Hollywood Unlocked founder and CEO, Jason Lee has taken down some of his social media posts which stood by his claims that Queen Elizabeth II is dead.
Additionally, Instagram has marked two posts made by the Hollywood Unlocked account as "False information" for claiming the queen is dead.
On Tuesday Lee's news site claimed to have an exclusive that Queen Elizabeth II had died despite seemingly having no evidence to back up the claims. In the following hours and days Lee doubled down on his claims across Twitter and Instagram, claiming he and his site do not lie.
While his tweets still stand, he's since taken his Instagram posts down, which boldly claimed he's "never been wrong" and that he trusts his sources for the story.
He has not yet commented publicly on his claims, or on the fact that he's taken down his Instagram posts, but late on Wednesday night he tweeted, "I love Twitter," which sparked ridicule in the comments section.
I love Twitter.
— Jason Lee (@theonlyjasonlee) February 24, 2022
Lee and Hollywood Unlocked's claims that Queen Elizabeth II had died were seemingly proven wrong when the Duchess of Cambridge continued her royal duties in Denmark looking happy.
While Queen Elizabeth II has not yet been seen publicly as she recovers from COVID-19, she spoke with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the phone on Wednesday as part of their traditional weekly meeting.
A spokesman for Buckingham Palace confirmed: "Her Majesty did speak to the prime minister."
On Sunday, February 20, the queen tested positive for COVID-19 but was described as having only "mild cold-like symptoms" and was expected to continue "light duties" from Windsor as she recovered.
Rumors circulated about her health and well-being online on Tuesday after Hollywood Unlocked published their story suggesting she was dead. In an Instagram post which has now been labeled with a "False information" label, the website suggested that "sources close to the Royal Palace notified us exclusively that Queen Elizabeth had passed away."
Instagram hit the post with the fake news label after a review by independent fact-checker PolitiFact.
Before this, Lee claimed on Instagram that he has never lied, that he's never been wrong, that he trusts his sources and that he has yet to see an official statement from the palace contradicting the information on his website. This post, and another which called out Variety for suggesting he was wrong, have now been removed from his Instagram page.
On Twitter, he has repeatedly written that he is waiting for an official statement from Buckingham Palace on the well-being of the queen. Both of these tweets are still up on his account, with both receiving thousands of comments from users.
We don’t post lies and I always stand by my sources. Waiting for an official statement from the palace.
— Jason Lee (@theonlyjasonlee) February 22, 2022
Newsweek has repeatedly reached out to Hollywood Unlocked for comment.
