Lil Tay’s life has always been shocking: She was a viral sensation who gained traction during the peak influencer period, waving fistfuls of cash around luxury cars and publishing profanity-laced rap videos that included racial slurs. This is when she was supposedly 9 years old.
Then there was drama around who was managing her. Then she all but vanished from social media for about five years — her most recent Instagram post was in 2018.
Then, this week, she supposedly died. Twenty-four hours later, she was alive.
The confusion between those two days — a story that could really rapidly develop only during this moment in internet history — engulfed the news and social media spheres in a saga that was just as bizarre and conspiracy-laden as Lil Tay’s first viral videos were.
Major media outlets published, and then walked back, stories about the teenager’s death. (Her exact age is unclear, as reports have varied over the years.) But longtime followers, knowing her online persona, were wary from the get-go.
It all originated with a post on Lil Tay’s Instagram account declaring she and her brother, Jason Tian, had died. That was Wednesday.
“We have no words to express the unbearable loss and indescribable pain,” read the statement, which has since been removed. “This outcome was entirely unexpected, and has left us all in shock.”
But her followers were skeptical of the sudden, unsigned statement. Prominent social media stars such as YouTuber Keemstar and Twitch streamer Caroline Kwan were among those who expressed doubts.
Lil Tay’s father, Christopher Hope, on Wednesday wouldn’t confirm news of her reported death and declined to comment on the record. Attempts to reach Lil Tay’s mom, Angela Tian, by phone were unsuccessful. Police officials in Los Angeles and Vancouver, British Columbia, two locations where Lil Tay had been known to live, also said they had no records of any such deaths.
TMZ, after it removed its initial article Wednesday evening, was the first to publish a new headline by midday Thursday claiming Lil Tay isn’t dead. The publication reportedly received a statement from her via her family.
By that time, it was too late. Some platforms doubled down on the conspiracy theories — Barstool Sports suggested in a TikTok video, without evidence, that the death was a lie concocted by her parents. Some, like the Los Angeles Times and Insider, changed their stories to reflect the lack of confirmation surrounding the deaths.
Representatives for Barstool Sports, TMZ and Insider didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Times said the paper issued an editors’ note on its original story and referred NBC News to its story Thursday about the reported hoax.
It wasn’t until Thursday that NBC News received a statement from someone who didn’t want to be named claiming to be a representative of the family. It said that Lil Tay and her brother are alive and that her Instagram account was “compromised by a 3rd party and used to spread jarring misinformation and rumors regarding me.”
“I want to make it clear that my brother and I are safe and alive, but I’m completely heartbroken, and struggling to even find the right words to say. It’s been a very traumatizing 24 hours,” the statement said, adding that her real legal name isn’t Claire Hope, as some outlets reported, but Tay Tian.
Influencer WoahVicky, who had been known as one of Lil Tay’s friends online, expressed shock at the announcement of her death. “May they rest in peace in heaven and God bless them,” she said in a TikTok. She didn’t respond to a request for comment.