Mom who said she gave her 8-year-old daughter Botox admits it was all a hoax
Get ready for another wave of outrage: Kerry Campbell, the 34-year-old part-time aethestician who told the world that she gave her 8-year-old daughter Botox injections and body waxing in order to help her do better in kiddie beauty pageants, now says that it was all a hoax.
"The truth is that I have never given my daughter Botox, not allowed her to get any type of waxing, nor is she a beauty pageant contestant," the mom-whose real name is Sheena Upton-admitted in a statement.
Upton says that she accepted $200 "to play the role of Kerry Campbell" for an interview that appeared in the British tabloid The Sun on March 23. After appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America" and "Inside Edition" last week, San Francisco Human Services Agency launched an investigation and her daughter, Britney, was removed from her home by Child Protective Services. Upton issued her statement, which is dated May 18th, in order to regain custody of her daughter.
In the written statement, which was obtained by TMZ and can be seen here at left (click for the PDF), Upton says that The Sun provided her with "instructions and a script to follow for a recorded interview." She agreed to later interviews with "Good Morning America" and "Inside Edition" in exchange for "a large fee for both," rumored to be upwards of $10,000. A source at ABC News told TMZ: "There is no truth to the story about compensation, but they did pay a broker no more than $10,000 to license photos."
On Tuesday, the child was examined by a doctor and a dermatologist at the U.C.L.A. Medical Center. "After my daughter received a full medical exam, the results indicated that she has not ever received treatments including Botox or other such injections," Upton wrote in her statement. Her daughter has been returned to her home, at least temporarily; a cousin is staying with them while the investigation continues, TMZ reported.
An ABC News spokesman said that they have read Upton's statement "and are vigorously investigating her most recent statement and rapidly shifting story.... 'Good Morning America' has repeatedly questioned Upton, members of her family, and other sources who again and again stood by the Botox story."
We're not sure which is worse: the fact that Upton blatantly lied about giving her daughter Botox-and made her kid lie about it as well-or the fact that we believed it because of all of the other crazy-but-true kiddie-beauty-pageant horror stories we hear. What do you think?
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