‘A clown died’: A deep dive into celebs who’ve been caught lying in interviews

Lying makes life more fun. We’re not talking earth-shattering, life-altering lies, but ones of the white variety that let you convince someone in the smoking area Dua Lipa is your cousin or that you bumped into Zendaya on the bus. It just spices things up a bit, introduces some mischief into an otherwise formulaic conversation riddled with questions like: “So, when are you going home for Christmas?” Yawn. 

And celebrities aren’t immune from this temptation to tell two truths and a lie to total strangers for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Unsurprisingly, during the hundreds of press junkets and talk shows they’re on, they get bored too.

Julia Fox claimed she believed men shouldn’t have penises, before making some suspicious remarks about her relationship with Kanye. All this month, Dakota Johnson’s chaos answers on the Madame Web press tour have kept everyone plugged in. So, in case you want to know which famous people chat as much shit as you do, here are all of the most outrageous things celebrities have said during their lying eras: 

‘I dated Kanye West to distract him from Kim Kardashian’ 

An unconfirmed lying era, people on TikTok are convinced that Julia Fox loves to throw out mad facts online. Recently, while chatting to her followers she said she only dated Kanye West to try and get him away from Kim Kardashian during their divorce. “I was like: ‘Oh my God. Maybe I can get him off of Kim’s case,’” she said. “‘Maybe I can distract him, like, just get him to like me,’ and I knew if anyone can do it, it’s me. Because when I set my mind to something, I do it.’’’

Unconvinced but impressed by Julia’s audacity, fans replied: “Julia Fox just likes lying a lot and I respect it because wdym you dated Kanye so he would leave Kim alone? Be serious.” 

‘I love limes’ 

Dakota Johnson altered our brain chemistry when during her Architectural Digest Open Door house tour video she walked past a platter of fruit in her kitchen and claimed: “I love limes. I love them. They’re great. I love them so much, and I like to present them like this in my home.” Not the taste of limes, just the concept. So, fruit as sculpture? OK. She just loves limes so much. 

Then, a year on, Dakota went on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show and admitted: “I actually didn’t even know that they [the limes] were in there….I’m actually allergic to limes. I’m mildly allergic to limes and honeydew melon,” she added. Is she trolling everyone again? Probably. More of this, please. 

‘I’m trypophobic’ 

Kendall Jenner has claimed on multiple occasions that she’s trypophobic. Aka, she has a fear of holes. “I’m trypophobic, it’s hard for me to even talk about. I’m afraid of tiny little holes,” she said in an interview. “I’m not going to cry and run away. But it’s like clusters all together of tiny little holes they freak me out.” 

But TikTokkers with the phobia themselves have compiled all of the items (designer dresses, strawberries) that Kendall uses, which they claimed she wouldn’t be able to if she really had the phobia like them. Huh. 

‘The first time I went to the circus one of the clowns died’

Potentially the king of chatting shit, Robert Pattinson has admitted he will often “just make something up in an interview, in order to say anything at all”. And one of his most chaotic lying era anecdotes came out on The Today Show while he was promoting Water For Elephants. 

“The first time I went to the circus somebody died. One of the clowns died,” he told Matt Lauer. “His little car exploded. The joke car exploded on him… Seriously. Yeah. My parents had to — everybody ran out. It was terrifying. It was the only time I’ve ever been to the circus.” Poetry. 

Only seven days later, another journalist followed up the clown story with Rob:  “I said those things. But I actually made the whole thing up,” he admitted. “It’s coming back to haunt me. I said it on some show. It was really early in the morning the day after the New York premiere. Someone asked me what my experience with the circus was and I was like, I have nothing interesting to say. I don’t know why I said that!”.

‘Princess Beatrice cut my face open with a sword at a party’ 

Ed Sheeran cut his face quite noticeably back in 2017 and soon reports emerged that during a heavy night Princess Beatrice had sliced his face open with a sword while trying to knight him at a party. Yet, months later, Ed said the story wasn’t true. 

So, it wasn’t Ed Sheeran’s lying era that led to the rumour but another musician altogether: James Blunt. “Ed was drunk, messing around and he cut himself,” he told ShortList. “We made a fancy story up; people fell for it. It was very embarrassing.”

Featured image credit via David Fisher/Shutterstock

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