Pete Davidson is raising eyebrows after making a brutally candid joke at the 2026 Webby Awards amid growing rumors that his relationship with girlfriend Elsie Hewitt may be on the rocks. The comedian appeared at the 30th Annual Webby Awards on Monday night, where he accepted a Special Achievement Award for his impact on comedy. Longtime friend Machine Gun Kelly introduced Davidson during the ceremony held at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.
But instead of giving an emotional speech, Davidson stuck to the event’s strict short-speech format and delivered a dark punchline that instantly caught attention online. “Thanks, I’m still dead inside.”
The pointed one-liner arrived just as reports surfaced claiming Davidson and Hewitt, the mother of his five-month-old daughter Scottie Rose, have been struggling behind the scenes. The couple welcomed their daughter in December, with Davidson previously describing fatherhood as “f-cking awesome” while praising Hewitt as “a fantastic mom” in a recent interview with PEOPLE.
Insiders Claim Davidson’s Relationship Changed After Pregnancy
However, sources close to the pair recently claimed their relationship dynamic drastically shifted after Hewitt became pregnant. “There are issues, but they’re trying to figure things out together,” one source told PEOPLE earlier this month.
Another insider told the Daily Mail that Davidson’s inner circle is not shocked by the reported tension. “Not one of Pete’s friends is surprised that there are relationship issues with him and Elsie,” the source claimed. “This is what he ends up doing always. She was also warned well ahead of time in their relationship to be careful with him, because Pete loves to self-sabotage a good thing.”
Pete Davidson Reportedly Wants To Keep His Family Together
According to insiders, the pregnancy was reportedly unplanned, something sources claim immediately altered the pace and intensity of the relationship. “And now they are parents, which they love, but the pregnancy was unplanned, and their dynamic immediately changed when she became pregnant, and they are trying to figure out the next steps as they want to be together for their kid, but it just might not be their endgame,” the source alleged.
While rumors of a split continue circulating online, insiders claim the pair are not officially over yet. “They are not fully broken up, but it is absolutely leading to it,” the insider claimed.
Davidson Allegedly Doesn’t Want Daughter To Experience His Childhood Pain
The source also alleged Davidson is trying to avoid repeating aspects of his own childhood experience after losing his father, firefighter Scott Davidson, during the September 11 attacks. “[Pete] doesn’t want the relationship to end because he wants his daughter to have the luxury of having a complete family, something he wasn’t afforded himself,” the insider said.
Meanwhile, Hewitt appeared to hint at the emotional weight of motherhood in a Mother’s Day post shared just one day before Davidson’s Webby appearance. “We’re all here because of a mother’s sacrifice to make herself your first home. i got to be Scottie’s,” she wrote. “Greatest honor of my life. happy mother’s day.”
Machine Gun Kelly Praised Pete Davidson’s ‘Fearless’ Comedy
Davidson’s appearance at the Webby Awards also came amid backlash surrounding controversial jokes he recently made during “The Roast of Kevin Hart.” While introducing Davidson at the awards show, Machine Gun Kelly praised the comedian for refusing to censor himself.
“He was sharing a lot of his jokes that he was going to do for the Kevin Hart roast last week, and what stuck out to me was that he would tell me some of the jokes, and he never asked me, ‘Oh, is this too much?’ or ‘Is it gonna offend anybody?’” MGK said. “He just told me the jokes, and it made me realize that, you know, he’s fearless, like great comedy is supposed to be raw, authentic, and he puts his own self on the line to make us all laugh and think.”
Davidson recently sparked outrage after making controversial jokes involving conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s assassination and rapper Kanye West during the Netflix roast event. At one point, Davidson joked, “I was in a beef with Kanye, so I’ve taken shots from better gay Nazis.”
The comedian previously feuded publicly with West during Davidson’s relationship with Kim Kardashian, a conflict that escalated heavily across social media in 2022.
