DeuxMoi: The rise of Instagram’s anonymous celebrity gossip sharer with 1.7 million followers
On 21 March 2020, the anonymous woman behind the Instagram account known only as DeuxMoi posted a message on an old account that had become dormant.
“Ok, better than… my amazing & captivating commentary… DM me any celeb stories (first or second hand) you are willing to share.” It didn’t take long for the responses to come in, the encounters to be shared, and the followers to rack up.
While those who don’t spend hours on the social media site may never have heard of DeuxMoi, to many it is the go-to source for pop culture, posting behind-the-scenes stories, anecdotes and rumours from insiders, as well as celeb sightings, casting info, and even details of who tips well at restaurants – and who doesn’t. (Tipping, especially the difference between UK and US stars, is a hot topic.)
Followers share their encounters and inside info, DeuxMoi reposts their stories; only moderated to sometimes remove a name or identifying details, should the sender not want to disclose. These are known as “blinds” – leaving followers to do their own detective work.
Speaking to Sky News, the nameless woman behind the account insists her content is mainly innocuous and isn’t presented as fact or as if she is an authority, but “in reality, the audience is on the same journey I am to finding out the truth about a rumour. We’re all in it together”.
DeuxMoi says she makes it clear she is not a journalist, nor a Hollywood insider. “Curators of pop culture,” reads the bio. “Some statements made on this account have not been independently confirmed. This account does not claim information published is based in fact.”
But many of the followers are. From publicists, assistants and nannies to record label workers, TV runners, restaurant workers and even celebs themselves, many are willing to spill the tea. As a result, DeuxMoi has been first with some big celeb stories, such as Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles‘ relationship, and Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s break-up.
While some celebs understandably aren’t fans, there are others who can’t get enough. Kardashian herself has reportedly described it as “the Bible”, Cardi B and Chrissy Teigen are among the account’s followers, and Drew Barrymore recently interviewed Deux on her podcast, Drew’s News.
There is now merchandise. A podcast. A recently released novel, Anon Pls – referencing the request by all titbit submitters to keep their names private. And in the works, according to reports, a HBO drama.
More than just gossip?
There is an obvious argument against unverified stories being shared publicly. DeuxMoi appears to have filled the hole left by many celeb gossip mags of the noughties as they toned down – but with a follower count of 1.7m and rising, there is clearly an appetite for it.
Most is low-stakes. The “blinds” are for the content that is less so. In an era in which the rich and famous have almost complete control over the content they put out on social media, the appeal seems to be that this is unfiltered. DeuxMoi says the account is not just about gossip. Growing during the pandemic, as people were stuck at home, it created connection, she says.
“Drew, she understood, like, the humanistic side to it,” she says, speaking about her interview with Barrymore and the A-lister’s love of the site (she is also among its followers).
“In quarantine, when everything was closed down, people were sending in stories from five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, it was almost like a study in like human interaction. Like, how certain celebrities would interact with fans or how they would be at certain points in their career. I felt like Drew understood that aspect of the account and didn’t take it… as just a gossip account, because I do think it’s more than that.”
While there has been much speculation about her identity – with names reported in the US – DeuxMoi says who she is doesn’t matter. “I don’t think it’s an important factor. I’m not posting about myself.”
We know she lives in New York and she doesn’t use anything to alter her voice, she says, so apparently I’m hearing the real DeuxMoi. There are about 20 people in total, close friends and family members, who know her identity. At first, she was holding down a job and running DeuxMoi at the same time – living in constant “anxiety” for fear she might be unmasked. Now, DeuxMoi is the job.
And while she remains nameless, most celebrities are certainly aware of DeuxMoi. In an interview with Rolling Stone around the release of her fourth album in November 2021, Adele joked about the difficulties of dating. “You can’t set me up on a f****** blind date! I’m like, ‘How’s that going to work?’ There’ll be paparazzi outside and someone will call DeuxMoi, or whatever it’s f****** called! It ain’t happening.”
Rihanna headlining Glastonbury (rumours) and the next Bond…
Two rumours the account has posted about recently: Rihanna apparently headlining Glastonbury, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson being named as the next James Bond.
