Stories of celeb hookups with groupies aren't anything new, but in the age of social media,
viral posts led to these stars being caught in groupie scandals. If you’re not up to
speed on these steamy stories, let us catch you up.
Oftentimes, when James Harden's name is in the headlines, it's for making some poor soul
look like a novice on the basketball court while defending him. That's because Harden
is one of the NBA's most prolific scorers. But in June 2015, he made headlines after
being photographed in bed by a woman who then posted it on her Instagram page.
Harden stayed quiet about the image, but he was teased about it by people like Bow Wow,
who claimed he should have known better.
In a since deleted Instagram post, the rapper wrote,
"I see yall boys still young rich and DUMB. Now James is my boy but let me say this now.
This is how I use to do it. Its called 'leaving no evidence,' If you was chilling with me,
my security takes phones and you signing papers."
Bow Wow continued,
"I give credit to the ladies because most of us are just that rich and stupid so yall
know how to get us. I been caught up too before not knowing, being a rookie."
As for the woman, she pretty much disappeared from headlines once the shock of the photo
subsided, and she hasn't posted anything to her Instagram page since 2016.
On Nov. 5, 2013, it's safe to say that not many people knew who Tatiana Neves Barbosa
was. But that changed just one day later after a short video of Justin Bieber sleeping in
bed surfaced on YouTube, one that the Brazilian model supposedly filmed, according to E!.
Barbosa also shot herself blowing a kiss to the singer in the clip - so right away, the
general assumption was that Bieber allegedly had a tryst with a groupie.
Unsurprisingly, the video instantly got millions of hits, but Bieber and his team never publicly
addressed it. However, Barbosa - who was also a part-time actor at the time - did talk about
it to The Sun days later. According to Barbosa, Bieber and his team reportedly rented a villa
in Brazil, and one of his handlers asked Barbosa to attend a party there. Afterward, she reportedly
went to the singer's hotel room.
Claiming that she and Bieber had a one-night fling, Barbosa told The Sun that she didn't
mean for the clip to get out, and had only sent it to a friend to show that she was really
with the pop star. But the leak didn't seem to take away from how she felt about her alleged
night with Bieber, as she stated,
"It was one of the best moments in my life. It was marvelous and unforgettable."
Instagram celeb Celina Powell has been called hip-hop's most famous groupie, as she's claimed
to have hooked up with several rappers. In 2018, for example, Powell alleged that she
was carrying the child of Offset from Migos, but later admitted to lying about it, according
to Urban Islandz. Then, in January 2021, she tried to convince Drake that he gave her his
number in the past, but the Canadian rapper said he wanted nothing to do with her. Drake
then shared their text exchange to prove that he turned her down cold.
Snoop Dogg may have considered Drake's move when it came to Powell - especially since
he's been married to his high school sweetheart, Shante Broadus, since 1997. After Powell claimed
that he'd cheated with her by sharing their alleged text messages in July 2018, Snoop
seemed to respond on Instagram, saying he'd be starting a TV show called Clout Chasers,
the slang term used for those who try to get fame by piggybacking off another person's
celebrity.
Not that this deterred Powell, who later shared explicit details of her alleged tryst with
the rapper in a YouTube video posted in December 2019.
"And Snoop Dogg, out of all people, felt the need to comment laughing faces."
The following September, Powell claimed in an unconfirmed post that she and Snoop were
seeing each other again on Instagram, captioning a photo of him with,
"Snoop dogg isn't leaving me lol no matter what I do. ... FYI, him and his girl are separated
living in different houses."
There was one particular week in 2016 when Kasi Bennett's phone must have been buzzing
with text messages. Who is Kasi Bennett, you might ask? She's sprinter Usain Bolt's longtime
girlfriend and mother of his child. Your second question might be: Why was her phone blowing
up back then? Well, because photos of the famed Jamaican athlete appearing to be in
bed with a woman named Jady Duarte went viral while he was in Rio, Brazil for the Olympics.
Duarte detailed their alleged encounter in a 2016 interview with The Sun, in which she
claimed that she met Bolt at a nightclub after he sent his security guard to set up an introduction.
