Former Disney star Ryan McCartan implied in a new video that producers of the Disney Channel show, ‘Liv and Maddie,’ were allegedly behind his love life in order to boost the show’s ratings.
McCartan spoke on his YouTube channel, which he shares with his current girlfriend, about a hypothetical person who dated a co-star. McCartan apparently described his relationship with fellow Disney actor, Dove Cameron. McCartan implied “one or some” of the producers became involved in the relationship and their eventual engagement to boost the ratings of their show. (RELATED: Disney Channel Star Comes Out As Pro-Life)
“Let’s say someone was on a TV show a long time ago and ended up falling in love with and dating their romantic co-star who was the lead of the show. While these two people were exploring their love, one or some of the producers from the TV show that they were on when they met and started dating got involved in how or when it was announced that they were dating to boost ratings for the TV show,” McCartan said in the YouTube video.
@etalkctv ‘Liv & Maddie’ star, Ryan McCartan “hypothetically” explained an onset relationship that was heavily controlled by the channel’s management team. Some fans are speculating that he’s talking about his controversial relationship with Dove Cameron. 👀 Do you think he was referencing his relationship with Dove? 🤯 (🎥: YT/Sam & Ryan) #DisneyChannel #LivAndMaddie #DoveCameron #RyanMcCartan #Relationship #ChildStars #Disney #Explainer #storytime #Descendants #ThomasDoherty ♬ original sound – etalk
McCartan seemed to explain that network executives thought it would be more beneficial for McCartan’s partner, allegedly Dove Cameron, to date her costar from another project, implied to be the Descendants film series. The reason it would be more beneficial, is because the relationship would boost ratings for that project, which the network was more interested in promoting at the time, according to McCartan.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 13: Dove Cameron and Thomas Doherty attend Hulu’s “High Fidelity” New York premiere at Metrograph on February 13, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)
The former Disney actor alleged a highly powerful and influential publicist was heavily involved in the relationship.
“Theoretically, if they had like a really public messy breakup — that elements of that breakup were handled by this publicity firm under threat of retaliation if certain statements weren’t made at certain times,” McCartan said in his video.
Thank you for your support & full hearts in this very intense & human time. There’s a lot love between Ryan & I. Life is beautiful & long.
— Dove Cameron (@DoveCameron) October 6, 2016
“Major publications like magazines and online blogs would somehow get a tip this couple was thinking of taking their relationship to a new direction and maybe even talking about getting engaged, and therefore let’s also assume that engagement was timed and catered to the desires of the publication for when they thought it would get the most clicks. The couple had no say in when or how the engagement happened. Let’s assume that that engagement was therefore rushed because it fit well with the spring issue of the publication, not because it was actually the right time,” McCartan said on YouTube.
Dove Cameron went on to date Descendant’s costar Thomas Doherty after her engagement to McCartan was called off.