She addresses Rihanna first: “I want to go on record saying I don’t know how reliable that information is, but she has new music, she’s doing the Super Bowl. Her name has been thrown around for Coachella. Somebody wrote in and said she was close to confirming. But I’d like to say I don’t know how reliable that information is, so not to get everyone’s hopes up.”
British actor and Marvel star Aaron Taylor-Johnson she is more confident about. “Someone messaged me yesterday with some information that I can’t share because that would probably give them away. But he’s being heavily considered, if not already chosen.”
The Bond information “came from somebody I’ve been messaging with for years and they’ve given me information about stuff in the past”, she says. “The Glastonbury information came out of the blue from somebody I don’t really know.” This is how she differentiates “something from being reliable to not very reliable”, or not knowingly reliable.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson: the next 007? Pic: AP/Lee Jin-man
Most recently, mentions of Styles and Wilde in her messages have been on the rise following their break-up. “People think they are fake broken-up,” she says. “So there’s interest in that.”
As the account has grown, she now has several people she considers trusted sources for information. “I won’t give a number but [I have] a handful of people I trust explicitly.”
With 1.7 million followers, there must be a sense of responsibility? She says there are certain issues, and celebrities, she won’t share information about. “I don’t like to post about somebody’s sexuality unless it’s been discussed publicly. And anything to do with anyone under the age of 18. Also… I really wouldn’t feel comfortable posting about things that have to do with rehab.”
Information that might have legal implications, she says she also passes on – but will sometimes give the information to journalists to investigate. And there are five individual celebrities you won’t see featured in DeuxMoi posts either, she says – two she says have made their feelings clear publicly, and three she has had private conversations with.
But there are celebrities and brands who want to be associated with DeuxMoi; the brand she has built has earned her invites to all sorts of exclusive events. She says she doesn’t accept. “I’ve been out in New York to restaurants that are celebrity-frequented that I post about all the time, I’ve sat very close to celebrities who I DM (direct message) with, and it did not make me feel good.”
The celebs on the DeuxMoi nice list
Pic: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
Following the release of Anon Pls, a novel based on the story of DeuxMoi – mixing stories of fictional celebrities with real ones – there is now the TV show to prepare for. “It’s being produced by Greg Berlanti,” [The Flight Attendant, Batwoman, Free Guy, Dawson’s Creek] she says. “They are securing writers right now and the person who was named to me, I can’t say who because it’s not 100% signed, sealed, delivered. But it’s exciting, so cool.”
DeuxMoi ends the interview on the question anyone who works in the entertainment industry always gets asked: which celebs are the good ones? Giving the caveat again that these are not based on her own experiences, but on positive intel, she reels off a list of names: “Drew Barrymore, Paris Hilton, Hugh Jackman, Mark Ruffalo, Julianne Moore… I don’t know if this one is going to be controversial, but Will Smith, he was always someone that, stories were submitted about him and he always [seemed] like really, really nice to people he’d meet.
“Tom Cruise, another one who conducts himself very professionally and in that same manner. Oh, and Harry Styles, obviously. Those are the ones I think stand out. Colin Farrell, he’s a name that always comes up. Oh and Rupert Grint, Daniel Radcliffe. The Harry Potter kids, always nice. And the Jonas Brothers.”
But, she adds, you have to take into consideration “what type of environment… is it a red carpet event? Like, of course a celebrity’s going to be nice at a red carpet event!”
And DeuxMoi is diplomatic about the not-so-nice ones, choosing not to name names. “I haven’t had personal experiences with these people. Somebody could have caught them on a bad day, do you know what I mean? We’re all human, right?”
You’ll have to read the posts and decide for yourselves.
In October 2016, Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint – with jewellery worth millions of dollars stolen during the audacious heist in Paris.
It was the biggest robbery of an individual in France for more than 20 years – and made front pages around the world.
Now, almost a decade on, the case is finally coming to court.
Why has it taken so long? Will Kardashian give evidence? And who exactly are the “grandpa robbers” facing trial?
Here’s everything you need to know.
