Kat Von D finally addresses rumours that she's a Nazi and anti-vaxxer
18 March 2019, 15:01
"Out of every comment I've gotten, the ones that are calling me and family Nazis – those are the ones that really just don’t sit well for me."
Kat Von D has addressed "offensive" rumours that she's a Nazi and anti-vaxxer in a new YouTube video. In the 11-minute clip, the beauty guru denied she was a Nazi or anti-vaxxer and explained the source of the rumours, which have been around since she shot to fame on Miami Ink in 2005.
"As a lot of you know, I have been getting a ton of hate over two different controversial topics, both of which are pretty hard for me to talk about but I just really want to try my best to clear the air," the tattoo artist began.
"Just to set the record straight from the beginning, I just want to say that I am not anti-Semitic and I am not an anti-vaxxer."
Kat – who has disabled the comments on her YouTube video – then explained that the rumours of her alleged anti-Semitism began on Miami Ink, where she clashed with a male cast member that felt "threatened" by her being on the show.
The 37-year-old claimed her cast member – who she chose not to name – started sabotaging her work and made her time on set unbearable. And when he discovered that she was getting her own spinoff, LA Ink, he leaked a forged headshot of Kat with an "anti-Semitic message" on it to get LA Ink cancelled.
"Overnight, I was just falsely branded as an anti-Semite and I had no idea how to handle it or what to do," she added.
It wasn't just that headshot, though. Kat – who considers herself Latina – dated Jesse James, who has been linked to Nazism. And in 2015, Kat had planned to release a shade of lipstick called "Selektion", which ABC News reported refers to the Nazi "death camp practice of 'selecting' those to be executed."
Kat went on to touch upon the unexpected backlash she received after she wrote on Instagram that she was going to raise her son Leafar Von D Reyes, three months, without vaccines.
Whilst still pregnant with Leafar in June 2018, Kat posted a photo of her baby bump and explained that she and husband Rafael Reyes were going to raise their son "without vaccines". She received a lot of criticism for the post but she insists that she isn't against vaccination, she was just "hesitant" about the ingredients.
"I am not an anti-vaxxer," she said. "What I am is a first-time mother. I'm one of those mums that reads everything. I mean I read everything from ingredients in foods to cleaning supplies to medicines – basically anything that is going in my baby or on my baby, I research like a complete and total nerd.
"If I would have known that I would have let so many people down with that, I would have never, ever shared where we were at with it at that time."
She continued: "Since then, we have decided as parents to consult with our paediatrician and just let him educate us and guide us. But, unlike before, I have learned my lesson and I am choosing not to make our decision public."
