Hailey Welch, the "Hawk Tuah" girl who went viral for her bold street interview, recently stirred the pot by claiming rapper Yung Gravy slid into her DMs asking her on a date. However, Yung Gravy, known for his hit song "Betty," quickly shut down the rumours, by posting receipts that suggest a different story.
In a conversation with TMZ, Hailey Welch, 21, claimed the 28-year-old rapper had messaged her asking her out, but she wasn’t interested. Yung Gravy responded by sharing a screenshot of their Instagram exchange on X (formerly Twitter), captioning it, “can’t be nice anymore lol.”
The exchange shows Hailey Welch reaching out to Yung Gravy first, sending a message at 1:44 a.m. saying, "Hello sir." Yung Gravy responded around noon, congratulating her on her newfound fame. While he clarified he wasn’t trying to flirt, he did invite her to one of his shows in August, saying, "Oh and this aint me trying to finesse cause [I don’t know your] mans situation <3 but I wanted to have [you] at a show next month to hear my country s---."
Hailey Welch asked for more details about the show, to which Gravy replied that she could pick one of his upcoming dates. Contrary to Hailey Welch's claims, Yung Gravy's invitation appears to have been purely professional.
Two days before Yung Gravy’s screenshots surfaced, Hailey Welch told TMZ a different version of the story. When asked if she thought Yung Gravy was trying to pursue her, Hailey Welch replied, "He wants to take me on a date. I was like nah, I don’t know about that."
When TMZ spoke to Yung Gravy, he acknowledged reaching out to Hailey Welch but denied asking her out. He explained that his intention was to show her support, especially after seeing her receive backlash online. "All she’s doing is talking about s*x and doing it the right way, and that’s what I do," Yung Gravy said.
He added that while he might have invited her to a show, he didn’t intend to ask her on a date, though he joked that it could have been interpreted that way.
Despite the miscommunication, Yung Gravy remains a fan of Hailey Welch, saying, "Always be [a fan of hers]."
Hailey Welch's rise to fame began in June after her explicit response to a question during a man-on-the-street interview in Nashville went viral. The clip gained massive attention, and Hailey Welch has since capitalized on her viral moment, signing with a management firm, singing onstage with Zach Bryan, and even throwing out the first pitch at a New York Mets game.
Though she’s enjoyed her newfound fame, Hailey Welch has expressed a desire to move beyond her "Hawk Tuah" tagline. Speaking on the Plan Bri Uncut podcast in July, she shared that she had quit her job at a bed spring factory after going viral but hopes to distance herself from the phrase that made her famous. "I don’t see that being my thing," she said, explaining that her response was partly in jest. "I [didn’t] mean nothing by it [at the time]."
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