A Moray teenager who became an internet sensation after an April Fool’s text message to her boyfriend went viral reflected on her “surreal” brush with sudden global celebrity yesterday.
A joking exchange between Hayleigh Mcbay and David Clarke was picked up by several websites, and the Rothes youngster found herself unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight.
Just after midnight on Wednesday, April 1, Hayleigh texted her boyfriend saying the couple should break up.
Sensing it was an April Fool’s joke, David replied to say he agreed the couple should part ways and Hayleigh, 17, posted the tongue-in-cheek remarks online with the caption “well my April fools backfired”.
Overnight the exchange spread across the internet, with Hayleigh becoming the focus of dozens of website features.
Last night she said: “It’s crazy, I just posted our conversation on Twitter and didn’t even expect anyone to notice it.
“Then it started getting a lot of retweets from friends and followers of mine, and David actually joked that it might go viral.
“And then it just went boom – people kept showing me all these newspapers across the world that were reporting on it.
“The only word I can use to describe it is surreal.”
It was a welcome episode of light relief for Hayleigh’s family, who were rocked by tragedy last year when her dad Graeme McKenzie was killed in a road accident.
Although they are still coming to terms with his death, mum Sharyn Mcbay said the family were heartened by the amusement he would have taken from Hayleigh’s brush with notoriety.
Ms Mcbay said: “The whole experience has been fun but overwhelming, and her dad would have loved it.
“He would have thought this was amazing, and I think he will be looking down and laughing.”
Hayleigh’s taste of stardom did come with a negative side, as she became a victim of cruel comments from internet trolls.
Some online commentators even wrongly speculated that the exchange between Hayleigh and David was staged in an attempt to gain online fame.
But despite this, the Moray College student – who hopes to begin a degree in social sciences after the summer – says she will reflect her fifteen minutes of fame with fondness.
Hayley said: “Some of the comments I received were really weird, but I didn’t take them personally and tried to ignore them.
“Going viral is something I can look back on and laugh at.”