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Why is 'apologize to Gabbie Hanna' trending? Inside her feud with Trisha Paytas

On Wednesday, Hanna uploaded a video on her YouTube channel titled, “The Fight I Tried To Hide From You - Trisha Paytas vs Gabbie Hanna," in an attempt to disprove claims made by Paytas.

On Wednesday, June 16, #ApologizeToGabbieHanna was trending on Twitter. Although not everyone tweeting with the hashtag seemed to agree with it. This trend comes after weeks of drama involving YouTubers Gabbie Hanna, Trisha Paytas and Jessi Smiles. Let’s unpack what’s going on.

Earlier this month, BuzzFeed News profiled Hanna in a longform titled, “Why Is Everyone So Mad At Gabbie Hanna?” The story involved Paytas as well, the YouTuber who recently parted ways with Ethan Klein and the ‘Frenemies’ podcast causing much controversy. The article alluded to various aspects of the ongoing feud between Paytas and Hanna, which kicked off in 2019 when Paytas said Hanna told their then-boyfriend Jason Nash that Paytas had herpes, which Paytas said was not true.

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In the profile, there was a quote from Hanna that “in part” referred to Paytas: "Imagine you had a friend six years ago who, to this day, is contacting your employers, contacting everyone you know, and trying to ruin your reputation." Paytas has reportedly long denied that they and Hanna were ever friends. 

On Wednesday, Hanna uploaded a video on her YouTube channel titled, “The Fight I Tried To Hide From You - Trisha Paytas vs Gabbie Hanna.” She said in the introduction that for years Paytas had claimed the two had never met, effectively convincing their fans that Hanna was a “delusional, dangerous, obsessed stalker who imagined a years-long friendship” with them. 

In the video, Hanna included a portion of her podcast which Paytas appeared on back in January, which she had originally edited out because she had “no desire to embarrass” them. In the podcast, the two discussed an incident that occurred when Hanna asked Paytas for their address so she could send them her book after the two bonded over poetry.

Shortly after refusing to share their address, Paytas posted a YouTube video in which they stated that they did not like giving out their address. Paytas, in the podcast, insisted that this comment was not about Hanna and called her “paranoid.”

Hanna also claimed that the two were friends as they “shared a lot” but that their friendship ended in 2017. She also shared screenshots of their text messages showing multiple conversations between the two of them. Following that, Paytas took to Twitter and wrote, “Gabbie Hanna is my bestie. Why u doing this to our friendship girl ? Let’s talk. Let’s learn. Let’s go together. But also, mainly, please don’t murder me. Thanks.”

Shortly after, Hanna tweeted screenshots of her texts with Paytas and wrote, “never been obsessed with trisha, never wanted to convince her we were friends… just wanted her to stop making tweets, videos, tiktoks and podcasts saying i’m a delusional crazy stalker who imagined a friendship in my head. just want to be left alone.”

Fans of Hanna, following that, began the aforementioned trend in support of the YouTuber. “She was bullied by the tea community and Trisha for years and everytime she defended herself she get called every name in the book, time for them to apologize #ApologizeToGabbieHanna,” wrote a fan. “it is genuinely so great to see the youtube community do something positive and expose the truth about the constant slander of Gabbie Hanna. everyone who has ever spread false information about her, most notably the tea channels, needs to #ApologizeToGabbieHanna,” said another.

But not everyone agreed. “Do ya'll realize both Trisha and Gabbie are bad people ... Right?” tweeted one person. “y’all are mad crazy for trending apologize to gabbie hanna when she has yet to make a genuine apology for anything and we just recently saw footage of her vile phone call with jessi,” tweeted another person. One person tweeted, “y'all are really tweeting #ApologizeToGabbieHanna as if she isn't a rape apologist that sends her fans to bully and harass small creators that simply don't like her…”

On June 7, YouTuber Jessi Smiles released several recorded clips of phone conversations she had with Hanna. These conversations were about Curtis Lepore, her ex-boyfriend whom she accused of rape in 2013. After Smiles (whose real name is Jessica Vasquez) accused him of rape, Lepore was convicted of felony assault in 2014 under a plea agreement. The rape charges were subsequently dropped.

In the recordings, Smiles confronted Hanna and accused her of lying about defending Lepore. Hanna is heard explaining that she initially doubted Smiles' claims because a male friend of hers was once falsely accused of rape. She also demanded that Smiles issue a public apology for sharing her private messages on social media and that she sign a non-disclosure agreement.

The recordings come after the profile on Hanna, where she said of Smiles: “Who didn't I apologize to? I gave Jessi Smiles an apology. I gave Beyoncé an apology. It feels like I'm always dishing out apologies and I've never once received one, and that to me feels a little chaotic."