"Clemmie Hooper's husband is far from the biggest victim of her trolling."

Clemmie Hooper’s perfect public image has been shattered. The Brit, known on Instagram as Mother Of Daughters, was last week exposed as a troll going by the name of AliceInWanderlust, who even attacked her own husband Simon online.

But the frenzy that followed this shock revelation claimed someone else as a victim: Kelechi Okafor.

Okafor, a writer and actor, called out Hooper for racist comments she’d made as AliceInWanderlust. Almost immediately, she found her Instagram account deleted.

Okafor posted on Twitter that Hooper had been “writing crap about Black female mummy bloggers because she felt threatened by their growing success”.

So Clemmie Hooper is the one who has been using fake accounts to write crap about Black female mummy bloggers because she felt threatened by their growing success. https://t.co/cdGcbWWaMp

— machine gun Kele (@kelechnekoff) November 9, 2019

“She wrote the most vile things about Candice Brathwaite under the pseudonym ‘AliceInWanderlust’,” Okafor added. “Proper racist crap. She brought my name into it at one point after I announced my pregnancy. Devilish.”

Brathwaite is an influencer and the founder of online initiative Make Motherhood Diverse. Hooper, who is a part-time midwife, had invited Brathwaite onto her podcast to talk about the horrifying statistic that black women in the UK are five times more likely to die during or soon after childbirth than white women. But Hooper had then attacked Brathwaite under the name AliceInWanderlust on the Tattle Life forum.

“Candice is often really aggressive and always brings it back to race, privilege and class because she knows no one will argue with that,” she wrote. “It feels like a weapon to silence people’s opinions.”

Once Okafor found out that Hooper was AliceInWanderlust, she realised that the person who’d made these comments was a midwife at the hospital where she’d given birth.

“Clemmie Hooper needs to have her pin taken away from her by the midwifery council,” Okafor posted. “I don’t feel safe knowing she’s a midwife.”

The response was swift.

“Within a couple of hours of sharing my views, my Instagram account started showing me notifications that my page was in danger of being deleted over claims that I was bullying Hooper,” Okafor wrote in a piece for Grazia. “I imagine that her supporters came to report my page.

“My account was deleted by Instagram soon after.”

Mamamia’s Tully Smyth, sits down with one of the original Instagram “mummy influencers”, Sophie Cachia to talk about combining family with business. Post continues below. 

Seyi Akiwowo, writing for Gal-Dem, points out that statistics show black women are more likely to be harassed online than white women. She said Instagram deleting Okafor’s account had “silenced, de-platformed and further traumatised” her.

“Instagram silencing Kelechi also sends a horrific message to Clemmie’s other victims who should also be encouraged to speak out, not made to feel even more fearful,” Akiwowo added.

When Okafor went on Twitter to explain what had happened, there was a mass outpouring of support. People made reports to Instagram and donated money to her.

“Due to the incredible support I received, my Instagram account has now been reinstated and I’ve been verified,” Okafor explained in Grazia, “but I am yet to receive an apology for how the ordeal has affected me.”

Okafor isn’t the only person concerned that Hooper is practising as a midwife. Writer Danielle Dash says it “scares the living daylights” out of her.

“Here is Clemmie Hooper, a white woman, offended that Candice Brathwaite speaks openly about her race so much so that she created a burner account to lament about it,” she wrote on her website. “What does she do when black mothers in her care speak about their pain? Does she ignore them? Does she berate them? Does she ridicule them? Kelechi Okafor did what black women often are forced to do – fight for ourselves and each other before anyone else will take notice.”

The Nursing and Midwifery Council has issued a statement, saying they’ve had some messages over the weekend regarding “one individual’s online conduct as reported in the media”.

“Please be assured we have passed all these messages onto the relevant teams here at the NMC,” the statement reads.

Hooper still has her account on Instagram, and she still has a photo of herself with Brathwaite, along with the link to her podcast. Plenty of comments have been added in the past few days.

“Delete this picture,” one woman wrote. “You don’t get to shame someone and then continue to tokenise them to try and make yourself seem like a birth worker who actually supports black women. You are not.”

 

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Episode 7 of Birth Stories is with mother and author @candicebrathwaite founder of @makemotherhooddiverse. We discuss her induction which ended in an emergency c section and how her postnatal recovery complications led to her developing sepsis. Candice and I also discuss the black birthing experience and the results of the MBRRACE report, which showed that in the UK, black mothers are five times more likely to die in childbirth than their white counterparts. Link in bio ⬆️???????? #birthstoriespodcast

A post shared by C L E M M I E (@mother_of_daughters) on Sep 17, 2019 at 2:36am PDT

“I wouldn’t trust you to look after me,” another added.

As for Okafor, she wrote on Twitter yesterday that she’s “still vexed” and can’t pretend that she’s not.

I’m still vex and I can’t pretend that I’m not. I don’t care about the platform as much as the principle that my anger was feared more than addressing racism.

— machine gun Kele (@kelechnekoff) November 11, 2019

“I don’t care about the platform as much as the principle that my anger was feared more than addressing racism.”