A feud between La’Darius Marshall and Gabi Butler, the stars of Netflix’s docuseries Cheer and former members of Navarro College’s Bulldogs Cheer Team, has erupted.
From focusing in on the dark side of cheerleading to Jerry Harris's child pornography charge back in 2020, the show is used to being in the headlines - often for the wrong reasons.
But now, the drama has reignited with new revelations on La'Darius and Gabi's drama – which all stems from some dodgy Navarro College hazing rituals.
December 2022: The drama begins
The feud began in December 2022, when Gabi was accused of engaging in blackface alongside other rookie teammates in the cheerleading squad.
An unofficial Twitter account shared a throwback photo of a young Gabi sitting in a car with her face painted black. Before departing from a Daytona cheer competition, senior Navarro College cheer squad members had demanded that rookies dress in and paint their faces black for an initiation ritual.
One TikTok user alleged that the rookies were instructed to wear balaclavas – but when Gabi failed to find one, she resorted to painting her face black.
After the images quickly went viral, Gabi responded in a series of now deleted tweets by claiming she took part in the initiation to avoid making a bad impression on her seniors, and that she ‘had never heard of blackface.’
The young cheerleader also noted that she wasn’t the only one participating, writing ‘my rookie teammates, including a few who also happened to be people of color, were asked to do this.’
She also wrote, ‘If I thought this request had anything to do with racism I would have absolutely refused.’
Fans were quick to debate in the comments over Gabi’s apology – but one of the star’s friends, TT Barker, came to her defence, tweeting ‘she is literally one of my best friends and has not given any racist vibes at all.’
La'Darius enters the chat
Shortly after Gabi’s apology, La’Darius clapped back against his teammate’s statement – writing ‘what we don’t do is throw the ‘other people of color’ under the bus.’
‘The rest of the minority’s spoke out against this,’ the 24-year-old responded, ‘and I personally talked to you and said that it was not a good idea.'
He also revealed another hazing incident had taken place prior, where cheerleaders were led down a rainy sidewalk with white t-shirts on their heads. La’Darius was present, but did not participate.
Hazing in and of itself raises some tensions for colleges and universities across the US – with many of them already prohibiting initiation acts.
Sharing his side of the story thorough a flurry of TikTok videos, La’Darius revealed that Gabi had ‘called him and requested he say this.’ He claimed that the hazing started in July 2017, with Gabi’s blackface scandal taking place in 2018 – explaining ‘certain things are off limits.’
Within the posts, the star also dropped the mega-bombshell that he and Gabi briefly dated – providing images and videos of the couple kissing as proof.
As La’Darius drove the internet wild with his shocking claims around the Navarro College cheer group, Gabi took to Instagram to address the accusations thrown her way.
During a live stream, the star hinted that La’Darius wasn’t being totally honest – saying ‘There's so many things that you, La’Darius Marshall, have done to so many people. I’m not going to come for you because I’m classier than that.’
The internet responds
The feud has left the internet more than slightly baffled - by both the accusations, and the revelation that the two cheerleaders were dating.
One fan wrote, 'Gabi and La'Darius was the plot twist in Cheer I did not need.' Another shared, 'I need a season 3 of Navarro Cheer with all these plot twists now!'
Much of the shock about the couple's relationship stems from the fact that La'Darius was presented as an openly gay cheerleader on the show - with the Netflix hit being praised for opening up the dialogue about being Black LGBTQ+ champions.
But whilst some are left surprised, one fan shared that it's not the most shocking thing to come from the drama.
They wrote, 'The thing that's funny about everyone being shocked La'Darius and Gabi hooked up is that La'Darius has been telling everybody he's bisexual for years. Did you guys think he was lying?'
All this Navarro drama isn’t something to cheer about – but fans are certainly enjoying it from the sidelines anyway.