A paparazzo who appeared on the newly released D’Amelio reality show has blasted the show’s production.
Since premiering last week, the D’Amelio Show has given viewers an inside look into the lives of TikTok’s undoubtedly most famous family. The reality show follows the family as they navigate the challenges of Charli and Dixie D’Amelio‘s meteoric rise to fame, focusing on the serious impact that online bullying has had on the sisters’ mental health.
In the seventh episode, Dixie takes Charli shopping to celebrate her 17th birthday, but as they pull up to the store, Charli becomes distressed at the sight of paparazzo Josh from Pap Galore. The sisters interact with Josh briefly as they enter and leave the store. Throughout the scene, Charli relates her anxiety over the paparazzi with online hate that comes her way after the photos and videos of her are released.
Charli says in the episode, “They’re gonna post stuff and they’re gonna cause it to trend on TikTok to make fun of us. I don’t wanna deal with that.”
After this scene went viral on TikTok, Josh slammed the D’Amelio Show and its producers in a series of Instagram stories and tweets, claiming that the producers asked him to be at the store and that the show made him look bad for causing Charli to have a panic attack.
“Fuck the D’Amelio Show. That’s all I have to say,” he wrote. “Fuck the lies and that fake shit. I wish I could say everything I wanted to say on here.”
He later deactivated his Twitter account and apologised to the D’Amelio family for his outburst.
In the apology, Josh said that he has shot Charli many times, and has had conversations with her about letting him know “if at any point she doesn’t want [him] to shoot or record her”.
“I overreacted because the show was trying to portray me as the bad guy causing her to have mental breakdowns when that’s the last thing I would want to do.”
He further clarified that his frustrations were with the show’s producers, who told him “they were just going to use [his] questions and videos,” and that what appeared in the final cut of the episode was “not what the agreement was.”
Whatever the case, the show has succeeded in bringing the biggest TikTok stars down to reality, reminding us of the impact that our words can have, even on someone who has millions of followers. Let this be a reminder for us to use our words for positivity and building others up!
The complete season of The D’Amelio Show is available to stream on Hulu and Disney+.