A YouTuber said she adopted a stray cat. Within days viral conspiracies emerged, forcing her to deny she's holding it hostage: 'There are witnesses!'
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- YouTuber Jaclyn Hill has faced controversy after announcing she was adopting a stray cat.
- Rumors started to circulate that she was holding someone else's cat hostage, she said.
- Hill filmed what appeared to be a trip to the vet to try and prove her innocence.
Controversial beauty YouTuber Jaclyn Hill is stirring up conversation yet again thanks to her newly-adopted kitten, Marty.
On January 13, a thread was posted on the Reddit forum r/BeautyGuruChatter saying that Hill had shared the adoption on Instagram.
A user by the name of r/tllallyrfrnds shared a screenshot of what appeared to be an Instagram story posted by Hill's account, responding to a question asking why she wouldn't allow the cat to enter her home.
"I am insanely allergic to cats," the text read, adding that her two dogs, Lolli and Tipsy, would "literally end up killing her," and provided a third reason: "I don't want her clawing my furniture and I refuse to de-claw her because it's inhumane."
While that led some Redditors to remark that Hill should find the cat a more suitable home, she nevertheless forged onward in her care for Marty — in a follow-up Instagram story seen by Insider she said she was attempting to teach the cat not to claw on her Restoration Hardware furniture.
But speculation reached a crescendo on January 20, when a separate Reddit thread was posted by a user who goes by u/maximeadriana, titled, "Seems like the stray cat Jaclyn Hill has been keeping may not be a stray cat after all." It received almost 200 comments as people debated the accusation.
On January 23, a commentary influencer who goes by Rich Lux shared a further purported screenshot from Hill's account. The image showed text that said someone had claimed Marty was their cat, and not a stray. "Hundreds, possibly thousands" of people then chimed in as the rumor snowballed, accusing Hill of stealing someone's cat, according to the text in the purported screenshots.
Replies to the tweet also included people continuing to speculate that the cat had an owner.
In a subsequent Instagram post, Hill recorded what appeared to be a trip to the vet to disprove allegations "that I am holding this cat hostage," she said.
In the video, Hill showed a person scanning Marty for a microchip, while another person in what appeared to be a waiting room suggested Hill film the events as "evidence."
"The internet thinks that I am lying," Hill said in the video. "There are witnesses! There is no microchip. It makes me emotional — I want to cry. I'm not an asshole."
"She is a stray cat who chose us," she wrote in the post's caption. "Sometimes people can be so cruel over the internet that I even begin to question myself."
Hill did not respond to Insider's request for comment.
Hill, 32, launched her YouTube channel in 2011 and has amassed 5.6 million subscribers.
As one of the early creators in the beauty space, she helped popularize influencer product collaborations alongside brands including Becca and Morphe, eventually leading to the launch of her own brand, Jaclyn Cosmetics. Hill has also weathered numerous scandals throughout her long career — including launching lipsticks that some customers complained were covered in a strange, white fuzz.
"I don't care anymore," Hill told Insider in July of her critics and controversies. "My products are amazing now, so moving on."