MOLLY CLAYTON: So many influencers are faking their lavish lifestyles. I've uncovered all their tricks and secrets... this is what's REALLY going on behind their perfect profiles

It turns out the influencers have been lying to us.

Not all of them, obviously. But when TikTok briefly went dark for around 24 hours last year, something rather delicious happened: fearing their careers were over, influencers started confessing to the things they had been faking all along.

Lexi Hidalgo, who had built a following of 2.7 million around her wholesome ‘coffee talks’ and fitness content, admitted: ‘I never once drank the coffee I made in my coffee talks’, and revealed she had only completed half of the workouts she posted about.

Another TikTokker confessed she didn’t even use the elaborate ice cubes, decorated with fruit and flowers, she had become famous for making on camera. Make-up artist Meredith Duxbury, meanwhile, revealed that the famous make-up routines in which she appeared to pile on ten pumps of foundation could involve her simply wiping it all off afterwards.

And, I can reveal, it’s still happening – and a lot more than you think it is.

Because the private jets, designer wardrobes, five-star hotels, endless restaurant meals and the impossibly perfect bodies that flood our feeds may not be quite as real as we think.

Welcome to Instagram v reality: influencer edition.

Social media has turned aspiration into a business. The more enviable your life looks, the more people watch, follow and, crucially, buy what you are selling.

And if your actual life isn’t quite luxurious enough? Apparently, there are plenty of ways around that.

Take the private jet, for example.

A private aircraft has long been one of the clearest visual symbols of wealth. But you don’t necessarily need to own one, or even fly on one, to make millions of followers think you do.

One company, Ari Jets, advertises its jets for ‘influencer productions’. In other words, stationary planes which can be hired for a photoshoot. Ari has aircraft ready to go at Luton, Farnborough and Stansted.

Ewan Gill, who works for Global Charter and has jets in London, Miami and LA, told me he got a request from an influencer just yesterday.

‘We receive this type of request daily through our Instagram,’ he said.

‘This can range from relatively small profiles to some with several million followers and will cost them about £2,000, which is a lot less than what a full flight would.’

Quite.

The same trick works with hotels. I am told it is very common for influencers to book a room for a few hours, photograph themselves looking suitably fabulous in a penthouse and disappear before the real guests arrive.

One source tells me bluntly: ‘If influencers want their followers to think you have a certain level of success, you need to sell a lifestyle. You can’t have them thinking you’re with the peasants in economy.’

Another source in the hotel biz says it is increasingly common to book the ‘day-use rate’ at a five-star hotel, take the photographs and leave.

And if you don’t have a suitably lavish home to photograph yourself in? No problem. Rent one.

I can reveal that there are apartments and houses specifically marketed for content creation.

In London, one five-bedroom modern house near London Bridge was advertised at £100 an hour, while a Vauxhall penthouse was available for £95 an hour.

Why buy the lifestyle when you can hire it for 60 minutes?

But the illusion of wealth doesn’t stop there.

‘Influencers lie about a lot of stuff,’ one source tells me. ‘They rent cars out and act like they own them, take photos with luxury items then return them, move into huge apartments with their friends, a mattress and nothing else.’

Ikenna Ordor, owner of Starr Luxury Cars, tells me: ‘Influencers renting out cars is extremely common and growing every month.

‘We see it several times a week now, someone wanting a Lamborghini or a Rolls-Royce for an afternoon, purely for the content, not the commute.

‘Five years ago, it was a novelty. Today, it’s practically a content genre of its own. Instagram has quietly created an entire economy of borrowed opulence.

‘We’ve had clients ask us to “dirty up” a pristine Rolls-Royce so it looks like it’s just come back from a private estate, not a car park in Mayfair.

‘We’ve had people book a car for 45 minutes, just for a driveway shot, then send it straight back. One client asked if we could arrange for the car to be “papped” outside a hotel he wasn’t even staying at.

‘The private jet and villa version of this is even funnier. People will fly commercial to Ibiza, then pay for 20 minutes on a stationary jet at the airport just for the boarding photo. The audacity is genuinely impressive.’

And it is hardly a new trick. Last month, the lawyers for manosphere influencer Andrew Tate stated in a Miami federal court filing that he and his brother, Tristan, rented supercars and borrowed a yacht to project an image of extreme wealth for social media.

And even those enviable wardrobes are smoke and mirrors.

Luxury clothes and accessories can be ‘often a loan from a stylist, a knock-off, or rented from a luxury fashion library’, according to one source.

‘Many spend thousands online on clothing hauls and then send everything back,’ another source says. ‘The only thing they’re influencing is rushing their followers into debt.’

Let us not forget that, very recently, high street brand Zara scrapped free returns – largely due to influencers ordering items in vast quantities to show off to their followers in ‘clothing hauls’, then returning them.

And Asos implemented a ‘returns rate’, meaning that the number of pieces you send back is now tracked. A user’s account can be banned if the rate is too high.

Then there is South Korean beauty influencer Freezia, who has five million followers. She shot to fame on Netflix’s dating show Single’s Inferno, before eagle-eyed viewers spotted details on her Chanel and Dior pieces that did not match authentic versions. She later apologised and admitted wearing counterfeit and borrowed items as she tried to maintain the wealthy persona her followers had come to associate with her.

Then there are the influencer events.

I have seen influencers walk into events, take a photograph and walk straight back out, creating the impression online that they had spent the evening there.

I’ve also seen members of the Made In Chelsea cast stroll in, collect an event’s goodie bag and leave without staying for more than ten minutes, or even having a drink.

