Janani Krishnan-Jha, the woman who infamously Google-searched Cole Sprouse while the real-life Cole Sprouse was standing directly behind her has surged back into public consciousness with a nostalgic AF TikTok.
In a video posted on Saturday, the 24-year-old who now goes by her music stage name of J. Maya retold the classic tale of how she ended up going viral after a feature on the actor’s Instagram Story in 2018.
At the time of writing, the video had already clocked over 1.1 million views.
@j.mayamusic the google search that will forever haunt me 🥲 #greenscreen #colesprouse #storytime
“Very long story short, in 2018 I was in an ice cream shop and someone who I thought looked a little bit like Cole Sprouse walked in behind me,” she began.
“I wasn’t sure if it was him or not because he was obviously grown up.
“So I took out my phone in what I thought was a private manner, and I googled recent pictures of Cole Sprouse to see if it was really him.”
Next thing J. Maya knew, she was plastered over Cole’s Instagram who had cheekily snapped a pic of the scene and uploaded it alongside a selfie of him looking less-than-impressed.
She then went on to recap the absolute storm of media attention she received after the incident which included an interview in BuzzFeed, a feature in Seventeen, and a write-up in E!.
Big day at the office.
“When this started to go viral, I had no idea how to handle it,” J. Maya continued, professing that her only social media account at the time was a friends-only Facebook.
“The media outlets started reaching out to me on my college email.
“So I thought “okay, whatever. If my name’s gonna be in the article anyway, I may as well roll with it””.
She concludes the video by revealing that the incident was subsequently brought up in every job interview she ever did.
Every. Job. Interview. She. Ever. Did.
This was due to the fact that whenever a potential employer would Google search her name, the web articles would be the first results to pop up.
Imagine having to explain that in formal job interviews year after year. Exhausting to say the least!
“It’s obviously been so many years at this point so I just think it’s really funny. Even though at the time I was a bit stressed.”
Good to know she’s all good with it. Regardless, what a saga.
If you’re keen to catch up on the absolutely bonkers interview Cole Sprouse did on Alex Cooper’s ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast, you can suss out our full recap here.
