Current:Home > MarketsUntangling the Controversy Involving TikTokers Lunden Stallings and Olivia Bennett -Wealthify
Untangling the Controversy Involving TikTokers Lunden Stallings and Olivia Bennett
View
Date:2025-04-13 03:17:43
This was probably not the way Lunden Stallings and Olivia Bennett imagined starting off their marriage.
The influencer duo—who have almost 700,000 followers on their joint TikTok account—went from newlywed bliss to issuing an apology video during their honeymoon all in a span of days after Lunden's past racist tweets resurfaced.
The saga all started on Sept. 30, when the 26-year-olds tied the knot in a lavish ceremony at Naylor Hall in Roswell, Ga., with many fans referring to the black-tie nuptials as the "royal wedding of lesbian TikTok."
"We like romanticizing the moment that we're in," Lunden gushed to People in a profile gushed on Oct. 1, adding that she and Olivia felt their wedding was "so much bigger than us" as figures in the LGBTQ+ community. "And I think that by showing two feminine women in a relationship in the south, I think that it breaks a barrier."
However, just as Lunden and Olivia began filling their social media accounts with photos and videos from their picture-perfect wedding, screenshots of what apeared to be old tweets containing racial slurs made from Lunden's X (formerly known as Twitter) account surfaced on Reddit. The racially insensitive posts, the screenshots of which have since been deleted, seemed to date back as early as the 2010s.
Amid backlash, the TikTokers made a 10-minute apology video on their TikTok Stories, with Lunden saying that she was "completely and utterly disgusted and ashamed" by her past behavior.
"I don't want people to think that I am just sweeping this under the rug or that it's something I'm not going to address or don't want to address because I do want to address it," she continued. "That's not who I am."
Calling Lunden's controversial tweets an "unfortunate and ignorant mistake," Olivia told her new wife, "It's so disappointing to see that those things were written, and written by somebody that I love, but I also know to my heart and core that's not who you are. I would've never married her if that's who she was today."
Lunden added, "I just want everyone to know, even the ones that don't know, that I am sorry."
But their mea culpa didn't quell the online criticism, with some taking issue with the fact that Lunden and Olivia's video was made on Stories, where posts expire 24 hours after its creation. Others called out the couple for getting married at a wedding venue with ties to a plantation owner. (Naylor Hall's website said the property was built during the 1840s by Barrington King—the son of Roswell King, a cotton mill owner who controlled several plantations that were operated by slave labor, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia.)
As of Oct. 6, Lunden and Olivia have not publicly addressed backlash over their apology video.
E! News has reached out to their rep for comment but hasn't heard back.
For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News AppveryGood! (861)
Related
- Megan Fox's ex Brian Austin Green tells Machine Gun Kelly to 'grow up'
- Wisconsin rock climber dies after fall inside Devils Tower National Monument
- Southwest plans to cut flights in Atlanta while adding them elsewhere. Its unions are unhappy
- Love Is Blind’s Sarah Ann Bick Reveals She and Jeramey Lutinski Broke Up
- Nearly 400 USAID contract employees laid off in wake of Trump's 'stop work' order
- Father of teenage suspect in North Carolina mass shooting pleads guilty to gun storage crime
- These women spoke out about Diddy years ago. Why didn't we listen?
- Horoscopes Today, September 24, 2024
- Biden administration makes final diplomatic push for stability across a turbulent Mideast
- 'The hardest thing': Emmanuel Littlejohn, recommended for clemency, now facing execution
Ranking
- Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
- Cal State campuses brace for ‘severe consequences’ as budget gap looms
- Sean Diddy Combs' Lawyer Attempts to Explain Why Rapper Had 1,000 Bottles of Baby Oil
- NFL Week 3 overreactions: Commanders are back, Vikings Super Bowl bound
- The FTC says 'gamified' online job scams by WhatsApp and text on the rise. What to know.
- Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Star Eduardo Xol Dead at 58 After Stabbing Attack
- Another Outer Banks home collapses into North Carolina ocean, the 3rd to fall since Friday
- New York court is set to hear Donald Trump’s appeal of his $489 million civil fraud verdict
Recommendation
Behind on your annual reading goal? Books under 200 pages to read before 2024 ends
The University of Hawaii is about to get hundreds of millions of dollars to do military research
'America's Got Talent' 2024 winner revealed to be Indiana's 'singing janitor'
Anna Sorokin eliminated from ‘Dancing With the Stars’ in first round of cuts
As Trump Enters Office, a Ripe Oil and Gas Target Appears: An Alabama National Forest
The Lainey Wilson x Wrangler Collab Delivers Grit, Grace & Iconic Country Vibes - Shop the Collection Now
Houston Astros win AL West after win over Seattle Mariners
Alabama man declared 'mentally ill' faces execution by method witnesses called 'horrific'