Although Natalia Kills cemented herself in the halls of iconic television moments with her strange and career-altering X-Factor New Zealand rant, there are some who believe that there is plentiful evidence to suggest that she was set up, lied to, and ultimately mistreated by the show.
After reminding everyone of the Natalia Kills rant that lives rent-free in my brain, I was alerted by multiple people online that there is a much more hidden side to the story that involves a whole cast of characters, alleged gag orders, lies and a whole heap of turbo fuckery.
Thankfully, in 2020, Twitter user @CHANELPOIS0N, self-proclaimed “#1 Natalia Kills apologist”, gathered all of the evidence that they believe helps prove Kills’ alleged innocence and media mistreatment, and presented it all in an elaborate (and I mean elaborate) Twitter thread.
So, let’s examine the key pieces of evidence and take a look at whether or not Kills performed her rant as a planned stunt that X-Factor was aware of, or if she really just came up with all of those scathing words on the spot, eviscerating her career in a single blow of her own accord.
Our story starts in 2015, when Natalia Kills began her X-Factor New Zealand season 2 judging role alongside Stan Walker, Melanie Blatt and her (relatively unknown) husband Willy Moon.
With the season’s first episode came cheeky moments from Kills, who you could tell was having a heap of fun with her judging role. You can witness this for yourself in the clip below.
A few episodes in, that’s when it starts to get juicy, two contestants put on a not so good performance, then lashing out at Stan Walker with Natalia Kills coming to his defense, then rightfully fighting back. pic.twitter.com/llz4HYWGya
— CHANEL POISON (@CHANELPOIS0N) March 15, 2020
You can see that the judges get along, and Kills is clearly positioned as the ‘mean judge’, but then again, every reality television show in existence has one of these, so it’s nothing deeper than a role to play.
Then in comes Joe Irvine, the (soon-to-be) target of the Natalia Kills rant. In his first-ever appearance on the show, Kills and the other judges quite like him, so what on Earth changed?
Next episode, Joe Irvine auditioned by singing “Bohemian Rhapsody” with Natalia and the rest of the judges in amazement, saying “You gave every bit of your all, and I like you!” Full performance here: https://t.co/FdnMS86MhE pic.twitter.com/Wz6gFXIekh
— CHANEL POISON (@CHANELPOIS0N) March 15, 2020
Here’s the rant, by the way, which occurred on the first live show of X Factor New Zealand season 2.
I have written at length about how this is an iconic moment in television history, which you can check out here.
On March 15th, 2015, the first live show of season 2 premiered with Joe Irvine’s performance of “Cry Me a River,” following these comments by Natalia Kills and Willy Moon which resulted in extreme backlash worldwide, removing them from the show. pic.twitter.com/K1VfntNnKQ
— CHANEL POISON (@CHANELPOIS0N) March 15, 2020
A bunch of celebs and online citizens used this event as an opportunity to attack Natalia Kills, including stars like Jameela Jamil, which is a shocker.
The general public then made vulgar, racist, sexist, threatening, extremely out of line tweets such as these, some of which can still be found to this day! pic.twitter.com/8cxwGm3ZHW
— CHANEL POISON (@CHANELPOIS0N) March 15, 2020
Pretty awful, racist and menacing stuff, but nothing that we didn’t already know.
Now, let’s get into why some folks online reckon the whole thing was staged.
Firstly, the fact that Joe Irvine’s entire personal style was completely shifted by production. One might argue that the show does this all the time to make sure nobody is wearing hoodies during the live shows, but the change seemingly shifted Irvine into Willy Moon lookalike.
(I know it’s just a suit, but let’s give this theory a chance).
Now let’s discuss why the incident was staged, starting with how up until March 15th, 2015, Natalia Kills went on to give everyone fair critiques until Joe Irvine came on stage different than usual as influenced by producers to ignite Natalias behavior, which was also influenced. pic.twitter.com/KZn096JCOC
— CHANEL POISON (@CHANELPOIS0N) March 15, 2020
Next up, we have Kills talking about a “wide-reaching legal gagging order” in interviews, and how she still isn’t able to talk about everything that happened due to “air tight” contracts.
Makes you wonder what exactly she isn’t allowed to say. What she could say, however, is that the whole thing was scripted, and nobody expected it to blow up like it did.
“What’s weird is, after the show, we all hugged. It was all high-fives,” Kills told IRIS in an interview.
“No one expected the public to react the way they did, and I guess everyone had to cover their own asses.
“I thought everyone knew that all TV is planned, edited and scripted, right?”
“Why can she not speak out about it herself,” you might be asking? Well, the official Universal Music Publishing Group site reveals she’s under a gag order (worse than an NDA) which if broken can result in a more restrictive gag order, a fine, or even jail time. pic.twitter.com/vMfBDtlWOK
— CHANEL POISON (@CHANELPOIS0N) April 26, 2020
Going off this idea of planned, rehearsed craziness, there are TWO recorded instances of X Factor New Zealand host Dominic Bowden hinting at the fact that Kills and Moon were gonna stir some shit.
I mean, unless you had a villain story planned, you wouldn’t just say that to an international guest… right?
“You two (Natalia and Willy) are gonna be trouble.” Clear indication this was planned. pic.twitter.com/GUVHos7CN0
— CHANEL POISON (@CHANELPOIS0N) September 13, 2020
Mix in massive claims that Joe Irvine ‘harassed’ Kills backstage while dressed as her husband, and you’ve got a wild story on your hands.
Keep in mind these claims are from unknown online sources who alleged these things without providing their information sources.
TW // sexual harassment
Source lets out HUGE EXCLUSIVE information alleging Joe Irvine was sexually harassing Natalia the night before the episode and further explaining how he was doing it. pic.twitter.com/ZbG5VT1xA0— CHANEL POISON (@CHANELPOIS0N) December 14, 2020
Finally, to make things even murkier, there are pics of Irvine and Kills from backstage, showing that they don’t exactly hate each other as the rant would suggest.
The “bullied” contestant Joe and Natalia can be seen below, hanging backstage around the time of the incident. This photo is never shown in press. It’s been said there’s more photos that haven’t surfaced. And as of the time of this thread Joe still follows Natalia on her personal pic.twitter.com/Xx9q4XuzmL
— CHANEL POISON (@CHANELPOIS0N) March 15, 2020
So there you have it, folks, this is just some of the supposed evidence to suggest that Natalia Kills’ rant was planned beforehand, and due to her X Factor contract, she couldn’t say anything.
Of course, there’s no knowing what’s true and what isn’t, but it’s quite interesting to look at things from the other side of the coin and suss out what’s going on.
Until then, I’m going to stay off the internet for a while. Damn.
