Jordan Peterson Celebrity Feuds—Full List

Since rising to fame on YouTube in 2016, clinical psychologist and author Jordan Peterson has amassed millions of followers.

However, the 61-year-old's controversial views on everything from transgender rights to feminism and white privilege have also made him plenty of enemies—including some famous faces.

Here is the full list of celebrities that the Canadian psychology professor has feuded with, from Hollywood A-listers to the Pope.

Elliot Page

Peterson was suspended from X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, in 2022 due to a post about transgender actor Elliot Page.

Tweeting during Pride month, the academic deadnamed the 36-year-old Umbrella Academy star, writing: "Ellen Page just had her breasts removed by a criminal physician."

Despite the ban, Peterson said he would "rather die" than remove the post, sharing a 15-minute Instagram video where he analyzed the social network's rules and complained that X did not "do me the favor of actually specifying my crime."

Olivia Wilde

Last year, Wilde described Peterson as a "pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community" in a discussion with Interview magazine. The 39-year-old actor was referencing "involuntarily celebrate" men, who are hostile towards to women due to their romantic failures, according to anti-hate organization ADL.

When asked about the Don't Worry Darling director's comments during a TV interview with Piers Morgan, Peterson said it was another example of people coming after him for "speaking to disaffected young men."

"I thought the marginalized were supposed to have a voice?" he said, becoming teary-eyed, before defending "incels."

"Demand high standards from your man. Fair enough," he said. "But all these men who are alienated, they're lonesome and they don't know what to do, and everyone piles abuse on them."

Pope Francis

In March 2023, Peterson criticized Pope Francis on X, after the 86-year-old posted about social justice on the platform.

"#socialjustice demands that we fight against the causes of poverty: inequality and the lack of labour, land, and lodging; against those who deny social and labour rights; and against the culture that leads to taking away the dignity of others," the head of the Catholic church wrote.

However, Peterson seemed to disagree with the sentiment, writing: "There is nothing Christian about #socialjustice. Redemptive salvation is a matter of the individual soul."

Peterson received angry responses from social media users of all faiths, with one user commenting: "I don't know what's funnier, you trying to lecture the Pope on what Christianity is, or that you're loudly proclaiming that acting like Jesus is wrong."

Cathy Newman

While visiting the U.K. to promote his book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos in 2018, Peterson was interviewed by English journalist Cathy Newman for Channel 4 News.

After the 44-year-old presenter challenged Peterson on the gender pay gap, the discussion became ugly, with both sides becoming confrontational. The 30-minute footage has since received over 46 million views on YouTube. While Peterson was praised by the right-wing media for his performance, Newman was inundated with abuse—including death threats—online as a result of the interview. Channel 4 subsequently brought in security experts to protect her.

In 2019, Newman said she was still receiving abuse over the interview—despite Peterson telling his followers to leave the journalist alone.

Yumi Nu

In May 2022, Peterson declared plans to leave X, then Twitter, after receiving an "endless flood" of insults. It was speculated that the backlash was in response to his comments about Yumi Nu, 26, the first plus-size Asian-American model to front Sports Illustrated, who he'd insulted in a post earlier that day.

"Sorry. Not beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that," he said in the tweet, which he later deleted. However, he hung around the site for a bit longer, posting further messages and retweeting anti-LGBTQ+ account "Libs of TikTok."

Jim Jefferies

In 2018, Australian comedian Jim Jefferies became known as the man who got Peterson to admit he was wrong. In an interview for the Jim Jefferies Show, the 46-year-old asked Peterson if people should be expected to bake cakes for an LGBTQ+ wedding if it is against their beliefs. The TV star was referencing the 2012 case of Jack Phillips, a Christian baker who refused to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

"I don't think that's a very good idea," Peterson said. In response, Jefferies asked if bakers should be allowed to refuse to make a cake for a black couple if they "don't like black people."

"Allowed to? Probably," Peterson said. "That doesn't mean it's right."

Jefferies then asked Peterson about the Civil Rights Movement, and whether he'd argue that ordering business owners to serve black customers was wrong.

"No, that was right," Peterson said, to which Jefferson responded: "Why is that different?"

"Maybe it's not," Peterson replied. "Maybe I was wrong about that."