Kylie Jenner has defended her decision to ask her fans to support her friend's GoFundMe appeal following their surgery.
According to Page Six, the 23-year-old reality TV star and makeup mogul sparked outrage on social media over the weekend after taking to her Instagram Stories to ask her 222 million followers to visit a GoFundMe attempting to raise funds for the medical expenses of celebrity makeup artist Samuel Rauda.
Rauda underwent major surgery after being involved in an accident with a vehicle.
Take a look at this video of Kylie and another friend having fun together:In a post made on Thursday, 18 March, Jenner uploaded a picture of Rauda, and captioned the post: "May God watch over you and protect you @makeupbysamuel."
"Everyone take a moment to say a prayer for Sam who got into an accident this past weekend. And swipe up to visit his families go fund me. [sic]"
Kylie herself paid $5,000 to the fund in question, which has thus far raised $100,031 of its target of $120,000 as of the time of writing.
However, Kylie's appeal to the public provoked dismay among some critics, particularly as Forbes estimated her net worth at approximately $700 million as of October 2020.
A number of these critics have since taken to social media to express their indignance over the appeal.
For instance, one Twitter user wrote: "Why is kylie jenner asking for donations to fund her makeup artist’s surgery when she’s a billionaire? [sic]"
Meanwhile, someone else commented: "If I was as rich as Kylie Jenner I simply wouldn’t ask ppl on the internet to donate for my best friend’s brain surgery but we all built different i guess! [sic]"
Of course, many of these criticisms were far from the truth, and Jenner has now addressed the controversial appeal in a separate post made on her InstagramSstories, where she wrote:
"I feel it's important for me to clear up this false narrative that I've asked fans for money and am not paying for my makeup artist's medical bills.
"Sam isn't my makeup artist and unfortunately we don't have a personal relationship anymore but I have worked with him a few years ago and think he's the sweetest.
"I saw my current makeup artist and friend Ariel post about Sam's accident and his family's GoFundMe and I called Ariel immediately to see what happened to Sam."
She added: "After learning in more detail about the accident it compelled me to visit his GoFundMe which was set at 10K. They had already raised 6K so I put in 5K to reach their original goal and thought I'd post on my stories to gain more awareness if anyone also felt compelled to share or donate.
"I don't know how all of this got so twisted but his family has reached out through Ariel and are very appreciative of all the donations, prayers and love towards Sam. [sic]"
A very good explanation from Kylie, if I do say so myself. She was only trying to do the right thing and spread some kindness.
