A British influencer said she is “deeply sorry” for lying to her friends about having cancer years ago, saying she was in a “dark place” with her mental health at the time.
Brittany Miller admitted to the lie in a video posted to her TikTok account Monday, about a week after the U.K. Sun published an article that claimed to “reveal” the “dark truth” behind Miller’s career.
“I said something to someone within my immediate circle, in confidence, one stupid sentence that I deeply regret,” Miller said, noting the lie occurred before she gained social media fame. “I said I had an illness, which was cancer.”
Her apology video, which has more than 7 million views as of Tuesday, comes more than two years after social media users first accused her of lying.
Rumors about Miller’s lie hit a peak in 2023, when people accused her of having lied to friends about her illness to manipulate them into spending time with her and asking for donations to a crowdfunding campaign. The allegations circulated on TikTok and other social media platforms, such as Reddit.
The lifestyle content creator, who often shares videos and pictures of her family to her 3.5 million followers on social media, appears to have posted her first video to TikTok in 2020.
She said she never had malicious intent, but told the lie “out of desperation.” She said she had “extremely bad mental health” in 2017, describing herself as depressed and suicidal.
“I did it to keep the people close to me, to keep the people in my life close to me,” Miller said. “I don’t condone it. I understand why I did it, and I’ve learnt from my mistakes.”
Miller denied in the video Monday that she ever tried to scam anyone with her lie. She said a fundraising page had been made on her behalf after the one person she lied to “then told a couple of others.”
“And as soon as I saw there was donations — there was two donations — I had the page immediately shut down, and I didn’t take a penny from it,” Miller said.
Now a mother of twin boys, Miller said she’s grown and has been “working on being the best version of myself.”
“I admitted what I did, and I said sorry to the people that I hurt after it all happened,” Miller said. “A year later, I moved away from my hometown because I wanted to work on myself. I wanted to be better. I wanted to be mentally well again.”
If she could go back, Miller said she would change what she did in a heartbeat. She credited her partner, Ash, and his family for helping her, calling him her “light at the end of the tunnel.” She also thanked her followers for their support.
“I'm here because I want to be an advocate for mental health,” Miller said. “I want to help people, because I know what it’s like to be in a dark, dark place.”
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988, or go to 988lifeline.org, to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.
