‘Got me’: Liver King’s downfall exposed in new Netflix doco
He claimed to have forged his impressive physique with an extreme diet – but despite millions buying into it, all wasn’t as it seemed.
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He’s the muscle-bound “barbarian” who claimed his enlarged physique was down to a stomach-churning diet of animal liver, testicles and fertilised chicken eggs.
Daring stunts including bench-pressing 185kg weights underwater, pulling trucks on chains and caveman-like hunting techniques earned Brian Johnson millions of followers online.
The married dad-of-two was raking in $100million (about $155million Australian Dollars) in sales annually from his supporters, known as “Primals”, who eagerly snapped up his offal-based pills.
But in 2022 it all came crashing down when the “Liver King” – who boasts of building a $300million (AU $463million) empire – was revealed as a heavy user of anabolic steroids who spent $11,000-a-month (AU $17,000) to preserve his super-sized shape, The Sun reports.
Emails leaked by a social media influencer showed him seeking out “pharmacy grade human growth hormones” that were described as being of a “f***ing really, really high, super-expensive dosage”.
Reflecting on that moment, which followed years of stern denials of steroid use, disgraced Brian, now 47, told The Sun: “There was no denying that man, I knew he got me.”
He also apologised to his followers and admitted to taking 120mg of testosterone a week.
His remarkable rise and fall is the focus of new Netflix documentary Untold: The Liver King, which reveals his path from bullied “runt” to controversial influencer and shamed con artist.
And to the horror of critics, who have dubbed him a “snake oil salesman”, he also brags of a secret criminal past even before his Liver King days – adding he is still shamelessly flogging supplements around the world.
Growing up in Texas, Brian claims he always felt like an outcast – in part due to a speech impediment that left him a target for classmates.
“I was getting picked on, bullied, beat the f*** up,” he says. “Nobody was there for me, I just felt powerless, the feeling of helplessness and [being] completely lost.”
Brian tells the documentary he felt alone. His father, a veterinary nurse in the US Air Force, died suddenly when he was an infant and without a male role model he was lost.
He began to idolise his older brother, who was tall, strong and able to grow facial hair, as well as action hero actors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.
‘Caveman cult’
Brian went on to fall for his future wife and “Liver Queen”, Barbara, with the pair having two sons.
He claims to have stumbled across the “ancestral lifestyle” – the caveman-based way of life that saw him chomp down on three large bull testicles a day – while researching health remedies for his children.
“My kids were really f***ing sick,” he recalls, saying the family constantly had to race to the hospital due to them suffering worrying allergy reactions including anaphylactic shock.
Brian would claim eating the offal-only diet solved their mystery ailments and also cured psoriasis, helped pregnancy and aided weight loss up to 20kg (3st 2lb) in six months for others.
The lifestyle was based on “nine ancestral tenets” – sleep, eat, move, shield, connect, cold, sun, fight and bond – which he claims are the “life forces that have nourished our DNA for millions of years”.
There is no scientific proof to back up their claims.
His interpretation of the tenets would see him “shield” himself by turning off WiFi at night, banishing phones from bedrooms and not using hormone-based fragrances to reduce any impact to fertility.
Consumption-wise, he followed a raw, uncooked meat-only diet – quipping that it was “lots of balls, lots of penises” in one video.
He would also down up to 50 fertilised eggs at a time and scoff liver, tongue and testicles fresh from the carcass of a bull he had killed seconds earlier.
He also hoarded enough gunsto arm a small country, including flamethrowers, assault rifles, 12 gauge shotguns, pistols and explosive ammo.
‘Muscled Andrew Tate’
By 2017, he was known as the ‘Liver King’ online. Four years later, he had millions of followers, appeared on popular podcasts including The Joe Rogan Experience, and was making a fortune, The Sun reports.
His businesses boasted 12 per cent growth every quarter for five years running, more than 250,000 customers a month and annual sales in excess of $100million (AU $155million).
With this success and money, Brian – who was labelled by some a “muscled Andrew Tate” after the ringleader of toxic masculinity – admitted: “I felt new levels of invincibility, that level is dangerous… It was like doing cocaine.”
His posts were becoming increasingly outspoken as he labelled fast food chains like Hungry Jacks “the most brutal f***ing thing” and said feeding youngsters food from US restaurant chain Chick-fil-A, as well as chocolate and sweets was “real child abuse”.
The family claimed child services were called on them for allowing one of their sons to crawl inside a dead cow and feeding him animal testicles.
But in November 2022, Brian’s empire crumbled after the leak of emails about his steroid use – with online commentators quick to comment he was “juiced out of his brain” and a “filthy fraud”.
In an apology video, he admitted he had “f***ed up” and blamed it on “self-esteem issues”, revealing his longing to ‘be someone’ since childhood and having experienced “very little failure” in his life.
It fell flat among many former supporters, who labelled him a “snake oil salesman” and fumed: “You’re not sorry for all the s*** you did, and the people you could have potentially hurt by eating balls.”
‘Printed money’
But, as the new documentary reveals, this wasn’t Brian’s first scam either.
His criminal career began when he was working at vitamins company GNC as a teen.
He began conning the firm out of money with customer returns that he would then sell to other branches of the store, stealing receipts to back up his claims.
“With enough trial and error, all you had to do was make it work one time, and then you just repeat it… it worked every single time,” he shamelessly brags.
Brian evolved into making his own products and claims it escalated to the point where he “used to print money, a lot of it” and turned his apartment into a “f***ing chemistry lab” to make knock-off versions of the drugs.
“International drug trading, you know. Higher stakes, higher reward… my perception of risk is becoming distorted. I just never got caught,” he adds.
It’s not known if Brian ever faced charges for that con but in January 2023, after the steroid use was exposed, he was hit with a $25million (AU $38.5million) lawsuit from former followers, alleging harm through deceptive advertising and marketing practices.
They claimed he orchestrated a “cult-like, extreme and implausible regimented lifestyle” to earn millions from the sale of pills, powders and supplements.
But within months of being served, the main plaintiff withdrew the filing – suggesting a financial agreement was brokered away from the courts.
“I dug myself into this whole shame, sorrow, guilt, regret, I felt that man… nothing is more real that,” Brian would later admit.
Now the social media star claims to be “born again” – still boasting 2.9million Instagram followers and 6.1million on TikTok – but now he eats fruit and vegetables too.
“I was so convinced by all the carnivore stuff, that that’s what you needed to really kick ass in life. I’m convinced now that I was starving myself,” Brian says.
“I guess I want the world to know that I got it wrong, each passing day goes by I realise I don’t know s***... an extreme approach to anything probably isn’t f***ing working out.”
“I have this new freedom, I don’t have to lie about anything,” he adds, while acknowledging he still sells supplements and has more than 302 retreats all over the world.
Some believe Brian has atoned for his mistakes, but not all are as sold – especially considering his refusal to fade away into the background.
One critic firmly insists he remains a “snake oil salesman”, adding: “Of all the scammers, con artists and f***ing liars, the Liver King is the f***ing worst one of them.”
This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission
Originally published as ‘Got me’: Liver King’s downfall exposed in new Netflix doco
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