Emma Claiir, the influencer who confessed on her podcast that she accidentally killed two cats as a child, has claimed that the story has been “twisted” and “manipulated.”
On Wednesday, Claiir posted a carousel of pics featuring her husband Aaron Mugica and their newborn son Jett-Jones. The comments on the post have been limited, with many of them checking in with the creator and wishing her well.
In response to one of the comments, Claiir said: “hey girl! Thank you so much but honestly it’s gonna take a lot more than a twisted manipulated story to make me disappear. Plus look at my little man how can anything else even matter when he is so perfect.”
Considering Claiir willingly shared the story to her own podcast, Simply Chaotic, in her own words, and later referred to it as a bit of “light humour” while she was defending her actions on her Instagram Stories, I’m not sure where exactly the story became “twisted” and “manipulated”.
Perhaps she’s getting confused with facing the consequences of her own actions?
ICYMI, The whole drama unfolded after Claiir was asked to share a personal secret on her podcast, leaving co-host Kristy Jean stunned when she revealed: “I killed my cat.”
“I didn’t mean to… I was young, I was a child,” she explained. “I was swinging my cat around. Like, I was thinking it was just a stuffed toy. And I accidentally let go of it.”
With an awkward laugh, the mum-of-one clarified the feline died “from the fright” rather than an injury from being yeeted across the room.
Since the confession, Claiir has been dumped by several brands who have condemned her actions, including Glassons, Princess Polly Boutique and Lust Minerals.
In a private message on Instagram, Glassons emphasised that they haven’t worked with Claiir since 2012.
“We do not support or tolerate animal abuse. We had a gifting relationship with Emma in 2021 and have not worked with her since. We can confirm [we] will not be working with her ever again.”
In a statement after the backlash, Claiir said: “I just want to say, I’m giggling about it now, but this happened years and years and years [ago]. And, like, I was a fucking little child.”
However, the bizarre tidbit didn’t end there. The influencer went on to reveal she “also killed her best friend’s cat”. This was again, according to Claiir, an accident.
After the podcast, Claiir quickly began copping backlash from fans, with MCoBeauty being one of the first brands to drop her as an ambassador.
“It has come to our attention that Emma Claiir recently relayed a story on her podcast discussing an incident of animal cruelty from her childhood,” the makeup brand wrote on Instagram.
“We were dismayed by this story, and will no longer be working with Emma in future. Here at MCoBeauty, we take instances like this extremely seriously and do not condone animal cruelty of any kind.”
After a follower questioned their collaboration plans, clothing brand Princess Polly also revealed they’ll no longer be affiliated with Claiir.
“We’d like to assure you Princess Polly has a zero tolerance stance on any form of animal abuse,” a spokesperson wrote in an Instagram comment. “We don’t have any plans to collaborate with Emma in the future.”
Following suit, vegan beauty brand Lust Minerals nixed collaborations with Claiir on Wednesday afternoon.
“Lust Minerals does not condone animal cruelty of any kind. We stand by our values – our products are cruelty free and are vegan certified,” a statement on the brand’s Instagram Story read.
“As a company, we take matters like this very seriously and have therefore made the decision to end all activity with Emma Claiir.”
Claiir initially hit out at those criticising her for an incident that happened when she was “nine-years-old”.
“It happened 21 years ago. I was a small child… Accidents happen and you all need to chill,” she wrote on an Instagram Story.
“It’s a bit of light humour in a get to know us episode and if you can’t handle that then Simply Chaotic ain’t for you.”
She also added that she’s since “been the best mother to multiple cats”.
However, controversy mounted once influencer watchdog account Influencer Updates AU (@influencer.updates.au) shared Claiir’s commentary with its 54,000 followers.
“What the? Not sure I would consider a conversation about killing two cats to be ‘a bit of light humour’,” one user wrote.
A second agreed: “I wish I didn’t listen to that… that’s not humour in the slightest.”
Others defended the social media personality, wondering why so many people were “offended by this”.
“She made a mistake as a young child.”
Just hours after doubling down on her confession, Claiir changed her tune and issued a more refined response to the outcry.
“I am well aware that the story was not light humour and in fact very serious,” she (or perhaps a frantic publicist) penned.
“It was not intended to come across the way that it did as it was simply just a story from the past about an accident that was made as a little kid, but I can see how it has come across like that.”
Claiir said she had “taken the time to think about [her] actions” and deduced it was “not something [she was] proud of”.
“Again I deeply apologise for those [affected] by an accident that happened in the past and I hope we can leave it there,” she concluded.
The 28-year-old Instagram star shared the admission on the latest episode of her pod, Simply Chaotic, and to say jaws were on the floor is an understatement.
Last week, a wild TikTok video from November 2022 has resurfaced, showing that fans have voiced concerns over Claiir’s interactions with her pets in vids since last year.
In one video, Claiir was seen holding her current pet cat and swinging it around as she spoke. Understandably, it copped some criticism from concerned viewers.
“[Pleased] you finally put that cat down and [stopped] swinging it around, it didn’t look cute,” one user commented.
At the time, Claiir made a video response to the comment, as pointed out by Influencer Updates AU, which has absolutely not aged well given her recent confessions. Yikes.
@emmaclaiir Replying to @rachynz there is always one……
“There’s always like one hero… that loves to act as if people treat their animals that they absolutely love and adore so horribly,” she said in response.
“Like it happens in every single video that I upload with my animals… I receive one of these comments.”
“I’ve had multiple ginger cats my whole entire life and multiple of other cats my whole entire life because myself and my family are cat obsessed.”
In another video and sponsored post for MCoBeauty, Claiir was pictured holding her dachshund in a questionable way, prompting a fan to comment, “Oh my gosh please watch his back.”
Claiir has since limited comment access on her videos, likely due to the backlash.
