Belle Delphine's Most Controversial Moments

Content warning: The following article contains references to sexual violence, suicide, and NSFW content.

On the surface, Belle Delphine looks like any other cosplayer sharing photos online. She is cute, and enjoys colorful wigs and costumes. Plus, people seem to love her. Of course, once you get to know her work, you'll learn that she's an incredibly efficient troll who's made a career out of playing the e-girl/gamer girl. 

It's made her famous, but her controversial activities indicate she's well aware of what works and what doesn't when it comes to making money online. She's a woman Business Insider called a "trollish provocateur," and for a good reason. Just when it looks like her antics have died down, she does something new that tops her last effort, and it hasn't failed her yet.

Whether you've heard of her from media reports of "Gamer Girl Bathwater" or that time she supposedly vandalized a car because someone stole her hamster, there's a good chance the name Belle Delphine has crossed your timeline at one point or another. She's been all over the Internet since 2015, but it took her a few years to go from your run-of-the-mill cosplayer into the troll she inevitably became.

Delphine has undoubtedly made a name for herself, and she's done so without any shame or explanation. She's managed to court some serious controversy over the years in her rise to Internet superstardom, and every time she does something provocative, she reaps the benefits in the form of cold hard cash.

Belle Delphine's Internet popularity was already on the rise with 4.5+ million Instagram fans when she made international news. In July 2019, Delphine posted a message promising to sell something a bit unusual. She launched a new product called Gamer Girl Bathwater for all her "THIRSTY gamer boys."

Delphine's small jars of used bathwater sold for $30, and all 500 samples sold out in three days. The stunt earned Delphine recognition from international media outlets and sparked plenty of rumors online. The most pervasive scuttlebutt suggested several people caught herpes after drinking the bathwater, but these claims were all untrue.

In reality, the claims of people catching an STI from Delphine only helped boost her popularity, and the stunt was an incredible success. Delphine's bathwater product spawned copycats in the form of companies claiming to sell jars of her urine. She received requests for some additional ... fluids to be placed in the bathwater. Still, Delphine reportedly only filled them with 100% bathwater.

While the stunt may seem like it came out of nowhere, Delphine explained where she got the idea in an interview with Metro: "So, there is a joke in the community among gamers where they will comment on a post, saying 'let me drink your bath water.' And although it's a joke, I just kind of found the idea of turning it into a reality and actually letting people own my bathwater funny."

After Delphine posted her "arrest" picture, she followed that with another video and then disappeared from the Internet entirely. She didn't return for several months, and rumors persisted that she received death threats for her content. Delphine has taken several breaks from online activity over the years, and when she ended this one, she made waves.

Delphine dropped a music video in June 2020, teasing she would make a "big bag" with an OnlyFans account. At the same time, she took the opportunity to post her new Instagram and TikTok accounts. Of course, the OnlyFans account got the most attention, and when she began posting on the platform, she made a ton of cash.

In November 2020, Delphine made $1.2 million on OnlyFans, and according to her, she's managed to keep that momentum going, month after month. When she opened the account, she ported over all of the NSFW pictures and videos she previously hosted on her private NSFW Snapchat. There were some 4,000 images and 600 videos waiting for any fan willing to fork over the $35 monthly fee on day one.

When her OnlyFans account went live, her photos and videos were seminude. Still, it wouldn't be long before she crossed over into pornography. As of September 2021, Delphine's OnlyFans account has been liked more than 618,000 times, and if she genuinely is bringing in around $1 million a month, that means she has about 28,570 subscribers paying to see her content. 

There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people doing the same kind of work Belle Delphine does online (including actor Bella Thorne, who's raking in the dough). When she first started, her content garnered some attention, but it wasn't until she started making headlines for weird activities that her popularity increased. Her Gamer Girl Bathwater stunt pulled in a ton of cash alongside some serious publicity, but that pales in comparison to some of the other things she's done to earn views and clicks.

In one photoshoot, Delphine was accused of fetishizing or "promoting rape." Delphine posted pictures of herself in what Insider described as an X-rated display of a fantasy kidnapping scenario. In the now-deleted Twitter post, she described the shoot as "My perfect first date."

In response to suggestions she should have placed a trigger warning on the posting, she explained to Metro that, "There is nothing wrong with enjoying power-play and BDSM where both people are consensual." She further wrote that the claims made against her were akin to those that have long plagued the video game industry as a cause of violence. Ultimately, Delphine removed the offensive photos, which may have been due to calls to have her "canceled" on Twitter.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Death rumors hit the Internet every so often, and these are usually debunked by whichever celebrity is targeted. Sometimes, they pop up out of the blue, and in other cases, they can show up when someone does something specific. In Belle Delphine's case, her activities and a long period of inactivity made her the subject of an Internet death rumor.

The rumors started circling when Delphine posted something rather controversial to her Instagram account. She put up a picture with the text, "Swipe right for a public announcement from me." The subsequent video featured Delphine dancing to a song about suicide. She then makes a gesture suggesting she may be hanged before bringing a gun into the frame.

The nature of the video and accompanying music led many of her fans to worry about Delphine's safety. Comments on the now-deleted post consisted of people asking if she was okay and whether or not she might hurt herself. The rumors persisted, primarily because Delphine disappeared from the Internet for a few months.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

When Belle Delphine was 17, she was already building an audience through her cosplay pictures and was well on her way to establishing herself in the community. At this time, she was approached by an older man who asked that she hand over control of her Facebook account. His plan was to release nude photos of other women while passing them off as Delphine.

Delphine would receive a percentage of the profits, and she agreed to go along with the plan. According to Delphine, she "stopped working with him very soon after because I didn't like him" (via Insider). He asked for her mother's credit card number, and the situation became untenable for the young cosplayer, so she walked away.

Unfortunately, the damage had already been done, though it wouldn't come to light until January 2019. A sex worker named Minty Darling alleged that Delphine sold Darling's nudes without her permission, claiming them to be her own. Delphine offered what little money she made from the arrangement, but was rebuffed. Eventually, the two women came to a private settlement.

Another sex worker named Indigo White accused Delphine of trying to bury the story. In her video, White goes into detail about the allegations and the evidence proving what happened. When Delphine became aware of White's accusations, she unapologetically attacked her online.

If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.