Kardashian at the Siran Presentation on the day of the robbery. Pic: Rex Features
What happened?
Two years after Kardashian and rapper Kanye West tied the knot in an ostentatious week-long celebration spanning Paris and Florence, the Kardashian-West clan were back in the French capital for Paris Fashion Week.
Her then husband had returned to the US to pick up his Saint Pablo tour – but Kardashian, along with her sister Kourtney and various members of their entourage, remained in Paris, staying in an exclusive set of apartments so discreet they’ve been dubbed the No Address Hotel.
Nestled on Tronchet Street, just a stone’s throw from Place de l’Opéra, and close to the fashionable Avenue Montaigne, the Hotel de Pourtalès is popular with A-list stars staying in the French capital.
A stay in the Sky Penthouse, the suite occupied by Kardashian, will currently set you back about £13,000 a night.
Kardashian was staying at the Hotel de Pourtales
On the evening of 3 October, after attending a fashion show with her sister, Kardashian remained in the apartment alone while the rest of her convoy – including her bodyguard Pascal Duvier – went out for the night.
At about 2.30am, three armed men wearing ski masks and dressed as police forced their way into the apartment block – and according to investigators, they threatened the concierge at gunpoint.
Two of them are alleged to have forced the concierge to lead them to Kardashian’s suite. He later told police they yelled at him: “Where’s the rapper’s wife?”
Kardashian said she had been “dozing” on her bed when the men then entered her room.
She has said she believes her social media posts provided the alleged robbers with “a window of opportunity”.
“I was Snapchatting that I was home, and that everyone was going out,” she said in the months after the incident.
The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star vividly described the attack in a police report, as reported in the French weekly paper Le Journal du Dimanche.
“They grabbed me and took me into the hallway. They tied me up with plastic cables and taped my hands, then they put tape over my mouth and my legs.”
She said they pointed a gun at her, asking specifically for her ring and also for money.
Police guard the entrance to the Hotel de Pourtalès the day after the robbery
Kardashian says they carried her into the bathroom and put her in the bathtub. She said she was wearing only a bathrobe at the time.
She had initially thought the robbers “were terrorists who had come to kidnap me”, according to a French police report taken in New York three months after the robbery.
Kardashian told officers: “I thought I was going to die.”
According to police, the robbers – who left the room after grabbing their haul, escaped on bicycles with items estimated to be worth about $10m (£7.5m), including a $4m (£3m) 18.88-carat diamond engagement ring from West.
After they had left, Kardashian said she escaped her restraints and went to find help. After speaking to detectives, she immediately returned to the US on a private jet and later hired a completely new security team.
Kardashian shows off her $4m ring on Instagram
What was stolen?
As well as her engagement ring, Kardashian said the thieves took her large Louis Vuitton jewellery box, which she said contained “everything I owned”.
In police reports given to the French authorities at about 4.30am on the night of the alleged robbery, Kardashian listed these items as having been stolen:
• Two diamond Cartier bracelets
• A gold and diamond Jacob necklace
• Diamond earrings by Lauren Schwartz
• Yanina earrings
• Three gold Jacob necklaces
• Little bracelets, jewels and rings
• A Lauren Schwartz diamond necklace
• A necklace with six little diamonds
• A necklace with Saint spelt out in diamonds
• A cross-shaped diamond-encrusted Jacob cross
• A yellow gold Rolex watch
• Two yellow gold rings
• An iPhone 6 and a BlackBerry
Police recovered only the diamond-encrusted cross that was dropped by the robbers while leaving.
It’s likely the gold in the haul was melted down and resold, while the diamond engagement ring that is now so associated with the robbery would be far too recognisable to sell on the open market.
Kardashian at the Siran Presentation on the day of the robbery. Pic: Rex Features
What will happen in court?
The hearing will begin at the Court of Appeal of Paris – the largest appeals court in France – on 28 April and is scheduled to last a month.
It will consist of a presiding judge, two professional assessors, and six main jurors.
The hearing involves more than 2,000 documents and there are four civil parties.
Kardashian at the Balenciaga show on the day of the robbery. Pic: Rex Features
Who is being tried?
