If you’ve even looked at a piece of technology over the past two days, you’ve surely seen this news story about Kylie Jenner asking fans to donate to her former makeup artist’s GoFundMe. Many people were outraged that an alleged billionaire would ask her followers, amidst a pandemic, for money.
Now, the 23-year-old is breaking her silence.
In case you missed it, Kylie’s former makeup artist Samuel Rauda got injured in a car accident earlier this month.
It was reported that the makeup artist was thrown from a moving vehicle, suffering internal bleeding and eight brain injuries after hitting his head on the pavement.
After the accident, Samuel’s family set up a GoFundMe with a goal of $60,000 to help pay for medical bills.
“He has a long road to recovery ahead of him. I know he is loved by many. Your donations will help cover the cost of his medical expenses and whats [sic] to come. Please know that a donation of any amount is greatly appreciated,” the page read.
For those who don’t keep up with the L.A. makeup scene, Samuel is one of the most popular makeup artist’s to the stars.
The 26-year-old regularly works with a number of A-list celebs and influencers.
Of those famous clients, only a few donated to Sam’s GoFundMe. Bebe Rexha, Bella Thorne, and Sofia Richie were among those who contributed.
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After donating $5,000, Kylie shared the GoFundMe and asked her followers to donate.
Naturally, a multi-millionaire asking her mostly middle-class followers to donate did not sit well with a lot of people.
People quickly took to social media to shame the reality star for asking her fans to donate.
As you may recall, Kylie was declared the “youngest self-made billionaire” by Forbes back in 2019 at just 21-years-old.
The decision to name Kylie a “self-made” billionaire was controversial and eventually the reality star was stripped of the title.
Other celebs got involved, including Bebe Rexha, who tried to defend Kylie by saying she had never worked with Samuel.
She began by defending Kylie’s donation before saying the makeup artist was “not” Kylie’s friend or her makeup artist.
Continuing, Bebe tweeted : “She posted this too[sic] help her friend who is his friend. And she gave 5k to someone she prob met only once. Y’all are bored.”
Twitter account PopCrave quickly shut down those claims by posting a series of photos of Samuel and Kylie.
“Samuel Rauda has been working as Kylie Jenner’s makeup artist for over 6 years as confirmed via his Instagram,” the Twitter account claimed.
Now, the reality star is breaking her silence following the backlash.
In the statement, posted on her Instagram story, Kylie clarified that Samuel isn’t currently her makeup artist, saying “Unfortunately we don’t have a personal relationship anymore but I have worked with him a few years ago and think he’s the sweetest.”
Kylie went on to explain that she learned of Samuel’s accident through her current makeup artist Ariel Tejada.
“After learning in more detail about the accident it compelled [her] to visit his GoFundMe which was set at [$10,000]. They had already raised [$6,000] and I put in [$5,000] to reach their original goal and thought I’d post it on my stories to raise more awareness if anyone also felt compelled to share and donate.”
She continued:
“I don’t know how all of this got so twisted but his family has reached out through Ariel and are very appreciative of all the donations, prayers, and love towards Sam,” she continued.
In a follow-up post, Kylie wrote: “Anyone that knows me knows that I do things from the heart and I try to be helpful whenever I can be.”
Despite the explanation, many people were still unconvinced Kylie did the right thing.
What do you make of all of this? Let us know in the comments below!
