It’s been an absolutely ratchet year, both online and IRL and as the year draws to a close, it’s important that we look back and address some of said ratchet moments. Namely: the wildest influencer scandals of 2023.
Here, we’re going through all the bonkers shit that went down in the lives of your fave online folk this year that you may have forgotten about.
Strap in, mates. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride!
Influencer scandals 2023
Sarah’s Day accused of selling a second-hand rug
First up we’ve got popular mum blogger Sarah’s Day — whose real name is Sarah Stevenson. The lifestyle influencer received a heap of backlash after she uploaded an Insta Story which featured the rug’s dimensions and a cheeky little descriptive note calling the rug “basically brand new”. However, Instagram tea-spiller @AussieInfluencerOpinions pointed out that the rug appeared in pics from April 2020.
“We only rolled it out in Foxy‘s upstairs room for a week or so but he didn’t like the pink in it,” she wrote.
“Basically brand new” were the three words that ultimately bit Sarah’s Day in the tush. The rug retailed for $849 online in the size the influencer was offering, but it was unclear how much she ended up selling it for.
Stevenson responded to the backlash via a TikTok addressing the whole silly rug ‘drama’.
“First of all, good to see this is newsworthy, there are lots of things going on in Australia at the moment, clearly,” she said.
“I may be wrong here but my interpretation of ‘basically brand new’ is like ‘good as new’ or ‘immaculate condition’.”
Sarah’s Day’s rug IG Story. (Credit: Instagram / Sarah’s Day)
She then went on to explain that yes, she’s had the rug for a few years, but she rolled it out for roughly a week in her last house and for another week in her new house. Apparently, nobody else liked the rug, so it’s been sitting in storage for most of its life.
“My sisters didn’t want it so I figured yeah, I would just sell it. I didn’t care. I wasn’t asking for the price that I bought it for,” she said.
“I was like yeah it’s basically brand new, name me a price, and come and pick it up.”
We wrote a full-on investigation at the time if ya wanna relive the ridiculousness.
Influencers arrested for posing naked at a sacred site in Bali
Who could forget when a string of influencers got done for posing naked on a 700-year-old sacred tree?
Balinese social media activist and entrepreneur Niluh Djelantik posted a gallery of Russian Instagrammer Luzia Kosyhk who posed in the nude on a sacred tree, which is located in a temple in Bayan Village Bali.
Niluh Djelantik wrote a lengthy caption expressing her anger towards Kosyhk and warned any other tourist to “go back to your country if you can’t respect our tradition and culture!”
“TO ALL FOREIGNER WHO DISRESPECT OUR LAND, BALI IS OUR HOME, NOT YOURS !!!!,” she wrote in her caption which was translated from Indonesia to English.
“Bali is our home. Not yours. Do you think you’ll look cool taking naked pictures on our holy trees?”
FFS. (Credit: Instagram / @Niluhdjelantik)
Local news outlet Coconut Bali reported that Kosykh claimed that she “didn’t know that the tree was sacred.”
Meanwhile the Head of the Immigration Division of the Bali Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights Barron Ichsan interjected: “She said that she took the picture with her friend because [she wanted to] be at one with nature.”
Umm babes, you can literally do that without getting naked.
It came after another Russian influencer, Alina Fazleeva, and her husband were deported from Bali after she posed naked alongside the same sacred tree.
More on the infamous tree pics HERE.
Van life influencer shares cheating story
About a year ago, family vloggers Will Watson and Kristin Batykefer — famously known as @NumberJuanBus — were dominating the van life community on Instagram before they abruptly disappeared from the platform.
Earlier this year, Kristin came forward about the reason behind the family’s disappearance from the internet, explaining it was due to infidelity.
“When I first left him after finding out he had been cheating on me for an entire year, things were very emotional,” Kristin explained in an episode of her podcast, Let’s Grow Through It.
“There was a lot of anger, especially on my part with him, and also distrust. Because in my mind, at that moment, I thought ‘what kind of good father would risk ruining his family to sleep with someone else?’
“It was very personal.”
Prior to her extremely candid podcast episode, Kristin reflected on the infidelity that ended her marriage of nine years with fellow van life YouTubers Kels and Jay.
Kristin continued by explaining that there was a “nine-month period” where she believed her husband was cheating because she “uncovered” something. But she didn’t confront him as she didn’t have “solid evidence” of the infidelity.
“There was no actual solid evidence and when you have a child and you’re married and you don’t have solid evidence, it’s really hard to be like ‘I’m gonna leave because of this,’” she continued.
“When I got the truth [of the cheating], it was like freedom.”
According to the Daily Mail, the van life pair finalised their divorce back in February and they continue to co-parent their daughter.
But wait, the story gets weirder… cop the rest HERE.
Aussie influencer slams vitamin company using her content
TikToker Chelsea Hall (@Chells.Hall), who usually makes content around her chronic bloating issues, her love of Lululemon and travel, took to her account earlier this year to call out “period cramp relief” company Ovira.
In her scathing TikTok, Hall claimed the company used her content to advertise vitamin pills or some sort of supplement, suggesting it helps with bloating.
Read more about what went down HERE and catch the TikTok below:
The Baby Gronk x Livvy Dunne TikTok saga
In what might be the strangest saga to come out of TikTok since “blokes going to Minions 2 in suits“, a 10-year-old NFL draft prospect nicknamed Baby Gronk and the Louisiana State University (LSU) gymnast Olivia Dunne occupied prime real estate on many For You Pages.
The situation gained traction on TikTok when creator @H00pify uploaded a series of videos detailing Baby Gronk’s supposed love life.
The videos blew up, partly due to h00pify’s tone being so serious as he described what seemed like such a ridiculous situation. I mean, the videos don’t even sound like they’re in English most of the time.
One minute we’re talking about Baby Gronk, then Livvy (Olivia) Dunne, then the Drip King, then “rizz” (short for “charisma”), and now Baby Diggs.
SLOW DOWN!
It honestly took me about seven viewings before I started to piece together the word salad so don’t feel bad if you get whiplash from the lack of segues between topics.
It’s worth noting that the entire situation is absolutely a pisstake. And yes, it’s definitely a little weird to be putting a 10-year-old at the centre of a fake news saga, but more on that later.
Got NFI who these people are? Read more about them and what happened next HERE.
To widen the scope of good, bad and supremely cooked shit that happened in popular culture this year, the PTV joined forces to share our favourites and it’s one hell of a read.
And if you’re thirsty for more influencer scandals, peep last year’s list.
