Social media influencer Lil Tay and her brother are not dead, the 14-year-old told TMZ. According to Lil Tay, an August 9, 2023, Instagram post claiming that she and her brother, Jason Tian, had died was a hoax that was the result of hack.
The Instagram post has been deleted and Lil Tay has regained control of her account from the hacker after Meta, the social media site’s parent company, intervened, she told TMZ on August 10. “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. 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 told TMZ in a statement.
Lil Tay also told TMZ that her legal name is Tay Tian, not Claire Hope. She added in the statement to TMZ, “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.”
The now-deleted post, attributed to her family, read, “It is with a heavy heart that we share the devastating news of our beloved Claire’s sudden and tragic passing. We have no words to express the unbearable loss and indescribable pain. Her brother’s passing adds an even more unimaginable depth to our grief.”
The statement did not include any details or a cause of death for her or her brother and did not name her brother. The story spread quickly across social media, but with many questions about what had actually happened left unanswered until Lil Tay’s statement to TMZ a day after the post was made. Lil Tay’s father declined to comment to The Daily Mail and her manager also told multiple media outlets that he could not confirm the accuracy of the post.
Her half-brother’s name was Jason Tian, and he had accused her father of abuse and neglect on a GoFundMe page in 2021.
According to the Cut, describing Lil Tay’s marketing appeal in 2019: “Her kitchen is bigger than your entire living room. She wears Gucci belts across her chest like sashes and Louis Vuitton belts draped around her waist. She’s almost exclusively seen holding a stack of cash.”
Lil Tay has more than 3 million followers on Instagram and 220,000 followers on YouTube. She shot to fame in early 2018, when she was 9, but disappeared from social media almost as quickly her rise to prominence.
Despite her massive audience, her last post on Instagram was in 2018, when she wrote:
X you truly changed me ❤️ you were there for me when everyone wanted me to fail, you were there to give me advice, you were there. As a father figure, when I don’t have one, you were here, FaceTiming me and calling me for hours when I’m down, 3 hours ago you announced the Charity event we were going to throw, we had everything setup, I can’t believe this, the evil in the world, This isn’t good Bye
I Love you Bro ❤️💔😔😢❤️
That was a post about the rapper XXXTentacion.
Here’s what you need to know:
The Fake Post on Lil Tay’s Page Claimed the Circumstances Surrounding Her Death Were Under Investigation
Lil Tay has passed away. #RIP 🕊️
“This outcome was entirely unexpected, and has left us all in shock,” the fake post attributed to the family said.”Her brother’s passing adds an even more unimaginable depth to our grief. During this time of immense sorrow, we kindly ask for privacy as we grieve this overwhelming loss, as the circumstances surrounding Claire and her brother’s passing are still under investigation. Claire will forever remain in our hearts, her absence leaving and irreplaceable void that will be felt by all who knew and loved her.”
Before Lil Tay revealed she had been hacked, Heavy checked the Los Angeles County Coroner’s database for Lil Tay and her brother but found no records. Heavy also made a request with the British Columbia coroner’s office to see if the deaths occurred in that jurisdiction. Heavy has also contacted Vancouver police to see if they are investigating the deaths.
“We haven’t gotten any reports of her death here at the Vancouver Police Department. As of now, we are not aware and are not investigating,” Constable Tania Visintin, media relations officer for Vancouver police, told Heavy in an email. Of her brother, Visintin added, “Yes, we are not aware and not investigating.”
However, when contacted by DailyMail.com, Lil Tay’s former manager Harry Tsang said that he had “been in communication with individuals who have an intimate understanding of the family’s situation” but that he could not “definitively confirm or dismiss” that Lil Tay and Tian are dead.
“Given the complexities of the current circumstances, I am at a point where I cannot definitively confirm or dismiss the legitimacy of the statement issued by the family,” he told Daily Mail.
“This situation calls for cautious consideration and respect for the sensitivities involved,” he added.
Lil Tay’s Brother Jason Tian, Who Accused Lil Tay’s Father of Abuse, Was Accused of Orchestrating Her Career
According to the Sun, Lil Tay went viral with “profanity-filled” rap videos in 2017 but then disappeared from the public eye before returning to accuse her father of abuse.
According to Dexerto, she was only 9 years old when she first broke onto the public stage.
Her brother, Jason Tian, was accused of inventing her rap persona after not making it as a musical artist himself, the Sun reported.
In 2021, Tian created a GoFundMe page to raise money for Lil Tay that accused her father of abuse. It read:
Lil Tay will be fighting for her life, future and freedom starting April 23, 2021. Tay is in desperate need of funds to support her fight against her abusive father, as a result of this situation she has been in a state of depression. ALL FUNDS raised through this GoFundMe will go towards Tay’s legal fees to give her the fighting chance in court to save her from a life of abuse.. Towards her future, and freedom.
Starting April 23, 2021, Tay will be on trial in the BC Supreme Court of Canada up against her absentee father Chris Hope, who along with his wife Hanee Hope (previously known as Richanee Alcover), had physically and mentally abused her. Chris Hope is fighting to permanently gain control of her career as well as custody over her.
The page continued: “Starting April 23, 2021, Tay will be on trial in the BC Supreme Court of Canada up against her absentee father Chris Hope, who along with his wife Hanee Hope (previously known as Richanee Alcover), had physically and mentally abused her. Chris Hope is fighting to permanently gain control of her career as well as custody over her.”
The GoFundMe page also made these accusations about Lil Tay’s father:
My sister Tay has been silent on social media for the past 3 years because her absentee father (Chris Hope) served my mother a court order demanding control over Tay’s money, career, and custody, and as a result it was court ordered that my sister had to return to Vancouver, Canada. He also requested through a court order to prevent her from speaking out about the truth. Since then he has stolen millions of dollars from my sister and has taken control of all her funds. He has signed million dollar deals and taken all of Tay’s money for himself, he has spent millions buying himself and his wife (Hanee Hope) a new mansion, speed boat, nice cars, trips to spas, salons, fancy restaurants, trips to Egypt, Dubai, Mexico, Philippines, Hawaii, the UK, Paris, designer clothing and jewelry/watches from head to toe, they have been living a lavish lifestyle for the past 3 years off of Tay’s money.
The extremely lengthy post also contained photos of Lil Tay with a bruised face and lunches that Tian wrote she was given.
Lil Tay’s dad, a lawyer from Vancouver named Chris Hope, defended himself in a 2019 article in The Cut. He said he had joint custody and grew concerned by the direction of his daughter’s career, getting a court order to bring her back to Canada from Los Angeles, which upset her. He also told the Cut that he was bullied online after the accusations, and that he learned about her rap videos from her school.
According to his LinkedIn page, Chris Hope is a lawyer, author and commercial helicopter pilot.
In 2018, Chris Hope told Hollywood Life of the accusations,
My daughter is hurting and she is angry. I regret that I was unable to stop all the negative things from happening to her. I am heartbroken about what has happened, not only to her, but also to my other family members, due to past events and now, due to the lies and harassment that were posted on Instagram. I don’t know if the Instagram was hacked or not; all I know is that the person or people controlling the Instagram did things that are crimes in Canada and in California, and we will see what happens with that.
Chris Hope was granted full custody of Lil Tay by a judge in Canada, according to Paper Magazine.
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