January 2, 2023
1:24 PM
The 16-year-old son of Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance issued a tearful apology for pulling a viral prank on his celebrity parents. Slater Vance recorded and posted a video to TikTok of him telling his parents that his mother’s Black Panther co-star Michael B. Jordan had died.
In the offending video, Bassett is seen having a clearly emotional response when walking toward her son to see the fake news on his phone. That video has been removed from TikTok, per CNN.
Slater shared the apology video, which he shared to his Instagram. “I would sincerely like to apologize to Michael B. Jordan’s entire family, his extended family, and him directly as he is an idol of mine,” Vance said, in tears.
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“Taking part in a trend like this is completely disrespectful. I don’t wish any bad ramifications…of my actions upon his family nor my parents as they deserve none of the backlash.”
“I own this was a mistake,” Vance added. “I hope this can be a teaching lesson to anyone who uses social media as a tool and a source of entertainment to truly understand that your actions can have consequences that extend beyond you.”
The trend of telling parents and other family members that celebrities have died is one of the latest trends on TikTok, which has over 750 million users.
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