One of my guilty pleasures is tuning to Dancing With The Stars every Monday night. This season specifically, because of some of the rumors going around between cast members. One that caught my attention is a possible affair happening between partners Oliva Jade and Val Chmerkovsiky.
You might be familiar with Olivia Jade already as she was involved in the college admissions scandal, but now she’s possibly facing another one. The article mentions rumors flying around social media about an affair happening between the influencer and married DWTS pro, however. Olivia cleared the rumors by responding to a video on Tik Tok.
Even though these rumors are declared false, Olivia and Val have been losing fan votes and support to keep them in the competition.
Therefore, I think It is interesting to take this situation to a PR standpoint. First, I wanted to comment on Olivia’s response. Clearly, this is negative news for her. People will believe things they hear on the internet even if they are false. Once rumors started spreading, fans believed the Olivia was having an affair with her married dance partner. Even though, she landed one of the highest scores in the competition, she landed in the bottom two. Many believe the rumor is affecting her chances at progressing in the competition.
Olivia responded to the rumors on social media. She declared them as false and mentioned her and Val are friends, and she adores his wife. From a PR perspective, I think the way she responded on social media was a correct step. This way she will be able to reach a large audience. I also applaud her for her simple response. I valued the way she did not put much time into a silly rumor and clearly denied it to her publics.
If I was Olivia’s publicist, I would recommend her to address the rumors in a similar way. Her reputation is being even more ruined from false rumors. I would advise her to post an Instagram story explaining the rumors are untrue and absurd and her and her partner are focusing on the competition. With a negative rumor like this, it is unnecessary to bring even more attention to it so word does not spread and become misinformed.
This situation with Olivia and her partner does involve the need of PR practices because rumors are affecting her reputation, but also her place in the dancing competition. As a future PR professional, I would recommend Olivia addresses her publics through social media to clear any negative thoughts about her.
https://www.distractify.com/p/val-olivia-jade-affair-dwts