There were initially 12 defendants in the case, but one person has died and another has a medical condition that prevents their involvement. This means 10 people – nine men and one woman – are standing trial.
Five of them, who were all aged between 60 and 72 at the time of the incident, face armed robbery and kidnapping charges. They are:
• Yunice Abbas
• Aomar Ait Khedache
• Harminv Ait Khedache
• Didier Dubreucq
• Marc-Alexandre Boyer
Abbas, 72, has admitted his participation in the robbery. In 2021, he published a book about the robbery, titled I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian. In 2021, a court ruled he would not benefit financially from the book.
Aomar Ait Khedache, 69, known to French crime reporters as “Old Omar”, has also admitted participating in the heist but denies the prosecution’s accusation that he was the ringleader.
The remaining five defendants are charged with complicity in the heist or the unauthorised possession of a weapon. They are:
• Florus Heroui
• Gary Mader
• Christiane Glotin
• François Delaporte
• Marc Boyer
Among those, Mader was a VIP greeter who worked for the car company Kardashian used in Paris, and Heroui was a bar manager who allegedly passed on information about Kardashian’s movements.
With many of the accused now ageing and with various serious health conditions, and some having spent time in jail following their arrest, all are currently free under judicial supervision.
If found guilty, those accused of the more serious crimes could face 10 years to life imprisonment.
Kardashian at the Off-White show three days before the robbery. Pic: Rex Features
Will Kardashian give evidence?
Yes.
Lawyer Michael Rhodes said Kardashian has “tremendous appreciation and admiration for the French judicial system” and “wishes for the trial to proceed in an orderly fashion in accordance with French law and with respect for all parties to the case”.
A trainee lawyer herself, Kardashian has become a high-profile criminal justice advocate in the US in recent years.
(R-L) Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian, Kris Jenner in the front row three days before the robbery. Pic: Rex Features
Why has it taken so long to come to court?
There was initially a manhunt after the robbery, with French police under pressure to prove that Paris’s security was not in question.
Just the year before in 2015, the capital had been shaken by terrorist attacks by Islamic militants, in which 130 people were killed, including 90 at a music event at the Bataclan theatre.
French police initially arrested 17 people in the Kardashian case in January 2017 – three months after the robbery – assisted by DNA traces found on plastic bands used to tie her wrists. Twelve people were later charged.
It was ordered to be sent to trial in 2021 – at a time when limited court proceedings were happening due to multiple COVID lockdowns, and France was holding its largest ever criminal trial over the November 2015 terror attacks.
Kardashian at the Givenchy show on the day of the robbery. Pic: Rex Features
What has Kardashian said about the incident?
Kardashian has described the robbery as a “life-changing” moment. She took three weeks away from filming her reality TV show Keeping Up With the Kardashians, and took a three-month break from social media.
In a March 2017 episode titled Paris, Kardashian first spoke publicly about her ordeal.
She described first hearing a noise in her apartment, and calling out, thinking it was her sister and assistant: “At that moment when there wasn’t an answer, my heart started to get really tense. Like, you know, your stomach just kind of like, knots up and you’re like, ‘OK, what’s going on?’ I knew something wasn’t quite right.”
She went on: “They asked for money. I said, ‘I don’t have any money’. They dragged me out to the hallway on top of the stairs. That’s when I saw the gun, clear as day. I was looking at the gun, looking down back at the stairs. I was like, I have a split second in my mind to make this quick decision.
“Either they’re going to shoot me in the back or if I make it [down the stairs] and the elevator does not open in time or the stairs are locked, there’s no way out.”
Three months later, she told a Forbes Power Women’s Summit she had changed her approach to posting on social media: “They had followed my moves on social media, and they knew my every move and what I had.”
She added: “It was definitely a huge, huge, huge lesson for me to not show off some of the things that I have. It was a huge lesson to me to not show off where I go.
“It’s just changed my whole life, but I think for the better.”
West and Kardashian at the Off-White show three days before the robbery. Pic: Rex Features
In October 2020, Kardashian told US interviewer David Letterman she feared she would be raped and murdered during the heist, and that her sister had been at the forefront of her mind during the incident.
