Teen TikTok star Charli D'Amelio spoke out about what she said was a fake, edited nude photo of herself

Charli D'Amelio
  • In the latest episode of "Charli and Dixie: 2 Chix," Charli D'Amelio, 16, addressed what she said was a fake, edited photo that depicted her topless.

  • She said that the photo was an edited screenshot from a TikTok from earlier this year, saying that she didn't plan on addressing it but eventually decided that it was important.

  • She also opened up about receiving death threats after recent contoversy.

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Video: What’s going on with TikTok?

Charli D'Amelio, the most followed person on TikTok, has spoken out about a photo that she says was fake and showed her without her swimsuit top in an attempt to "expose [her]" on the latest episode of her podcast "Charli and Dixie: 2 Chix."

Charli and her sister Dixie typically host "2 Chix" together, but on the most recent December 3 episode, Charli was solo. She talked not only about the alleged fake photo but also about the death threats she says she received in the midst of a recent controversy that saw her bleeding followers after she made comments about wanting to reach 100 million followers on TikTok.

Charli spoke about what she said was a fake, topless photo of her going around online

Midway through the episode, Charli, 16, told what she called a "funny little story" about a photo circulating on Twitter. She said that she wasn't planning on originally addressing it but later felt that it was important.

HITC reported on the fake "leaked" image in late November, and on the podcast Charli said that she found out about it on Twitter after seeing people ask if others had seen "that photo of Charli." She then said that that the photo was an edited screenshot from one of her TikTok videos: in it, she wears a swimsuit, and the edited image removed her swimsuit top.

"All of the people that follow me were like, 'No, that's 100% fake,' but people believe it," she said. "@styleamelio posted a video that was like, the original photo, obviously, and then the video that it was from, and I was doing the exact same facial expression and everything."

The @styleamelio video that Charli's referencing appears to have since been removed, but @styleamelio posted about Charli's shoutout on the podcast, showing a brief clip from the video she posted. In another post, @styleamelio said that the post had been removed, but that she was just trying to prove that it had been edited.

"So if you see something of me, it was not me, it was a screenshot from a TikTok video of mine from like three months ago. That's it," Charli said on the podcast.

She also opened up about receiving death threats after recent controversy

In late November, Charli briefly lost hundreds of thousands of followers as a result of comments that she made in a video uploaded to the D'Amelio family's group YouTube channel. Charli expressed that she wished she had more time to amass 100 million followers, saying that she would have liked to do so within a year after she gained her first 100,000 followers.

"Was the 99 [million] not enough for you?" James Charles, a beauty influencer and also the D'Amelio's dinner guest, asked in the video.

After bleeding followers and eventually becoming embroiled in a feud with controversial social media personality Trisha Paytas, Charli went live on Instagram to explain that the entire incident was a "misunderstanding" and "completely blown out of proportion." Eventually, TikTok's most-followed creator did reach the 100 million milestone on November 22.

On the podcast, Charli further explained why she cried during that Instagram live and spoke about the death threats she said she received at the time. After thanking those who supported her and helped her reach 100 million followers, she got serious, saying that the entire incident "spiraled completely out of control," leading to people sending her death threats.

"It turned into a place where I was getting threats for my life, and when talking about this on live I got emotional because that's not something that people take lightly," Charli said. "It does not matter who you are, it does not matter if you are going to school and someone says something like that, that's gonna stick with you."

She went on to say that the fact that she's "sensitive" isn't something that she wants to change, saying that it's "something I like about myself." Addressing her own ups and downs, she said that she experienced a "breaking point" while live on Instagram after things that she's been "bottling up for so long."

"No matter how old you are, no matter how many followers you have, no matter how many people know your name, we're still people," she said. "Everyone's a person. Everyone's gonna have feelings. Are my feelings a little bit more fragile? Probably, I cry a lot, it happens, you know?"

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