You may remember Lil Tay from her obnoxious viral videos flaunting luxury vehicles and throwing stacks of cash.
For the past couple of years, Lil Tay has been out of the spotlight ever since since it was revealed her mother and brother were basically ‘coaching’ her on how to perform for the cameras.
Her Instagram page lit up over the weekend with new posts, seemingly from her brother, claiming that Lil Tay’s father and “abused” her and has “stolen all of her money.”
The Instagram account published a video of Lil Tay crying alongside a caption claiming that her father, Christopher Hope, and his wife, Hanee, have been “physically and mentally” abusive to her.
via Insider:
Her 18-year-old brother Jason Tian claimed to have commandeered the profile in a post on the page and started a GoFundMe asking for $150,000 to help Angela Tian, her mother, regain full custody, raising over $13,000 so far.
In 2018 and 2019, the person behind the Instagram account, which has 2 million followers, waged a harassment campaign against Christopher Hope.
“Tay has no money left to pay lawyers for fighting for her freedom, her father has stolen everything from her,” the post read, offering no evidence for the claim.
Four other posts have been shared on the account since, detailing unsubstantiated claims of exploitation and abuse against Christopher Hope and his wife.
Two pictures showed Lil Tay with a mark on her face and back, though it’s unclear what these may be.
When asked for comment, Christopher Hope responded with a YouTube video from The Hollywood Fix interviewing Diomi Cordero, a manager formerly associated with Lil Tay, in December 2018. Cordero managed Lil Tay for six months in 2018, before her disappearance from social media.
“Her brother was the creator of the character when they first started, he just lost control of it,” Cordero says. “Before he left, he told a bunch of us that he was going to accuse her dad of sexually abusing her as a way to win the case in the court.”
Cordero doubled down on his statement in an interview with Insider, adding “this was a plan that was created years ago, I remember it clearly, because I thought it was a bad idea from the start, but I said I don’t think it’s going to work out.” He says that he contacted her mother “over the holidays” and that Lil Tay was “back in school and working on vocal lessons.”
Lil Tay, Angela Tian, and her brother did not respond to a request for comment.
Appearing online in late 2017, the young influencer went viral after posting photos and videos of her flexing with large amounts of money, hanging out expensive cars, and speaking with slurs.
Over the course of 2018, she gained millions of followers and made appearances with other influencers like Danielle Bregoli, Jake Paul, and Lil Pump.
In June of 2018, all of Lil Tay’s social media accounts were wiped clean or deleted, with the only communication being a post on her Instagram story with the words “help me.” This came after months of speculation and a leaked video of her brother seemingly coaching her on what to say.
Controversy continued to swirl after Angela Tian resigned from her job as a Vancouver real estate agent after it was reported that she had taken pictures of her daughter in her boss’ Mercedes 500 SL.
The Lil Tay persona quickly started to unravel after reports surfaced about her mother and brother. According to The Cut, former managers that worked with Lil Tay said her brother “wrote Lil Tay’s lines and coached her on how to say them” and had “created the character.”
Lil Tay’s accounts started publishing new content again in October 2018, making claims that her father Christopher Hope was an “abusive absentee father” and that he had “banned” her off of social media.
Hope responded to the accusations with a cease and desist order to Instagram obtained by The Blast, writing that her brother was the one in charge of her account. Sources told TMZ that Hope and her mother Angela Tian were “locked in a court battle for custody of Lil Tay and full control over her life and career.”
According to court documents obtained by Insider, the pair have joint custody over Lil Tay but Hope has full decision-making authority in legal matters.
We don’t know what’s going on, but we pray for Lil Tay’s wellbeing. No child deserves to experience trauma — for real or for cameras.
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