Evan Dando of The Lemonheads has been hospitalized for mental health issues following recent allegations he sent a fan unwanted sexual content.
In a statement shared with Billboard Friday (Feb. 13), a representative said that the grunge rocker was seeking treatment. “Evan Dando has long struggled with mental health issues dating back to his childhood,” it read. “He’s been admitted to a local hospital where he’s receiving comprehensive help from experienced doctors and mental health professionals.”
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The news comes shortly after an anonymous fan claimed that the singer-songwriter had sent her unsolicited and inappropriate videos. As reported by journalist Tony Ortega on his Underground Bunker Substack, the fan — whose husband reached out to Ortega, and whom the reporter referred to as “Dawn” — claims to have simply congratulated Dando on releasing new album Love Chant this past October when, after a brief exchange, she received footage the musician had allegedly filmed of himself masturbating.
Speaking to Billboard over the phone, Dando’s wife, Antonia Teixeira, provided more context. According to her, the musician — who has been open about his past struggles with addiction — had been wrestling with periods of heavy drinking and prescription drug abuse for several years before suffering a mental episode earlier this year. She believes he then relapsed and ingested high amounts of Adderall, mushrooms and TCH at once earlier in February, after which he began exchanging sexual videos with numerous women on X — one of whom happened to have the same name as the woman who claimed to have received one of the videos unsolicited. Teixeira believes that he confused the woman who made the accusation with the other woman he was already receiving sexual videos from.
“He betrayed me … I’m very pissed, and I think that no women deserve to go through that, and I’m very sympathetic to that lady,” Teixeira said, noting that she’s already spoken to the woman who made the allegation and apologized. “He doesn’t remember what happened to start with … he was totally out of his mind.”
After discovering that Dando had been sending and receiving the explicit videos, Teixeira says she decided to take him to a mental health treatment center in Brazil, where they live. She added that while she loves her husband, she gave him an ultimatum before he was admitted; if he doesn’t complete the treatment, which she thinks will take at least 30 days, she’ll get a divorce.
Billboard has reached out to Dando’s rep for comment on Teixeira’s account of what happened.
Dando previously wrote about his experiences with addiction in his 2025 memoir, Rumors of My Demise. Though he quit using heroin, speed and cocaine after spending time in rehab in late 2021, Dando told The New York Times last year that he was still taking “over-the-counter” substances.
“I don’t believe God meant us to be sober,” he told the publication, which noted he’d “clutched a pre-rolled joint in his left hand for the duration of the interview” at the time. “Why would monks make booze? I just know that heroin is really, really satanic for me.”
Shortly after publishing Rumors of My Demise, The Lemonheads’ Love Chant dropped, marking the band’s first album of original music in 19 years. “We’ve been around so long that it’s almost like a grudging respect — like the ugly building or the old hooker that just won’t go away, so people have to deal with it,” Dando said candidly in an interview with Billboard shortly after it was released. “I love that. It’s a very human quality, this dogged refusal to give up.”
The Lemonheads have scored a handful of hits on Billboard‘s alternative charts, as well as four entries on the Billboard 200. The band’s song “Into Your Arms” also reached No. 67 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1993.
If you or anyone you know is in need of support after experiencing sexual harassment, assault or abuse, reach out to RAINN — which is available 24/7 online, via phone at 800-656-HOPE or text 64673 — for live, confidential help and resources.
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