Kim DePaola is facing criticism over an Instagram video featuring sensitive moments involving several reality TV families. The former Real Housewives of New Jersey star defended the post, saying it was meant to highlight loss, fentanyl and other difficult issues rather than make fun of anyone’s pain.
Kim DePaola addresses the backlash surrounding her controversial video featuring Milania Giudice
In the video, DePaola moved to Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On?” while images of Mary Cosby’s late son Robert Cosby Jr., Teresa Giudice’s daughter Milania Giudice’s airport incident and Kim Zolciak’s son Kroy “KJ” Jagger Biermann Jr. were shown.
“What’s going on??” DePaola captioned the post. She added, “Sometimes you don’t dance because you’re celebrating… you dance because you’re processing,” before referencing “loss,” “chaos,” “family drama,” “heartbreak” and “mental health struggles.”
The video quickly drew criticism from viewers who felt the imagery was inappropriate given the personal nature of the incidents. DePaola later defended herself on Instagram, insisting that she was not dancing.
“Let me make something very clear,” she said. “The video that I made, I was not dancing; I was moving to music that moved me.” DePaola then revealed that she had lost someone close to her to fentanyl.
She said, “This is warfare against our children. Fentanyl is warfare. I did the video to open eyes.” She also insisted she would “never celebrate anyone else’s pain” and said she lives with the pain of losing a young boy to fentanyl.
After @bravosnarkside reposted the clip with the caption, “Girl what!”, DePaola responded, “Only people who are filled with hate would take this video the wrong way!”
She added, “I lost a boy to fentanyl, he was like a son to me! I just wanted to bring attention to this warfare!”
DePaola later told Reality Blurb that the person she was referring to was William Lafontaine, who died in 2019. “He was a son to me, lived with my mother and me, and died of fentanyl,” she said.
