Hailey Welch, higher referred to as ‘Hawk Tuah’ lady, continues to be adopted by controversy at VidCon 2025.
Throughout a stay recording of her podcast Speak Tuah Thursday evening, which she co-hosts together with her good friend Chelsea Bradford, Welch and visitor Whitney Cummings shortly misplaced the eye of the group.
Welch is liable for one of many largest memes of 2024, however can be linked to one of many yr’s highest profile crypto scandals. In November 2024, Welch launched her personal cryptocurrency $HAWK, which shortly crashed and price buyers hundreds of thousands. After weeks of silence, Welch lastly releasing a assertion in December of 2024 and has since launched a video concerning the incident.
Thursday’s podcast, hosted in Spotify’s Podcast Theater at VidCon 2025, began off with a rowdy crowd chanting “Hawk Tuah” as Welch, Bradford, and Cummings entered the room. Because the crew sat down, Cummings gave the impression to be stepping right into a visitor host position, driving the dialog as Welch took a backseat, falling into the position of visitor.
As Cummings steered the dialog to Welch’s work as a content material creator, Welch stated her rise to notoriety was a matter of her being “on the proper place on the mistaken time.” Because the recording bought underway, the group remained fairly boisterous, prompting Cummings to inform the group a number of instances to “Shut the fuck up.”
These feedback dampened the power within the room, seemingly disappointing the viewers, lots of whom bought up and left. Because the dialog veered into Cummings’ raunchy repertoire of comedy, together with mentions of oral intercourse, extra folks shuffled out of the room.
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Whereas issues appeared to briefly calm down, Welch shared that her profession dream was to get killed in a horror film. Cummings inspired Welch to make it occur by producing her personal movie. As Cummings shared her personal expertise in Hollywood, which concerned the creation of her personal sitcom Whitney, she urged Welch and the group to make their very own content material moderately than ready for another person to rent you.
Her speech rambled into her ideas on Hollywood which described the business as filled with nepo infants and “nerds making an attempt to fulfill sizzling ladies.”
In describing her struggles as a taller lady within the leisure business, Cummings prompted extra walkouts by describing everybody in Hollywood as a m***** or a d****.
YouTuber Jack Manifold commented on the incident on X, saying “slurs dropped at speak tuah stay tonight. so dissatisfied #notmyhaliey.”
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Because the podcast went on, issues appeared to calm down as they moved into an viewers Q&A.
When requested by a fan concerning the late-2024 launch of her cryptocurrency that value buyers hundreds of thousands and sparked a lawsuit, Welch stated, “Does this seem like the face of a lady who might speak to you about crypto?” Welch stated that if the crypto rip-off had occurred to a person, then it might have gone over in a different way and he “most likely would have been promoted.”
Because the panel wrapped up, about half of the unique crowd remained with followers excitedly trying to ask Welch about her life and work.
Mashable might be stay on the Anaheim Conference Heart this week, protecting VidCon 2025. Examine again within the days forward at Mashable.com, the place we’ll be speaking to your favourite creators, protecting the newest traits, and sharing how creators are rising their followings, their affect, and making a residing on-line.