Twitter Called Out Olivia Jade On DWTS After She Said She’s Known As An “Influencer”

Season 30 of Dancing With the Stars just premiered, and the internet has a lot of thoughts. This season features an Olympic gold medalist, a former Bachelor, a professional wrestler, a Spice Girl, and a glitter-loving YouTube star turned pop icon. However, the most controversial cast member of all might just be 21-year-old Olivia Jade, as evidenced by the strong reaction that ensued on Twitter when she claimed that she’s “probably best known for being an influencer” during a video that aired ahead of her salsa with partner Val Chmerkovskiy.

She and the producers failed to mention her famous parents: Full House star Lori Loughlin and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli. Her introductory clip did mention the college admission scandal that thrusted all three of them into the spotlight. They made headlines in 2019 when her parents paid a bribe of $500,000 to get her and her sister admitted into the University of Southern California. The sisters were later accepted to the school as recruits for the crew team, despite neither of them having ever participated in the sport of rowing. Loughlin and Giannulli were sentenced to prison, and Jade took time off social media to escape the backlash.

Now that she’scompeting for the mirror ball trophy, she’s already raised some eyebrows, and the reception didn’t go over so well on Twitter. “Olivia Jade said she’s best known for being an influencer ........ BESTIE PLSSSSSSSSSS. You mean a D1 rower?” Twitter user @fren_emys wrote. “Nah, we all know what you’re best known for and it’s not that,” @rosemcbridetv added.

Several other DWTS fans weighed in as well, making it clear that Olivia Jade is best known for the college admissions scandal that landed her parents in prison.

Jade didn’t address the controversy much during the premiere of DWTS. However, she did say that she’s been “wrapped up in a scandal” for the past few years and that she’s been trying to move on. “I’m not trying to pull a pity card, but I just need to move forward and do better,” she said in the prerecorded footage.

This wasn’t the first time she publicly addressed the scandal. In December 2020, Jade appeared on an episode of Red Table Talk to discuss her parents’ crimes and what life has been like since. “It’s been hard,” she told hosts Jada Pinkett-Smith, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, and Willow Smith. “I think for anybody no matter what the situation is, you don’t want to see your parents go to prison. But also I think it’s necessary for us to move on and move forward.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the social media star admitted to initially not understanding what her parents did wrong. “That’s embarrassing to admit,” she said. And even though it didn’t quite click, she’s since come to understand and has apologized for her own role in the scandal. “What hasn’t been super public is that there is no justifying or excusing what happened because what happened was wrong,” she said. “I think every single person in my family can be like, ‘That was messed up, that was a big mistake.’”