Even holiday photographs can’t be trusted.

What looks online like a spontaneous girls’ getaway can actually be a very careful content operation.

Several influencers can split the cost of a luxury villa between them, making a property that would be eye-wateringly expensive for one person suddenly much more affordable when the bill is divided between five or six.

The beauty of it is that everyone gets something out of it.

One villa can provide poolside bikini shots, champagne pictures, sunset dinners, bedroom selfies and endless ‘girls’ trip’ content for multiple influencers.

Once the photographs are taken, the same holiday can be stretched across social media for weeks.

YouTuber Natalia Taylor took the fakery even further when she proved you needn’t go beyond your nearest IKEA to stage the envy-inducing getaway of your dreams, posting photographs that made the furniture giant look remarkably like an exotic hotel.

And Gabbie Hanna famously took the idea of a fake holiday to another level when she staged an entire trip to California’s Coachella festival by posting a series of edited photographs.

But perhaps the most extraordinary fakery comes with food.

Scroll through TikTok and you will find influencers apparently devouring enormous quantities of food, sometimes thousands of calories at a time, while maintaining impossibly slim figures.

The reality, according to sources within the industry, can be rather less appetising.

‘People don’t understand that a lot of influencers just taste the food and never actually eat it all,’ one source tells me. ‘That’s how they don’t gain weight. They just bite and spit it out.’

One friend told me recently how during a trip to a swanky Mykonos restaurant with her family, influencers asked her if they could take a picture of the food they had all ordered and upload it to make it look as if they had ordered the lot.

Meanwhile, they only ordered two espresso martinis.

Another industry source claims some influencers will film an entire day of eating before fasting afterwards, or exercise heavily to compensate, details their followers never see.

So while we watch the edited version: the enormous breakfast, the designer handbag, the hotel suite, the private jet, we are rarely shown what happens after the camera stops rolling.

And, increasingly, even the photographs themselves may not be what they seem.

Earlier this year, Tatiana Elizabeth called out fellow content creator Lauren Blake after accusing her of using a photograph Tatiana had posted of herself at the US Open and editing her own face onto it.

After the saga sparked backlash, Blake removed the photo and said she was ‘deeply sorry’ for the hurt caused. She claimed the post had been created by ‘a third-party AI content agency’ and that the editing of the image was ‘entirely inconsistent with my values’.

This is the thing: the private jet selfie might have lasted five minutes, the designer handbag might have been borrowed, the hotel suite might have been rented for an hour, the food might never have been swallowed – and now, apparently, even the person in the photograph might not have been there.

Yet, online, it all looks completely authentic.

Mary and Dylan give relationship another run 

TikTok has been going wild over whether running influencer Mary McCarthy has got back together with her boyfriend Dylan Spry – also a fitness content creator. I can reveal that she has. They split at the end of last year, much to the disappointment of their followers. Mary then shared a string of posts about the breakup, documenting her journey of ‘staying strong’ and ‘being okay’ as she appeared to navigate life without Dylan.

But, plot twist: the pair have found their way back to each other. After months of separation content, it seems Mary and Dylan are officially giving their relationship another go.

Influencer controversy at the NTAs 

I’m told there were some rather disrespectful influencers at the NTAs last week. When Our Girls: The Southport Families, which follows the parents of the three young girls murdered by Axel Rudakubana in the July 2024 Southport attack, won the Authored Documentary award and took to the stage, content creators being hosted in guests’ boxes paid no attention and carried on chatting. It comes as the conversation surrounding influencers at major events intensifies, with Wimbledon reportedly considering a ban at the tennis tournament. So, could awards ceremonies be next?

UP

Content creators and influencers recently came together with Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity for a special Taskmaster livestream, and I absolutely love seeing them use their platforms for something so meaningful. Hosted by the Channel 4 show’s creator Alex Horne, and comedy creator Jake Bhardwaj, the event brought together ten huge creators, including TommyInnit, MatPat, Ayamé and Hayley Morris, to take on a series of challenges. And the best part? They raised more than £281,000 for GOSH Charity’s Build it. Beat it. appeal, helping fund a new Children’s Cancer Centre.

DOWN

Influencer Carmie Sellitto has come under fire for his food-tasting videos, most recently after travelling to Japan and filming himself trying what he described as ‘weird food’ – including sushi and sweets. The problem? Much of what he ate was traditional Japanese cuisine.

Carmie’s reactions have also raised eyebrows, with him saying some of the dishes made him feel sick. Unsurprisingly, viewers were quick to point out that there’s a difference between not liking a food and labelling an entire culture’s traditional dishes as ‘weird’. Perhaps, when travelling, influencers should remember they’re guests in someone else’s country and leave the shock-value content at home.

Irish influencer and entrepreneur Pippa O’Connor is taking her beauty brand Poco Beauty across the Irish Sea, launching in Britain exclusively through Selfridges. Pippa, who has built a huge following through her lifestyle and beauty content, founded Poco with a focus on easy, everyday make-up. The UK expansion marks a major step for the brand, bringing its products to a much bigger market and, crucially, putting them in one of the country’s biggest beauty retailers.

My recommendation of the week is TradeTok, where female creators on TikTok are reshaping perceptions of careers in the UK and proving that the trades aren’t just for men. From @womens.auto.academy, empowering women to understand and mend their own cars, to @thefemalebrickie, who documents life as a female bricklayer, and @plumbingjess, who shares her experiences as a plumber, these creators are making traditionally male-dominated industries feel more accessible. Forget ‘girl maths’, this is girl trades. And I’m here for it.

Email me – [email protected]

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