Former mummy blogger Clemmie Hooper has been handed a caution order for a period of one-year following a midwifery misconduct hearing – four years after she engaged in trolling other influencers on a gossip forum.
The mother-of-four, 38, from Kent, once boasted 700,000 followers on Instagram and had partnered with brands such as Mothercare and Boden on sponsored posts.
But in 2019, Clemmie – who worked part-time as a midwife – came off social media after her account on Tattle Life, a website devoted to discussing influencers, was exposed.
Among the posts made under the Alice in Wanderlust psuedonym, was one accusing Black mummy blogger Candice Brathwaite of social climbing, being ‘aggressive’ and using her ‘race as a weapon’.
Just two months before, Clemmie had invited Candice onto her podcast to discuss her traumatic birth experience and how she developed life-threatening sepsis following an emergency C-section.
Clemmie (centre) pictured with her daughters Anya Rose (right), Marnie (left), Ottilie and Delilah (middle)
Following the Fitness To Practise Committee Substantive Hearing with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, which started on February 28, the panel’s decision was announced today (March 7).
Earlier in the hearing, Clemmie had admitted to three of the charges facing her – that she made the comments in question, and that they had been intended to ‘undermine or humiliate’ their target.
She also accepted that elements of the posts were ‘racially offensive and/or discriminatory’, but maintains that she was unaware of this offence at the time.
The panel took into account some mitigating factors, including Clemmie’s health at the time of making the posts, which was said to have clouded her objectivity.
It also considered positive testimonials with regards to her midwifery practice, her public apology, her reflection and insight into her conduct, and her ‘evident remorse’, as well as how she had been affected by reading a very large volume of negative comments about herself online.
Her self-removal from social media, and what the panel considered to be her negligible risk of repetition, were also considered mitigating factors.
In addition, the panel said it accepts that Clemmie was unaware that describing a Black woman as aggressive was a racial trope when writing the posts, and that she has since engaged in self-directed training and reading around equality and diversity.
Speaking to Grazia in 2021, Candice Brathwaite, said it had been ‘painful’ reading the posts on Tattle.
Mummy blogger and author Candice Braithwaite, who was described as ‘aggressive’ in one post, has described the posts as ‘painful’
Describing how it was a ‘knock to her confidence’, the mother-of-two explained: ‘I step into this arena as a minority, you know. I wasn’t called chubby, I wasn’t called ugly, I was spoken about based on something I cannot change. That was a bitter pill to swallow.’
In November 2019, Clemmie wrote on her Instagram Stories that she had made an account on the forum in an attempt to defend herself from criticism.
She wrote: ‘Earlier this year, I became aware of a website that had thousands of comments about my family and I.
‘Reading them made me feel extremely paranoid and affected me much more than I knew at the time.
‘I decided without telling anyone else that I would make an anonymous account so that this group of people would believe I was one of them, so that I could maybe change their opinions from the inside to defend my family and I.’
Clemmie continued: ‘It became all consuming and it grew bigger than I knew how to handle.
‘When the users started to suspect it was me, I made the mistake of commenting about others. I regret it all and am deeply sorry – I know this has caused a lot of pain.’
Clemmie Hooper, 38, from Kent, once boasted 700,000 followers on Instagram and appeared on This Morning to dish out pregnancy and labour advice at the height of her fame
Clemmie quit social media following the backlash over her Tattle life account but occasionally appears on her husband’s Instagram account. Pictured with Simon in September 2022
A post by the user Alice in Wanderlust shows her claiming that she is not ‘MOD’ (mother of daughters/ Clemmie) where she also causes Clemmie’s husband a ‘class A tw**t’
Though Clemmie never publicly confirmed her username, other members of the gossip site Tattle became suspicious when the profile ‘Alice in Wanderlust’ began posting from the same location as Clemmie, including Mauritius, and defending Clemmie.
Meanwhile, another post written by Alice in Wanderlust questioned the state of mummy blogger Bethie Hungerford’s marriage – prompting the social media star to demand an apology from her former friend.
What’s more, another post branded Clemmie’s husband Simon – who has remained on Instagram and now boasts 850,000 followers – a ‘t**t’, before denying the profile was set up by Clemmie.
Posting a statement online, Clemmie revealed the trolling she had experienced led her to set up the account, initially to defend herself, but in an effort to cover up her identity when other users began suspecting who she really was, she began posting negative comments about others
‘Undoubtedly I got lost in this online world and the more I became engrossed in the negative commentary, the more situation escalated. ‘Engaging in this was a huge mistake,’ she added. ‘I take full responsibility for what’s happened and I am just so sorry for the hurt I have caused to everyone involved including my friends and family.’
Following Clemmie’s confession, her influencer husband said he was ‘angry and sad’ to learn about his wife’s anonymous profile and said he had ‘no idea’ that she had secretly been writing about her peers online.
Describing himself as in a ‘cr** position’, Simon said he wished she had spoken to him first, and while he made it clear that he was not defending her, but that he has ‘seen what three years of being attacked online can do to someone’.
Former blogger Clemmie sky-rocketed to fame when she began documenting her life as a midwife and mother to daughters Anya Rose, Marnie, Ottilie and Delilah on blog Gas & Air, before releasing two books.
During the height of her fame, Clemmie also appeared on This Morning where she shared her pregnancy and labour advice with viewers.
MailOnline has contacted Clemmie for comment.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk