Patricia Bright/Instagram
- UK YouTuber Patricia Bright offered to buy a woman groceries in Instagram story clips.
- She is seen laughing, saying the woman "scammed" her when she took her to a "bougie food hall."
- In response to backlash to fans, Bright apologized, saying the woman was "not actually in need."
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UK-based YouTuber and entrepreneur Patricia Bright has apologized after clips surfaced that appeared to show her laughing at a woman who wanted food.
Bright, 34, has nearly 3 million subscribers on YouTube, where she's mostly known for lifestyle vlogs and clothing hauls, and 1.2 followers on Instagram.
On Friday, Bright posted a series of clips to her Instagram story recounting a story in which she says she was "scammed" after offering to buy a woman groceries instead of giving her money.
While shopping at the "bougie" food hall, Bright and Pierce laugh as they recount how the woman told them that she needed to feed her five brothers, picking up items like a rotisserie chicken and large lasagna. Pierce added that while the woman appeared "very grateful," it was "clear that she had done this a few times."
In the Instagram stories, which have since expired on the app but were stitched together in a YouTube video, Bright was joined by fellow YouTuber Jayde Pierce, who also laughed at the story.
"I was keen to buy her lunch and groceries, but what I didn't expect was to be buying it for her five brothers as well," Bright added.
In the following 24 hours, Bright began trending on Twitter as backlash against her Instagram stories grew. Author and journalist Jason Okundaye said in a tweet that Bright's story "laughing at that destitute woman 'scamming' her is trash."
-Jason Okundaye (@jasebyjason) July 24, 2021
This backlash led to Bright apologizing for the post in an Instagram story on Saturday. In the statement, she wrote that the woman was "not actually in need of the items," adding that she was only laughing in her original Instagram story because the woman "recogniz[ed] [she] was a willing mark."
She also said that she had been in touch with her bank's fraud department following the encounter and had been advised to cancel her card. Sharing resources to a homelessness charity, she added that she "won't stop giving to those in need."
In a later Instagram story addressing the situation, Bright said that she'd "never laugh at someone for being hungry" She said that after she finished helping the woman, she saw her asking another person for money, with the shopping bags "gone."
Representatives for Bright didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.