Heavy metal band Megadeth announced on Monday that they have officially parted ways with David Ellefson after accusations of sexual misconduct against the bassist.

“We are informing our fans that David Ellefson is no longer playing with Megadeth and that we are officially parting ways with him,” Megadeth co-founder and lead guitarist Dave Mustaine wrote on the band’s Twitter account on Monday.

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“We do not take this decision lightly. While we do not know every detail of what occurred, with an already strained relationship, what has already been revealed now is enough to make working together impossible moving forward.” 

The split comes two weeks after the leak of Ellefson’s messages and videos featuring a woman, who is not his wife.

Earlier in the month, sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage, allegedly, involving Ellefson were posted on Twitter.

However, soon after the emergence of the videos, the longtime Megadeth member later released a statement on his official Instagram handle, which is private, denying all social media chatter that he “groomed” an underage fan.

In his statement on May 10, Ellefson wrote: “As you may or not know, some private and personal conversations and interactions have surfaced online, released with ill intention by a third party who was not authorized to have them or share them. While certainly embarrassing, I want to address it as openly and honestly as possible.

“As much as it’s not something I’m proud of, these were private, adult interactions that were taken out of context and manipulated to inflict maximum damage to my reputation, my career and family,” he continued. “The other party involved has made a statement which you can see below. I thank her for doing so and hope that this clarifies that the situation was not at all as presented.”

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The statement from Ellefson was backed up by a screenshot of a social media post from the woman in question, who denied any suggestions that she was underage at the time of the interaction.

“Yes, those video calls did happen, but I was the one to initiate it and never was I underage, I was always a consenting adult. Nothing inappropriate ever happened before that. It was all consensual, I’m not a victim and I have not been groomed in the slightest as I was the one to initiate it,” the woman stated.