Speaking on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, Kardashian said: “I kept on thinking about Kourtney, I kept on thinking she’s going to come home and I’m going to be dead in the room and she’s going to be traumatised for the rest of her life if she sees me… I thought that was my fate.”
When speaking to French police about the impact the robbery had had on her three months after it, Kardashian said: “I think that my perception of jewellery now is that I am not as attached to it as I used to be. I don’t have the same feeling about it. In fact, I even think that it has become a bit of a burden to have the responsibility of such expensive jewels.
“There is nothing of sentimental value to compare with the act of going home and finding one’s children and one’s family.”
She went on to describe Paris as “not the right place” for her, and didn’t return to the French capital for two years following the robbery.
Kardashian has since said in a 2023 episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians that she did not purchase any jewellery in the seven years following the robbery, kept no jewellery at her home and only wore items that are either borrowed or fake.
She said the realisation that material items don’t matter has made her “a completely different person in the best way”.
Entertainment
The Magic Circle’s first female member fooled them into believing she was a man – how did she do it?
How did one woman fool the most famous magic society on the planet?
Back in 1991, Sophie Lloyd pulled off the ultimate illusion, tricking the Magic Circle into thinking she was a man.
But over 30 years after being unceremoniously kicked out, the Circle has tracked down the former actress to apologise and reinstate her membership.
She told Sky News how returning feels like the society has “made good on something that was wrong”.
Sophie Lloyd, who tricked the Magic Circle into believing she was a man
How did she infiltrate that exclusive group that nowadays counts the likes of David Copperfield and Dynamo as members?
In March of that year, she took her entry exam posing as a teenage boy, creating an alter-ego called Raymond Lloyd.
“I’d played a boy before,” she explained, but “it took months of preparation” to secretly infiltrate the Circle’s ranks half a year before it would officially vote to let women in.
“Really, going back 30 years, men’s clubs were like, you know, just something you accepted.”
The men-only rule had been in place since the Circle was formed in 1905. The thinking behind it being that women just couldn’t keep secrets.
Aware of the frustration of female magicians at the time, Lloyd felt she was up for the challenge of proving women could be as good at magic as the men.
The idea was, in fact, born out of a double act, thought up by a successful magician called Jenny Winstanley who’d wanted to join herself but wasn’t allowed.
She recognised the hoax would probably only work with a much younger woman posing as a teenage boy, and met Lloyd through an acting class.
Sophie Lloyd as teenage magician Raymond Lloyd. Pic: Sophie Lloyd
Lloyd said: “We had to have a wig made… the main thing was my face, I had plumpers made on a brace to bring his jawline down.”
To hide her feminine hands, she did the magic in gloves, which she says “was so hard to do, especially sleight of hand.”
The biggest test came when she was invited for a drink with her examiner, where she had to fake having laryngitis.
“After the exam, which was 20 minutes, he invited Jenny and I – she played my manager – and I sat there for one hour and three quarters and had to say ‘sorry, I’ve got a bad voice’.”
Raymond Lloyd passed the test, and his membership certificate was sent through to Sophie.
Then, in October of the same year, when whispers started circulating that the society was going to open its membership to both sexes, she and Jenny decided to reveal all. It didn’t go down well.
Read more:
Jelly Roll seeks pardon from criminal past
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Rather than praise her performance, members were incandescent about the deception and, somewhat ironically, Raymond Lloyd was kicked out just before women members were let in.
Lloyd said: “We got a letter… Jenny was hurt… she was snubbed by people she actually knew, that was hurtful. However, things have really changed now…”
Three decades later the Magic Circle put out a nationwide appeal stating they wanted to apologise and Lloyd was recently tracked down in Spain.
While Jenny Winstanley died 20 years ago in a car crash, as well as Sophie receiving her certificate on Thursday, her mentor’s contribution to magic is being recognised at the special show that’s being held in both their honour at the Magic Circle.
Lloyd says: “Jenny was a wonderful, passionate person. She would have loved to be here. It’s for her really.”
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