Australian athlete responds to claims he is dating ‘400 women at same time’
What do you do if the internet claims you are dating '400 women at once'? Log on to social media and make fun of it, of course.
This is the scenario in which Aussie rules footballer Bailey Smith found himself, after online rumours suggested the 25-year-old had multiple women on the go at once.
"POV when he's planning his future with you and 400 other women," read the original post shared by TikToker @tahliaaathornton, which appeared to show Smith photographed alongside numerous different women, captioning the post: "Love bombing should be studied."
The claim that Smith has several girlfriends on the go has since gone viral, with several other women coming forward to claim they were also romantically involved with the Australian Football League player, some of them even sharing selfies taken in the same location.
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Meanwhile, some women have shared what they claim are strings of messages between themselves and Smith.
So what's the truth behind it?
Well, it looks like they're not entirely accurate...
According to a report from The Herald Sun, the midfielder is currently single, meaning that it wouldn't be considered cheating if he was indeed seeing several women at the same time.
There are also claims that numerous photos of the women with Smith have been AI-generated, meaning that he was not snapping selfies in front of the same mirror with several women within a couple of hours. Meanwhile, a viral tweet recapping the saga has since been hit with an AI community note.
"I don’t think people outside of Australia are getting the context that this is our most publicly recognised football player, not a random guy, and teen/20 year old girls are obviously putting themselves in fake photos with him using AI lol," one user said on X of the situation.
As for Smith himself, the rumour that he's dating several hundred women at once has since made its way back to his ears, prompting the footballer to indirectly address the situation on social media.
Taking to Instagram stories earlier today (27 July), Smith asked his followers for 'date night recs' – and it wasn't long before the responses came flooding in.
Replies included a suggestion to head on dates to 'places with no mirrors' and an AI-generated photo of him standing in front of the same mirror alongside St Kilda player Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera.
Which is honestly the only reaction you can give when the internet has accused you of dating multiple women at once.
Brenna Cooper