Does a photo show basketball star LeBron James kissing an unidentified man in Paris? No, that's not true: A reverse image search showed that the men in the photo are a couple who go by the screen name "TeeAndDrew." An online news search for any credible evidence for the post came up empty.
The claim appeared in a post on X (archived here) on December 16, 2024. The caption read:
Photo surfaces of LeBron James kissing an unidentified man in Paris.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Dec 17 14:31:32 2024 UTC)
A reverse image search (archived here) of the photo returned many results making the same claim, but none from a reputable media outlet. One result, however, led Lead Stories to a post on Instagram that included the original post. Below is the post on Instagram:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Dec 17 16:55:55 2024 UTC)
The photo was originally published on X on December 11, 2023, by X user @teesjourney (archived here).
A link in @teesjourney's X bio led to the couple's YouTube channel, "TeeAndDrew" (archived here). There, we found more proof that neither of the men in this couple are James.
A Google News search for articles reporting on the photo seen in the claim provides no proof LeBron James is in the photo (archived here). The results instead yielded dozens of articles about James playing in the 2024 Olympics or moments where James interacted with his family on the court, but nothing related to the claim appeared.
Lead Stories has contacted representatives for James and will update this article when a relevant response is received.
More Lead Stories fact checks of claims about LeBron James are here.
