Johnson then went on to tout the benefits of taking supplemental testosterone doses, saying, “I believe there is a time and place for pharmacological intervention to be overseen and administered by a trained hormonal physician.”
He revealed that he “tried several combinations of peptides to try to increase my growth hormone,” but claimed that they didn’t really help, before saying he went to a doctor and started pharmaceutical growth hormone, “and I finally did Success in controlling therapeutic levels found within normal range.’
Johnson also denied that he takes “other steroids like nandrolone or winstrol,” but admitted, “I’ve tried them in the past without success.”
And he denied ever having had any abdominal implants or etching, adding: “I’ve never friggin’ ever had gene editing done in Singapore. I made it all up, it was just a joke.’
Yet he maintains, “The Liver King brand had nothing to do with my business success,” he asserted, “My businesses thrived before Liver King’s personality and grew 50 percent year over year and is still growing at the same pace thereafter.”
Johnson revealed in his confessional that he suffered from self-esteem issues as he touted the benefits of taking testosterone
It was then that he decided to reveal that he was among the 85 percent of Americans who suffer from self-esteem issues, saying, “This is me, I’m part of this statistic.
“That’s why I’m fucking working myself to death in the gym,” he said. “That’s why I do 12 to 15 blood-burning workouts a day just to feel good.”
“Even so, I absolutely have to crush myself for it, and I’m physically and cognitively devastated, and hormone replacement therapy has helped in a profound and meaningful way,” he claimed. ‘And I still believe that the road to paradise is paved in bloody hell.’
“I fully confess that I screwed up,” Johnson concluded. “All I can do now is take extreme responsibility to get better and lead myself as a better person to a better life.”
A fitness personality known only as Derek (right) released a telltale video last week accusing the Liver King of extensive steroid use
The revelations come just days after a fitness personality known only as Derek, famous for exposing other bodybuilders’ steroid use, released a telltale video accusing the Liver King of extensive steroid use.
The hour-long video, titled “The Liver King Lie,” has been viewed nearly 1.5 million times, and featured an exchange between Johnson and an unnamed bodybuilding trainer.
In the video, Derek — a fitness watchdog of sorts with more than 1.4 million subscribers — shared emails allegedly sent by Johnson detailing a comprehensive hormone program that was costing him $12,000 a month.
The emails, Derek claimed, were sent to an unnamed bodybuilding trainer in mid-2021, before Johnson had launched his Liver King brand and emerged as the CEO of a store charging $30 to $65 a bottle for grass-fed capsules beef liver required.
In that news, a user with an email address attributed to Johnson lays out plans to gain a million social media followers in a matter of months through intense training — aided by three daily human growth hormone (HGH) injections.
In it, the sender, believed to be Johnson, complains that he’s hitting a training wall now that he’s in his mid-40s and seeks guidance in an artificial attempt to close the gap.
“I’ve been training for 35 years,” says the first correspondence.
“I know how to eat, exercise, rest and recover (I even have a hard-shell hyperbaric chamber in my house)… but… being in my mid-40s makes it more difficult.”
The sender, whose identity has yet to be confirmed, goes on to complain that “the back fat fucking is killing me.”
Derek then detailed an earlier email from 2021, allegedly from Johnson in his own inbox, in which the soon-to-be Liver King expressed interest in acquiring HGH to improve his physique.
Less than a year later, Johnson’s videos made him famous.