Social media aside, Liver King has already been making $100 million a year selling protein supplements and dried animal organs under his brands ‘Heart & Soil’ and ‘Ancestral Supplements’ – his shop charges $30 to $65 a bottle for capsules containing grass-fed beef liver. 

The 45-year-old, whose real name is Brian Johnson, previously denied any accusations of steroid-use, having said on Mark Bell’s Power Project Podcast: “I don’t touch the stuff. I’ve never done the stuff. I’m not going to do the stuff.”

Johnson’s facade, however, has now dramatically dropped. In a video uploaded to his YouTube he revealed: “I lied, and I misled a lot of people…Yes, I’ve done steroids, and yes, I am on steroids, monitored and managed by a trained hormone clinician.”

The influencer admitted that he’s been taking 120mg of testosterone per week, and apologized for misleading his followers and claiming that he really was “all-natural.” 

Prior to his confession, Johnson was called out by another YouTuber called More Plates More Dates, who published an hour-long video exposing the influencer’s use of steroids, costing him $12,000 per month.

It included a leaked email from Johnson to a nutritionist confirming his steroid use and asking for more, and the results of a blood test. 

Why did Liver King lie?

Johnson blamed his actions on his insecurities: “When I talk about the 85 percent of the population that suffers from self-esteem issues, that’s me. I’m part of that statistic.”

The persona, he said, was “an experiment to spread the message [and] to bring awareness to the 4,000 people a day who kill themselves, the 80,000 people a day that try to kill themselves,” adding that his “fight” was to promote “ancestral living” as a solution. 

Johnson also confessed that he wasn’t fully aware of the consequences, saying: “Before social media I was rich and anonymous, and after social media, I’m still rich but no longer anonymous…I never expected this kind of exposure in the public eye.”