An Instagram submit claiming that viral kid big name Lil Tay and her brother died has been taken down.
The submit, attributed to her circle of relatives, was once printed Wednesday morning and temporarily trended on social media as folks shared their sorrow. The rapper would most effective had been 14, and the submit mysteriously referred to the deaths as nonetheless being underneath investigation.
However as of Thursday, TMZ was once reporting that the submit was once a hoax.
“I wish to make it transparent that my brother and I are protected and alive,” Lil Tay mentioned in a commentary equipped to TMZ by way of her circle of relatives. “My Instagram account was once compromised by way of a third celebration and used to unfold jarring incorrect information and rumors relating to me, to the purpose that even my identify was once improper. My felony identify is Tay Tian, no longer ‘Claire Hope.’”
More than one police companies informed HuffPost that they’d no wisdom of the lady’s loss of life or any investigation. Her folks didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark; her father, Chris Hope, declined to touch upon Wednesday to the New York Put up in a temporary telephone dialog.
Lil Tay, who has hundreds of thousands of fans on social media, and her mom had claimed previously that her Instagram account have been hacked, and there were a couple of earlier experiences that 3rd events had get admission to to it. But more than a few media retailers reported on Wednesday’s submit, which was once made on a verified account, as though it have been unique.
“It’s with a heavy center that we proportion the devastating information of our loved Claire’s unexpected and tragic passing,” the now-deleted submit mentioned, relating to Lil Tay. “We haven’t any phrases to precise the insufferable loss and indescribable ache. This result was once completely surprising and has left us all in surprise. Her brother’s passing provides an much more not possible intensity to our grief.”
It persisted, “Claire will perpetually stay in our hearts, her absence leaving an irreplaceable void that will probably be felt by way of all who knew and beloved her.”
Hours after the submit, Harry Tsang, Lil Tay’s former supervisor, informed HuffPost in a commentary that he may just no longer verify or deny whether or not it was once correct. He have been in contact with “people who have an intimate working out of the circle of relatives’s scenario,” he mentioned.
“Given the complexities of the present cases, I’m at some degree the place I will not definitively verify or push aside the legitimacy of the commentary issued by way of the circle of relatives,” Tsang mentioned. “This case requires wary attention and appreciate for the sensitivities concerned.”
The Instagram submit on Lil Tay’s account requested for privateness because the circle of relatives grieved, including that the cases surrounding Lil Tay and her brother’s “passing” have been nonetheless being investigated.
As of 2020, Lil Tay was once residing in Vancouver, Canada, whilst a custody dispute between her folks over how her occupation must be controlled made its manner throughout the courts, TMZ reported.
But, in an electronic mail to HuffPost on Wednesday, the Vancouver Police Division mentioned they have got no longer gotten experiences of Lil Tay or her brother’s loss of life and aren’t investigating.
A spokesperson for the Royal Canadian Fastened Police Burnaby department informed HuffPost that they “are conscious about the guidelines circulating online,” however “shouldn’t have a present investigation on the subject of this topic.”
Government in Los Angeles, the place Lil Tay and her circle of relatives spent a while as her occupation was once setting out, in a similar way informed HuffPost that they’d no details about her loss of life.
Lil Tay rose to web stardom in 2017 as a belligerent and foul-mouthed 9-year-old, calling herself “the youngest flexer of the century” in movies the place she with a bit of luck confirmed off mansions and comfort vehicles.
She went silent a 12 months later after a video unfold of her older brother, Jason Tian, supposedly feeding her traces, elevating questions on how her circle of relatives was once influencing and profiting off her web character.
In July 2018, her Instagram account posted “Lend a hand Me,” main her fans to consider she was once in peril.
Quickly after, her Instagram account made a number of posts about her father, accusing him of abuse with the hashtag #FreeLilTay. A consultant later mentioned she have been hacked, and her father has time and again denied the allegations. Tsang informed the Day by day Beast in 2018 that the abuse accusations have been false and have been a part of a plot by way of Lil Tay’s mom and brother.
In 2021, Saveliltay.com, a fundraiser to allegedly assist finance Lil Tay’s felony charges, was once created. The fundraiser, arrange underneath Jason Tian’s identify, once more made a number of accusations that Lil Tay’s father bodily and mentally abused the younger web big name and exploited her popularity for benefit.
HuffPost reporter Paige Skinner contributed to this tale.