I keep having to remind myself that Lily Phillips is only 23. That she’s still incredibly young. That I can’t be too hard on her because we all do stupid s**t at that age.
It’s not the best excuse but it’s the only way I can stop myself feeling incandescent rage over her latest stunt.
Earlier this week, the OnlyFans creator ‘famous’ for sleeping with 101 men in one day, posted two pictures on her Instagram, where she has over 800k followers.
In one, she cradled a bump; the other showed two positive pregnancy tests. The caption read: ‘The secret is out. Baby Phillips 2025.’
From the moment I saw it, I thought it was probably fake – largely due to photos of her taken just weeks earlier with an incredibly flat stomach. But then I thought, ‘who would sink so low as to fake a pregnancy for clicks?’
Well it turns out, that is what Lily Phillips has done.
In an interview with news.com.au, her publicist has revealed it all to be a publicity stunt.
Allegedly, her work ‘involves roleplay, acting, and storylines’ and this was just part of an attempt ‘to follow trending categories and hit target audiences in the adult industry’.
Insert eye roll.
Last year, I had a miscarriage. It was the worst thing I have ever been through. The devastation of losing a much-wanted child; the loss of hope; the limbo of waiting for ‘it’ to happen after finding out there was no heartbeat; the emotional and physical pain.
I wouldn’t wish it on anybody, and I also know there are women who have had it far worse than me. Those who have lost their babies further along than I was; those who have experienced multiple miscarriages; those who have been trying for years and years with unexplained infertility.
It is thought that about one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage.
To fake a pregnancy – for whatever reason – is awful.
I have no doubt that pregnancy fetishes exist (I’m not about to Google and find out), so maybe that is the genuine reason Phillips has donned a prosthetic, but I cannot see any justification for her sharing that on her Instagram and pretending it’s real to the world.
Just days after her initial ‘announcement’, she crossposted JennaLee’s (2.2M followers) photo of the two of them, with the caption ‘Lily has asked me to be her newborn’s godmother. I couldn’t be more honoured’.
If you want to target the pregnancy fetish market, fine – that’s an issue for another op-ed – but why make other people complicit in the lie? Why lead millions of people to believe you are pregnant?
Why not be upfront about why you’re wearing a bump? It’s not about ruining the fantasy when in a matter of months it would have become apparent there’s no baby anyway!
I won’t even let myself consider what would have happened had she carried on with the lie.
And this is why I have to keep reminding myself she’s 23. It’s such a terrible decision to make that surely it can only be the work of someone incredibly immature.
Even Bonnie Blue’s (25) response – before the ‘fantasy’ explanation – where she said lying about pregnancy was a ‘step too far’ and that she would offer to pay for a struggling couple’s IVF felt like a petty reaction of a spurned former BFF.
Blue herself had dabbled in pregnancy rumours earlier in the week, saying: ‘The last 24 hours I’ve hinted at being pregnant’ – despite admitting that she’s also had fertility struggles.
Honestly, they’re both as bad as each other and the way they’ve treated this issue has left me disgusted.
Fertility is an issue that you can’t joke around about. Infertility too ubiquitous; too heartbreaking.
It’s not a plaything that you should fake to drive engagement to your social media channels or OnlyFans page.
The ‘who’s the daddy?’ comments don’t feel as funny when you really think about why this woman has posted this to her channel; potentially hoping for comments just like these to monetise her lie.
I’ve long had thoughts on these extreme sex challenges and I’ve been worried for Bonnie Blue and Lily Phillips. I agree with those who think that the gamification of sex is a dangerous path that can only lead to more and more ridiculous experiments in the drive to stay profitable, all at the expense of the creator’s wellbeing.
Watching Lily Phillips cry after her 100 in a day challenge, I can’t see it as empowering – especially when it transpired that she wasn’t forcing STI tests on her participants.
It’s clear this pregnancy hoax is just another way to keep her name in the news, and her follower count growing, without much thought about how this stunt will not only impact her, but others.
The solution to all of this would be for us to stop paying attention, but sadly I don’t think that will happen.
I’m fully aware that I’m writing about it when I could have just silently seethed in private. That’s the thing about rage clickbait, it gets you so riled up you have to say something.
Thousands of words have been written – and will continue to be written – about her sex challenges; about the negative impact her influencing could be having on young girls.
I’m sure thousands of words will be written about her fake pregnancy too.
I know I should ignore it, but I just can’t, and so the cycle continues.
The backlash to every controversial decision – like Bonnie and Lily’s ‘schoolies’ experiment – will drive more and more outlandish decisions that are impossible to look away from in a world where algorithms feed us such nonsense.
I hope this time is different. That this ‘scandal’ has given Lily pause for thought; that she will think twice before posting such controversial content.
And I hope beyond hope that she will never have to feel the pain of the women she’s upset so much.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk.
Share your views in the comments below.
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