Did pop singer-songwriter Billie Eilish say that she wanted to be poor so she could be more relatable to her fans? No, that's not true: Eilish's publicist called the screenshot "fake press clips."
The story originated from @BilliesUpdatess, a Twitter account that has now been suspended. When the fake story was published is not clear. The false story gained a lot of traction on Facebook and Twitter, with the post below published on July 28, 2021. It read:
"When I got rich, I started balling my eyes out, I wanted to be poor so I can relate to most of my fans." Billie said candidly. "I still want to be broke and poor, it looks really fun and cute." Billie said laughing
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Jul 29 15:12:29 2021 UTC)
Lead Stories emailed Alexandra Baker, Eilish's publicist and CEO of High Rise public relations, on July 29, 2021. She responded the same day:
It is not true and the account that has been created these fake press clips has been suspended.
Eilish has not addressed the false claim directly, but has spoken about trolls in social media before during an interview with BBC Breakfast.
