Former mumfluencer and midwife, Clemmie Hooper is facing a Fitness To Practise Committee Substantive Hearing with the Nursing and Midwifery Council into an allegation of misconduct.
The details of the charges against Ms Hooper, and what they relate to, are not yet known. The hearing began this morning.
Some had called for Ms Hooper to face misconduct charges following the controversy that played out in November 2019.
In November 2019 Hooper – who had thousands of followers, a podcast and a blog about her job as a midwife featuring people’s birth stories – admitted to trolling fellow mumfluencers under a pseudonym on Tattle.Life.
Hooper, who went by the name ‘Mother of Daughters’ admitted to posting negative comments about other influencers – including her husband Simon, who still operates on Instagram as Father of Daughters and as part of their home renovation account The House Of Hooper. Clemmie claimed she started using the name Alice in Wanderlust because she thought she could ‘change their opinions from the insider to defend my family and I’.
When some started to suspect it was her because of a similarity in geotags, she said ‘I made the mistake of commenting about others. I regret it all and am deeply sorry.’
As part of her trolling, Clemmie made comments about Candice Brathwaite (who she had hosted on her podcast previously) saying she was ‘aggressive’ and used her ‘race as a weapon’.
Some – including Kelechi Okafor – asked whether Hooper’s future as a practicing midwife should be called into question. Kelechi was temporarily banned from Instagram after the algorithm claimed she was taking part in ‘bullying and harassing’.
Kelechi wrote for Grazia following the fallout: ‘I felt a chill down my spine was when I started to piece together something that lots of news publications have failed to mention when covering this story: Clemmie Hooper is also a midwife.
‘Hooper is a midwife (albeit part-time) at King’s College Hospital, which is the hospital I recently gave birth at. It frightened me that this woman could invite Candice Brathwaite onto her podcast to discuss the shocking statistics that black women are five times more likely to die during childbirth in comparison to white women, while simultaneously using her troll account to share private details about Candice’s life and write statements like “Candice weaponises race” and is “aggressive”.’
Today's hearing is a virtual one and continues - it is booked to last until March 8.