Alex Wennberg Fed Up With Lewd Online Comments

Wife Felicia Wennberg Writes Publicly About "Sexual Harassment" Of Husband

Hockey players jump in when a mate is being attacked.

Seattle Kraken forward Alex Wennberg this week came to the defense of his real-life mate, wife Felicia Wennberg. A few days earlier, Felicia had gone public trying to protect her husband. Their requests for civility have been met, sadly but predictably, with ramped-up personal attacks alongside substantial fan support.

What could possibly have triggered this online hysteria? Romance novels.

Within the social media video site TikTok is a community called "BookTok." One subsection is dedicated to "adult" romance stories with a hockey theme (sample lurid title: "Pucking Around").

Some users like to assign real-life hockey players to these fictional stories, a practice known as "face claiming." Wennberg was one of the players used by BookTokers to make these racy fantasy stories seem more real.

Initially, Alex and Felicia Wennberg expressed an understanding - as all public figures should - that such reduced privacy is part of the cost of attaining fame and fortune.

As the Kraken center wrote on his Instagram, "We can all take a joke and funny comments but when it turns personal... that affects our family, we need to tell you that we have had enough."

A further layer to this story is that beginning in 2022, the Kraken social media department embraced the club's popularity within the BookTok community. 

The daily dot reported, "One video posted by the Kraken, since deleted, featured Wennberg in a suit walking in slow-motion with the caption, “When you accidentally become a booktok account & now that’s all you can post.”

The team invited Kierra Lewis, who had posted several "thirsty" videos about Wennberg, to a home playoff game. They presented Lewis with a gift box, including a "BookTok 1" sweater.

As recently as May 15, Caroline Darney wrote in USA Today, "There’s just something heartwarming about this new relationship. 

"What is more fitting for this story than the unlikely bookworm falling for the handsome pro sports player only to find out that he loved them back the whole time? It’s perfection."

Maybe it was, but not any more.

Felicia Wennberg felt compelled to respond to videos with raunchy language directed at her husband - and the even raunchier comments which accompany them.

One prominent example from Kierra Lewis is reluctantly posted here for journalistic reasons; judge, should you wish, whether it "crossed the line" as Ms. Wennberg says, or was "just for fun" as Ms. Lewis claims.

Initially, Felicia Wennberg either believed it WAS in good fun, or thought it better to ride with the wave, rather than be knocked over by it. "I've joked before and called my husband booktooks (sic) w*ankb*ank," she wrote on Instagram.

Subsequently, though, "Videos and comments made... crossed the line of what it means to fancy someone... when it actually sounds predatory and exploiting."

She wrote she could also understand women who try to sexually entice a married man - her married man. "What doesn't sit with me is when your desires come with sexual harassment." 

She requested that "people think twice about their comments/videos."

Lewis, who has 1.1 million followers, suddenly found the attention of social media to be unwelcome. "The whole reason our generation is on TikTok, it's the one place we can have fun and not take life seriously."

Presumably speaking to Ms. Wennberg, Lewis added, "Don't come over here and try and tell us what to f**kin' do."

When Kraken social media unfollowed Lewis, she responded again. "Bitch, everything that comes out of my mouth is a f**king joke. Sports teams like to use BookTok to get clout, and then move on to the next thing. I'm not rocking with that."

Reacting more to online commenters than directly to Lewis, Alex Wennberg channeled his inner Popeye - "That's all I can stands, I can't stands no more."

"I've been taught to bite my tongue... instead of making a statement," he wrote on Instagram. "But it has gone too far for me to stay quiet, when people post vile comments on my wife's instagram and on photos of our child.

Kierra Lewis expressed puzzlement why the Wennbergs were making a fuss over a video which had been posted several months earlier. Felicia Wennberg posted again, explaining that life had gotten much more difficult in the months since:

Ms. Wennberg concluded, “All I did was give context to a situation where we had enough and ask people to keep their desires and comments in a private conversation versus online where we and other hockey families can see it.”

Pro athletes are most often young, rich, fit, famous, and conventionally good-looking. Most often, so are their spouses or significant others. For some, jealously of their good fortune serves as all the excuse needed to harass, sexualize, or threaten them. 

It's actually no excuse at all. And if pro athletes or partners who had previously given consent to such "fun" decide to rescind that consent, that's their right, too.

Ms. Lewis may be on firmer ground protesting her use and then abandonment by the Kraken social media team. 

As centennialworld.com observed, "Accounts outside the BookTok community endorsed this behavior, illustrating how things can quickly spiral out of control when official pages like @seattlekraken or @nhl get involved. 

"With the disconnect between the players and the team’s social media management, it’s clear that capitalizing off these fantasies is not only an irresponsible but also an ethically questionable approach to building a TikTok presence."