Australian influencer Emma Claiir lost a brand deal after sharing on an episode of her podcast that she killed two cats as a child.
“I killed my cat,” the content creator said on the April 17 recording of the Simply Chaotic podcast, which she cohosts with fellow influencer Kristy Jean.
She said she had been swinging the cat around like a stuffed toy when she accidentally let go of it, and the cat “died from the fright.” She added that her sister “did not speak” to her for months and that her mom was “fucking fuming.” The anecdote appears to have been removed from existing recordings of the podcast on platforms like YouTube and Spotify, but News.com.au published the clip on TikTok.
Claiir explained that she also killed an additional cat as a child — one owned by her best friend. She did not explain what happened or when the incident occurred and did not respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News.
The influencer faced backlash from commenters and limited comments on Instagram, where she has 106,000 followers.
“You're either a complete halfwit or just cruel,” one YouTube commenter wrote. “People are WAY too comfortable admitting the worst of themselves on podcasts,” another person tweeted.
Claiir wrote on her Instagram story on April 19 that the tale was intended to be “a bit of light humour” and “if you can’t handle that then simply chaotic ain’t for you.”
“It happened 21 years ago. I was a small child,” she wrote. “Accidents happen and you all need to chill.”
She said that the first incident happened when she was about 9 years old, and since then, she has been the “mother moth” to multiple cats.
“Again sorry not sorry for an accident that happened over 20 years ago,” Claiir wrote on her Instagram story on Wednesday. “Sorry not sorry for having a giggle about it because I think still 20 years on I’m in shock by it.”
On Wednesday, Australian brand MCoBeauty wrote in an Instagram story that it would “no longer be working with Emma in the future” after hearing about her past animal cruelty.
“Here at MCoBeauty, we take instances like this extremely seriously and do not condone animal cruelty of any kind,” the statement said.
Claiir responded on Instagram once again hours later — this time to apologize.
“I am well aware that the story was not light humour and in fact very serious,” she wrote. “I do have empathy about the situation and it’s not something I am proud of as it really hurt myself and my family 21 years ago.
“I am now also a loving mum to a little boy and have definitely grown up from that little 9-year-old kid,” she added. She gave birth to her first child on April 12.