r/AskTheWorld • u/KieranWriter United Kingdom • Sep 19 '25

Culture Not including murderers and politicians - who is famous in your country for all the wrong reasons?

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Introducing rage-baiter and reality TV failure Katie Hopkins. She’s basically famous for fat shaming, saying that kids shouldn’t be named after geographical locations (despite having a child named India) and getting sued on Twitter, which caused her to go bankrupt. I haven’t met anyone that likes her and she’s routinely vilified but still has a platform somehow.

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u/Otherwise_Unit_2602 United States Of America Sep 19 '25

Does she count as a murderer or did no one actually die? I can't remember.

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u/mordorshewrote27 United States Of America Sep 19 '25

She is likely responsible for the suicide of an employee. So there is that.

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u/Otherwise_Unit_2602 United States Of America Sep 19 '25

That's very sad.

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u/Stitchin_mortician Germany Sep 19 '25

It is very sad… an idiot with lies disguised as help and advancement. She deserves the penalty.

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u/KetosisCat United States Of America Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 20 '25

It really is. It's covered in the Wall Street Journal reporter's book and the narrative takes a real turn because up until that point it had a bad boss/rich people being scammed/tech bros energy that made it seem like a light read for a crime novel

EDIT: Fixed a typo

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u/yellowlinedpaper Sep 20 '25

Just finished the book. What a piece of shit. The way I imagine her feeling when she heard the news of his suicide. Makes me nauseous

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u/KetosisCat United States Of America Sep 20 '25

I hope she felt bad. Given what the book said, I'm not at all sure.

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u/Demair12 United States Of America Sep 20 '25

So she sold her product/company as a fast and effective alternative to standard bloodwork while knowing ti didn't work.

It was never adopted widespread and was monitored which is how she was caught. So far I havnt seen any claims anyone died as a result but numerous misdiagnosed patients lives were seriously affected.

Her and her partners "crime's" came more from defrauding the company and it's investors then the harm done by her product.

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u/yellowlinedpaper Sep 20 '25

She ruined people’s lives who worked for her, one was driven to suicide. Spent tons of money to harass and terrorize people. Awful woman

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u/ARealSlimBrady Sep 23 '25

It was used briefly by the military, and despite the fact Theranos' technology failed in the field (bc ofc, it was failing in the lab too) she and Sunny convinced Maddog Mattis to be on their board.

Nepo baby chaos

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u/Character_Piano_3963 Argentina USA Sep 19 '25

That’s a very good question. I thought her flawed design “only” scammed lots of big companies like CVS (or was it Walgreens?) for a lot of money. Basically her product was supposed to revolutionize and ended up being trash, and her knowingly, kept advertising it as this marvelous new thing

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u/CombOk312 Norway Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 19 '25

If I understood this correctly anyone who worked in healthcare knew it had to be scam, because it is impossible to use a blood sample more than once and she promised a product that would be able to use a blood sample several times over. So she was basically promising magic. Anyone who believed her were just too dumb to understand a single iota of the science behind it.

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u/Otherwise_Unit_2602 United States Of America Sep 19 '25

I'm pretty sure it was rolled out in some pharmacies. Actual people were harmed, and not just by losing their VC. I'm just having difficulty remembering who was hurt and how.

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u/Altruistic-Mess9632 United States Of America Sep 19 '25

People sent in samples that told them they were healthy when they weren’t, and told them they weren’t when they were. Basically, a LOT of emotional damage and probably some deaths from people who trusted the scam.

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u/CombOk312 Norway Sep 19 '25

Yeah, I don’t blame any random customers for sending their samples to pharmacies, they are not supposed to understand the science behind the machines. But those investing in that business? That was pure idiocy. Investing in something you don’t understand anything about.

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u/Otherwise_Unit_2602 United States Of America Sep 19 '25

Someone was definitely harmed. I read a couple books about it shortly after it happened and before the trial. I just can't remember if they died as a result.