Hailey Welch, better known as ‘Hawk Tuah’ girl, continues to be followed by controversy at VidCon 2025.
During a live recording of her podcast Talk Tuah Thursday night, which she co-hosts with her friend Chelsea Bradford, Welch and guest Whitney Cummings quickly lost the attention of the crowd.
Welch is responsible for one of the biggest memes of 2024, but is also linked to one of the year’s highest profile crypto scandals. In November 2024, Welch launched her own cryptocurrency $HAWK, which quickly crashed and cost investors millions. After weeks of silence, Welch finally releasing a statement in December of 2024 and has since released a video about the incident.
Thursday’s podcast, hosted in Spotify’s Podcast Theater at VidCon 2025, started off with a rowdy crowd chanting “Hawk Tuah” as Welch, Bradford, and Cummings entered the room. As the crew sat down, Cummings seemed to be stepping into a guest host role, driving the conversation as Welch took a backseat, falling into the role of guest.
As Cummings steered the conversation to Welch’s work as a content creator, Welch said her rise to notoriety was a matter of her being “at the right place at the wrong time.” As the recording got underway, the crowd remained quite boisterous, prompting Cummings to tell the crowd several times to “Shut the fuck up.”
These comments dampened the energy in the room, seemingly disappointing the audience, many of whom got up and left. As the conversation veered into Cummings’ raunchy repertoire of comedy, including mentions of oral sex, more people shuffled out of the room.
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While things seemed to temporarily settle down, Welch shared that her career dream was to get killed in a horror movie. Cummings encouraged Welch to make it happen by producing her own film. As Cummings shared her own experience in Hollywood, which involved the creation of her own sitcom Whitney, she urged Welch and the crowd to make their own content rather than waiting for someone else to hire you.
Her speech rambled into her thoughts on Hollywood which described the industry as full of nepo babies and “nerds trying to meet hot women.”
In describing her struggles as a taller woman in the entertainment industry, Cummings prompted more walkouts by describing everyone in Hollywood as a m***** or a d****.
YouTuber Jack Manifold commented on the incident on X, saying “slurs dropped at talk tuah live tonight. so disappointed #notmyhaliey.”
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As the podcast went on, things seemed to settle down as they moved into an audience Q&A.
When asked by a fan about the late-2024 launch of her cryptocurrency that cost investors millions and sparked a lawsuit, Welch said, “Does this look like the face of a girl who could talk to you about crypto?” Welch said that if the crypto scam had happened to a man, then it would have gone over differently and he “probably would have been promoted.”
As the panel wrapped up, about half of the original crowd remained with fans excitedly looking to ask Welch about her life and work.
Mashable will be live at the Anaheim Convention Center this week, covering VidCon 2025. Check back in the days ahead at Mashable.com, where we’ll be talking to your favorite creators, covering the latest trends, and sharing how creators are growing their followings, their influence, and making a living online.
