Former Impractical Jokers star Joe Gatto has spoken out after being accused of sexual assault.

Following a March 20 video from TikTok user Joozyb, who claimed, “I got sexually assaulted by Joe Gatto, the Impractical Joker,” the comedian has denied the allegation. 

“I have used poor judgment and, as a result, have violated the trust of the people I love most,” Gatto said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly. “But anyone who knows me at all knows full well that I wouldn’t assault anyone. Working on myself is an ongoing process, and I am now going to take some time away from the public eye to focus my energies where I need to.”

Gatto, a founding member of truTV’s hit prank show Impractical Jokers, departed the series in 2021, citing “some issues in my personal life” and noting that he and his wife Bessy had “decided to amicably part ways.” The couple later reconciled in 2023.

In a series of TikTok videos, Joozyb detailed meeting Gatto at a Milwaukee restaurant in September 2023 and claimed that he gave her two meet-and-greet tickets to his show at the Pabst Theater that night.

Offering screenshots of their conversation, she claimed that after the show they continued communicating throughout the night, eventually putting their messages in vanish mode, a setting that allows Instagram users to send each other “disappearing messages, photos, videos” that go away when someone leaves the chat or turns the mode off. 

She alleged that in those temporary messages, he provided directions to his hotel, where she met him later in the night. In a separate post, she shared a graphic photo of bruises on her backside, writing, “Yes, he did S.A me. Yes, he had JUST gotten back together with his wife. I’m sorry you guys don’t want to hear it, but…”

Gatto was at one point a mainstay of the comedy series, co-starring alongside fellow founding members James Murray, Brian Quinn, and Sal Vulcano. The quartet even took their show to the big screen with Impractical Jokers: The Movie before Gatto’s departure.

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Impractical Jokers is currently on its 11th season and now airs on TBS. Earlier this year, Gatto told The Wrap that he has no plans to return to the show, either permanently or as a guest host.

“I am not going to guest on my own show. It does not feel right, and I cannot commit to coming back to it,” Gatto said in January. “I’ve moved on from the show; the show has moved on from me. I am so removed from it. We are still friends, just not friends from work anymore. But I am so out of that mindset.”

Additional reporting by Wesley Stenzel.