Everyone was shocked and confused earlier this week when the gossip site Hollywood Unlocked claimed that Queen Elizabeth II was dead. The fake news story followed the Queen contracting coronavirus and opting to rest rather than continue virtual duties, which caused a flurry of concern for her health – and one unverified death announcement.
The author of the article, HU editor Jason Lee who regularly hangs out with Kanye West, absolutely refused to retract the less than watertight piece, claiming: ‘I’ve never lied. I’ve never been wrong. I trust my sources,’ despite the palace flat out refusing to even comment on such a ‘ridiculous’ story and Instagram flagging the post as ‘false information’ and a strict protocol called London Bridge famously being put in place for announcing the Queen’s passing.
So, no. The Queen is (thankfully) not dead. But the story as to why the world thought she was has continued to get more bizarre by the day. On Wednesday night, Hollywood Unlocked finally apologised on Twitter. The post claimed that an intern had accidentally posted a draft article and that the mix up was an ‘embarrassing situation. HU said they sent their ‘deepest apologies’ to the royal family and (you would think) that that would be the end of that.
Except it wasn’t. Refusing to let the fake monarch death rest in peace, Jason Lee then took to his personal account claiming that he’d woken up to see ‘some fake account posting a retraction’ and regurgitated his old defence that Buckingham Palace hadn’t technically ever said he was wrong… despite the Queen attending a video call meeting with Boris Johnson that very same day.
In the original plot of the conspiracy (because that is essentially all this rumour is at this point), Hollywood Unlocked claimed that the Queen was due to go to Vogue editor Edward Enninful’s wedding but was ‘found dead’ beforehand.
Many people online have now suggested that Hollywood Unlocked got the death of the Queen mixed up with the actual death of Queens Of The Stone Age singer Mark Lanegan, who passed away on Tuesday and was much more likely to have attended Enninful’s wedding as many of the guests ran in similar circles.
If true, this is the most astounding celebrity death mix up since Tiffany Pollard thought David Gest (rather than David Bowie) had died while she was in the Celebrity Big Brotherhouse. But, sadly, insiders are yet to comment on whether this was actually how the fake news fiasco actually went down.
Whatever the reason for the wildly incorrect reporting, Lee has now finally apologised on the Hollywood Unlocked Instagram, writing: ‘All news outlets get it wrong sometimes despite their best efforts and we will always take full accountability when that happens.’
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