When she turned the request down, he reportedly lifted his shirt to show off his six-pack
abs, which led to her joining him in his Olympic Village living quarters, which is where they
supposedly engaged in a little hanky-panky. Duarte went on to explain that she took photos
of herself and the runner and uploaded them to WhatsApp as a way to prove to her friends
that she was really with him.
For his part, Bolt didn't respond to Duarte's interview, but during a 2017 chat with Page
Six, he expressed confusion about some of the women he meets, saying.
"I think I have gotten better over the years when it comes to women, but there is no way
to tell the difference between a groupie and a good woman."
NFL running back Ezekiel Elliott was seen getting some Zs, when an unnamed woman took
a photo or two while they appeared to be in bed together. The woman was seen making the
duck face in the photo, wearing a pink shirt, and holding up her phone to snap the shot.
She also let everyone know who was supposedly in the picture with her, just in case there
was any confusion. And according to Bossip, she put the pic on Snapchat right after Elliott
was selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the fourth overall pick of the 2016 draft that
May.
Of course, the photo went quickly viral for two reasons. First, Elliott was already a
household name after having massive football success at Ohio State, and second, he went
incredibly high in the 2016 NFL draft. As for the woman in question, she's since done
a stellar job of keeping her name out of the press. For his part, Elliott has kept silent
about the photo, which seemed to help people eventually stop talking about it so much - and
he hasn't been caught up in a similar alleged situation since.
NBA Player Klay Thompson isn't an athlete who's associated with a lot of off-the-court
shenanigans, but in 2015, his name was all over the place - and it had nothing to do
with his super sweet jump shot. Thompson made headlines because his girlfriend at the time,
model and social media star Hannah Stocking, accused him of committing a personal foul.
In multiple since-deleted tweets captured by Yahoo! News, she wrote,
"So I guess he really wanted that tag to get his numbers up. "When you catch ur man naked
in bed with a groupie ... lol KlayThompson."
For his part, Thompson remained silent about the accusation, but according to Married Biography,
Stocking reportedly broke up with him shortly after.
Since then, both parties have moved on. In 2020, rumors started to spread that Stocking
was dating TikTok star Ondreaz Lopez, but the couple later split, which she confirmed
in February 2021 while talking to The Hollywood Fix. As for Thompson, he began dating actress
Laura Harrier in 2018, according to Yahoo! Sports.
Country singer Trace Adkins married his second wife, Canadian actress Victoria Pratt, in
October 2019 - but years earlier, Pratt admitted to being his groupie and flirted with him
on Twitter. In fact, it was reported by Radar at the time that the flirting reportedly led
to the singer's then-wife of 17 years, Rhonda Forlaw, to divorce him in 2014.
But Pratt and the artist didn't keep their attraction for each other online, because
Pratt seemed to imply that they'd hooked up while filming The Virginian, which is where
they met.
In March 2013, Pratt tweeted,
"Gave Trace Adkins a sponge bath at work today. ... just another day at the office. I owe
the universe big time! #Bestjobever."
According to Radar, Pratt later gave an emphatic "yes" when someone asked if she was Adkins'
groupie while watching him perform at California's Stage Coach music festival that year. As a
source cited by the outlet claimed the following year,
"Rhonda was totally humiliated. When Trace told her that he had fallen in love with Victoria
Pratt, she completely flipped out."
Throughout Lil Wayne's long and successful career, fans have seen him in various fashion
styles, whether it was the baggy look of the early 2000s or the more fitted look that came
years later. But in July 2012, Weezy appeared to be seen in just his boxer shorts and eyeglasses
after a woman named Saralyn Rivera was accused of taking a photo of him while he was sleeping,
according to VladTV.
Many also assumed the pic was taken following an alleged romantic episode between the two,
and the photo instantly went viral. However, model-dancer Rivera claimed it wasn't her
who put it online.
In a series of tweets, she wrote,
"Woke up 2 craziness. I'll say this, it wasn't a 'groupie' situation at all. ... It's between
me n wayne actually, but I would never send anything to blogs. Whoever did is a lame.
Lol."
For his part, Wayne didn't respond to the chatter surrounding the photo.
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