Haliey Welch—aka the Hawk Tuah Girl—has poured cold water on rumors that she is suing the creators of the video that made her famous, calling it “fake news.”
Welch became an internet sensation after being quizzed about her sex life in a man-on-the-street chat with YouTubers Tim & Dee TV. The duo asked her what made a “man go crazy” in bed, and she replied, “Hawk tuah”—an onomatopoeia to describe an intimate act.
Recently, rumors have emerged that she is suing the clip’s creators, Tim Dickerson and DeArius Marlow, but Welch has shut down the claim, writing on X, formerly Twitter, that “clout is being chased.”
The Hawk Tuah phenomenon started in June, when the clip of Welch’s racy bedroom tip went viral. Since then, she has capitalized on her sudden fame by selling merchandise and launching her Talk Tuah podcast. She also threw out the first pitch at a New York Mets game and was even referenced in a Saturday Night Live skit.
Haliey Welch at SiriusXM Studios in Los Angeles on July 31. Welch has become well known as the Hawk Tuah Girl.
Michael Tullberg/Getty
Rumors about Welch suing the creators of the video gathered pace when the X account @DramaAlert suggested Dickerson and Marlow had confirmed the gossip.
“The original filmers ‘Tim & Dee TV’ confirmed it seemingly in a TikTok comment. (This account is linked on their YouTube channel),” the account wrote in a post that included a screenshot of a comments section.
The image showed one user had asked, “Yo, is she really suing you?” Several users chimed in, including one that wrote, “She wants the rights to the video.” User DMarlow also replied, saying: “Not fake news. The dropping a backstory vid on youtube with all the receipts.”
On X, Welch snapped back with an image from Legally Blonde, with her face superimposed over Reese Witherspoon’s in a courtroom scene. “Fake news,” she captioned the image.
A user responded by sharing the screenshot of the comments, but Welch doubled down, writing, “If I sued it would be public but I guess clout is being chased.” She ended her statement with the Rolling on the Floor Laughing emoji.
Newsweek has contacted representatives for Welch, Dickerson and Marlow for comment.
Welch has previously opened up about how being the Hawk Tuah Girl has changed her life. Addressing her followers in a video on Instagram earlier this year, she said: “Number one, I got over my stage fright. I sang in front of 80,000 people with Zach Bryan the other night—and I cannot sing for s***. But I did it anyway!”
She said she also quit her factory job and that she now has to “get ready more than one time out of the week,” joking, “I’m not allowed to look like Adam Sandler anymore!”
Welch has also said that her sudden fame was “not all delightful,” explaining: “I have to convince my Pawpaw not to shoot the paparazzi outside of our house every day. Because they’ve been camped out here for like two weeks.”
