Look What She’s Become
“I Gave Candace Owens Her First Big Break”: Dave Rubin’s Heartbreaking Tell-All
Dave Rubin delivers a candid, deeply personal account of his fractured friendship with Candace Owens, reflecting on her rise, her descent into conspiratorial rhetoric, and the painful unraveling of a bond he once considered family.
In a raw and emotional sit-down on The Erin Molan Show, independent media OG Dave Rubin opened up about the personal pain of watching his former protégé Candace Owens spiral into conspiracy-fueled controversy, a fall he never saw coming from the young YouTuber he personally launched nearly a decade ago.
The origin story no one’s heard until now:
“I gave Candace her first big break,” Rubin revealed. “She was a little YouTuber with about 20,000 subscribers. Eight, nine years ago we had ‘YouTube Week’ on my show, five days in a row I’d bring on unknown creators from different worlds and give them a real shot. Candace was one of the ones we plucked out.”
The bond went far beyond professional. “I was at her wedding, I sat next to Charlie and Erica Kirk (they weren’t even married yet; that was the first time I met Erica). I have gifts in the other room from her for my kids.”Then came the rupture.
“I take no pleasure in talking about her,” Rubin said, voice heavy. “We were very, very good friends for many, many years… But she has gone so far down the rabbit holes now that she gets disproven so often it’s not really worth wasting much time on her.”
He paused, visibly pained:
“It’s sad. Sad as a friend, or at least a former friend, and it’s not good that so many people are following her down those things.”
The turning point everyone saw coming, except maybe Rubin:
From a rising conservative star who once debated on Rubin’s couch, Owens has in recent years embraced increasingly fringe positions – repeatedly flirting with antisemitic tropes, questioning historical facts about the Holocaust, and amplifying figures widely condemned as extremists.Rubin’s sober assessment:
“She’s gone to places now where everyday Americans are going, ‘Okay, this is maybe too far.’”
The bigger warning:
Rubin used his own experience with Owens as a cautionary tale for the entire alt-media ecosystem:
“Anyone can buy a desk, put on a blazer, and look legit. I did it with a $100 IKEA desk… We plucked people out of nowhere and made them stars overnight. Some of them had no pain points, no struggle, no grounding. And now we’re watching what happens when that catches up to them.”
His final, quiet indictment:
“The outrage burns very hot, but it burns quickly. Truth is the only thing that lasts.”