Internet personality and rapper Lil Tay said in a statement Thursday that she is not dead after a post surfaced on her Instagram account claiming that she had passed.
“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,” the Canadian teen said in a statement shared with TMZ. “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.”
She added that her 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. My legal name is Tay Tian, not ‘Claire Hope’.”
On Wednesday afternoon, a post on Tay’s account claimed that she and her brother, identified by People as Jason Tian, had died. The post was no longer online Thursday.
Tay’s father, Christopher Hope, told Insider on Wednesday that he could not comment on the Instagram post and declined to say whether his daughter was alive. Her former manager, Harry Tsang, told the publication that he could not confirm or deny the news either, saying the situation called for “cautious consideration.”
It was not immediately clear who was behind the Instagram post. On Thursday, Tay thanked Meta for helping to get her back into her account on the social media platform, according to TMZ.
Tay, who referred to herself as “the youngest flexer of the century,” was 9 years old when she became an internet sensation. She posted photos and videos online flaunting cash, designer clothes and luxury cars. On Instagram, she has 3.4 million followers while her two videos on YouTube have garnered more than 4 million views.
In June 2018, Tay’s Instagram account was wiped and she appeared to have disappeared from the internet, according to Variety and Insider. Around that time, her parents launched a bitter custody battle, TMZ reported.
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