Cardi B defends bullied schoolboy Quaden Bayles against age conspiracy theories as crowdfunder raises £360,000
Rapper becomes latest celebrity to share support for nine-year-old boy with dwarfism
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Cardi B has defended a nine-year-old boy, Quaden Bayles, after online trolls accused him of secretly being an adult.
Last week Bayles' mother, Yarraka, shared a video on Facebook of her son saying he wanted to "kill himself" in a bid to raise awareness of the consequences of bullying.
In the now-deleted video, Bayles, who has a type of dwarfism called achondroplasia, could be seen in floods of tears while saying "I'm going to kill myself" and "I want to die".
After the post was viewed more than 25m times, the young boy subsequently received an outpouring of support from the public and celebrities, including actors Hugh Jackman and Mark Hamill, and comedian Brad Williams.
However, the bullying has now extended online, with trolls spreading a conspiracy theory that the nine-year-old boy is actually an 18-year-old actor.
While some pointed to a photo of Bayles shared on his now deleted-Instagram, which showed him posing in front of a large “18” sign as evidence he was a teenager, it was later proved he was attending the birthday party of a family friend.
On Sunday, Cardi B spoke candidly about the accusations on her Instagram Stories, telling her 59.3m followers that she did not believe the rumours people were spreading on social media.
“Everyone keeps saying he's lying about his age,” she said.
'I really don't think he's lying about his age. Just because there's videos of him flossing money and acting all gangster, and acting all cool and everything, it doesn't mean that kids do not pick on him [sic].
“Come on, just because he's acting a certain type of way and trying to be cool, his parents are probably trying to boost up his ego and make him act a certain type of way for Instagram [sic].”
The celebrity is not the first high-profile name to express their support for Bayles.
While Hugh Jackman shared a heartfelt video on Twitter telling the young boy he would always be his friend, comedian Brad Williams started a GoFundMe page to help raise money to send Bayles and his family on holiday to Disneyland.
Although Williams had initially set a target of $10,000 (£7,751), the page has since received more than 20,000 donations totalling $468,090 (£362,898).
Over the weekend, Bayles lead the Indigenous All-Stars out onto the field in their rugby league clash with the Maori All Stars in Queensland and was also offered the chance to train with top MMA fighters in Singapore who promised to make him “bully-proof”.
“I just wanted to share an update on Quaden Bayles. I just spoke to his amazing mum, Yarraka, over the phone,” Chatri Sityodtong, martial arts champion and ONE Championship founder, tweeted on Friday.
“She has graciously accepted my invitation to come to Singapore for an all-expenses-paid vacation so Quaden can learn martial arts at EVOLVE."
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