‘My Brother and I Are Safe’
Viral teen internet star Lil Tay surfaced on Thursday to tell TMZ that she is not, in fact, dead.
“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,” she told the outlet. “It’s been a very traumatizing 24 hours. All day yesterday, I was bombarded with endless heartbreaking and tearful phone calls from loved ones all while trying to sort out this mess.”
The bizarre ordeal began when a statement was posted on Lil Tay’s Instagram on Wednesday, purportedly from her family, announcing that both Tay and her brother had died. “We have no words to express the unbearable loss and indescribable pain,” the post said. “This outcome was entirely unexpected, and has left us all in shock.”
However, the rapper and social media star claimed to TMZ on Thursday that her Instagram account was hacked. She claimed Meta helped her regain access to her account, and the original post has since vanished.
“My Instagram account was compromised by a 3rd party and used to spread jarring misinformation and rumors regarding me, to the point that even my name was wrong,” she said. “My legal name is Tay Tian, not ‘Claire Hope’.”
The Instagram post was the only public claim of Tay’s death, prompting a viral mystery as fans tried to piece together whether or not her death was real. The police department in Vancouver—where Tay was believed to be living as of 2021—confirmed several times to The Daily Beast that it had no record of the deaths of Tay or her brother.
More to come.