Kylie Jenner Set The Record Straight About That $5K GoFundMe Donation

Pro-tip for famous billionaires: Don’t plug GoFundMe pages when you can simply cover the costs yourself. After resharing a donation page set up by her former makeup artist Samuel Rauda’s family to cover his emergency medical expenses, Kylie Jenner faced backlash for not reaching deeper into her pocket to help him out herself. But on Monday, March 22, the reality star took to Instagram to explain why she gave only $5,000 and directed her 222 million followers to donate as well.

"Anyone that knows me knows that I do things from the heart and I try to be helpful whenever I can be,” the 23-year-old wrote on her Instagram Stories. "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.”

Kylie went on to explain that she called her current makeup artist, Ariel Tejada, to find out more information upon hearing that Rauda had been in a car accident. She then went to his GoFundMe and donated the remaining funds needed to meet their goal. “They had already raised 6k so I put it 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," she added. "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.”

Kylie’s response came after she was blasted online for her now-deleted post about the accident, which reportedly directed her millions of followers to the crowdfunding campaign, per The Sun. “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,” she wrote.

Rather quickly, people began calling her out on Twitter for the size of her donation and for asking others to contribute when she could’ve covered the medical expenses herself. “Kylie Jenner really asked us for money like we made the Forbes list,” one person tweeted. “Kylie Jenner is asking her non-billionaire fans for money to pay for her makeup artists/friends ($60k) surgery? When she earns $456k a day?” someone else wrote.

Now that Kylie has issued a statement, it seems that people on Twitter are still skeptical. “Kylie’s little statement made not one bit of damn difference,” someone tweeted. Others, however, came to her defense, saying that the internet bullied her into making a statement that she didn’t have to make. Among those who defended Kylie was pop star Bebe Rexha. “It’s not anyone’s business how anyone spends their money,” the singer tweeted. “Period.”