Over the years, many shocking videos have made their way to TikTok. However, few compare to the video of Tasha Paige speaking at the funeral of Veruca Salt’s son, which left millions of viewers speechless because of how inappropriate it was.
Both Salt and Paige are TikTok influencers. Salt’s real name is Kimberley Summer Hartley, but she prefers to go by the moniker Veruca Salt online. She has over a million followers on TikTok, where she often shares cooking videos and DIY projects. Salt has experienced her own fair share of controversies, but many put their personal feelings about the creator aside when she announced the passing of her two-month-old son, Cash. Her son was born in December of 2023 but tragically passed away from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in February.
While many supported the influencer during this difficult period in her life, not everyone was as understanding. Her situation demonstrated a concerning lack of empathy and understanding of grief as Salt was hit with numerous strangers on the internet speculating about her son’s death. Recently, it was revealed that she dealt with even more heartless reactions to her loss, including from someone she thought was a friend.
What happened between Tasha Paige and Veruca Salt?
As mentioned above, Paige is also a TikTok influencer with nearly 300k followers. She and Paige became friends before Cash was born, with Paige attending Salt’s baby shower. However, they seemingly had a falling out after Cash’s funeral.
Although the funeral was in February, Paige randomly took to TikTok recently to talk about her falling out with Salt. In the video, Paige explains how “a friend” invited her to her baby shower. Paige claims she spent “all this money on gifts” for the function and didn’t receive a “thank you.” Then, when her friend received “bad news,” she sent her “flowers and teddies.” Despite these gestures, Paige claims she “was made out to be the bad person.”
While Paige didn’t mention Salt by name, Salt knew the video was about her. As a result, she took her Instagram Story, sharing text messages between her and Paige, in which Paige admits to being drunk at Cash’s funeral and apologizing for anything “inappropriate or insensitive” she did. In her text response, Salt questions why Paige made the video after “ruining” her son’s funeral. Paige soon followed up with another video, explaining that she had an abortion shortly before the funeral, so she became overly emotional at the ceremony and was drinking like many other guests. However, it seems she left quite a lot out of her story.
Salt took her Instagram Story again to share her version of events. She explained that Paige hadn’t left a card on her baby shower gift, so she didn’t even know the gift was from her, nor did she understand why Paige was so fixated on needing a “thank you” for a little baby shower gift basket. Then Salt got into what happened at the funeral, warning readers that it was “disgusting” and to click away if it might trigger them.
According to Salt, Paige came to the funeral with “bad intentions,” including allegedly filming footage before and during the funeral to put into a vlog. She allegedly began drinking and behaving strangely by following Salt around and making inappropriate comments, including discussing sex in front of Salt’s seven-year-old sister and talking in detail about an eating disorder.
As a result, when the funeral director was close to arriving, Salt says she pulled Paige aside and asked her not to speak publicly. She says she even told Paige that she could talk to her privately if she felt the need to share some thoughts and feelings. However, when the funeral director asked Salt if she wanted to speak, Paige interrupted and walked to the front to talk instead. Salt claimed Paige went on and on during her speech before saying about Cash, “He’s gonna get so much p***y in heaven.” Later, she commented that the baby had “so many hot b*tches at his funeral.”
Salt’s account of the funeral was so horrific that many struggled to believe it, prompting Salt to post the actual video from the funeral. Although it has since been deleted from her page, it racked up over 20 million views and has continued circulating through reposts. Sure enough, Paige can be heard saying, “May him live with like forever lasting p***y and peace,” while standing in front of the hearse. The video goes on for several minutes, as funeral attendees can be seen standing around uncomfortably and trying to interrupt Paige to get her to stop talking.
Paige’s funeral behavior sparks outrage
Understandably, Paige began receiving swift backlash for her behavior. However, the influencer has remained largely unapologetic, excusing her behavior saying she was drunk and had been going through a difficult time. Still, it’s hard to know the real reasons for her actions when she made multiple videos expressing disgruntlement at not being thanked for a gift, as well as her making videos minimizing Salt’s tragic loss as “bad news.”
Although the whole incident has sparked horror and disgust from viewers, it has sparked some good conversations, too, about the importance of empathy and understanding. Many commenters on the Reddit threads and TikToks about the incident shared their own experiences with SIDS and how vital it was to be surrounded by people who were understanding and caring. Even those who hadn’t experienced SIDS expressed how just the thought of something so tragic was enough to bring them to tears.
As the incident raises awareness for individuals whose grief is compounded by toxic friends’ and family members’ actions, hopefully, it encourages people to show a little more humanity and empathy or to simply stay silent if they truly can’t stir up any feelings of compassion.
Published: Aug 7, 2024 01:58 pm