Fact Check

Did Billie Eilish Say She 'Wanted to Be Poor' to Relate to Her Fans?

"I have no problem with a joke as long as people know it’s a joke," her brother said.

Published Aug. 2, 2021

 (Flickr / Lars Crommelinck Photography)
Image Via Flickr / Lars Crommelinck Photography
Claim:
Musician Billie Eilish said that she "wanted to be poor so I can relate to most of my fans."

In July 2021, an image started to circulate on social media that supposedly showed a People magazine article quoting singer Billie Eilish saying she wished she were poor so that she could better relate to her fans:

This is not a genuine article from People magazine and this is not a genuine quote from Eilish.

The fake quote reads: "When I got rich, I started balling my eyes out, I wanted to be poor so I can relate to most of my fans ...  I still want to broke and poor, it looks really fun and cute."

This quote was never published on People.com nor on any other reputable entertainment website that we could find. It appears the quote originated with a parody Eilish news account called Billie Eilish Updates (@BilliesUpdatess). This account has since been deleted, but you can see an archived version of the original tweet here.

Eilish' brother, Finneas, also took to social media to say that the article was fake.

Finneas wrote: "Fake obviously. Honestly I just wish they’d label this account satire like the onion or something. I have no problem with a joke as long as people know it’s a joke."

This isn't the first time that Eilish has been targeted by parody accounts. In early July 2021, an Eilish impersonator got more than 40,000 people to tune into a TikTok livestream.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.

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