Hailey Welch, better known online as the viral “Hawk Tuah Girl”, has broken her silence after an X-rated comment in a short video clip led to online infamy.
The 21-year-old from Nashville, Tennessee, spoke on the Plan Bri Uncut podcast on Monday, weeks after the clip went viral on YouTube and TikTok.
In the short video, Welch is approached by a camera and a microphone and uses the phrase “hawk tuah” to describe a sexual act.
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She has since cashed in on the interaction, partnering with a Tennessee-based hat company and selling merchandise, including signed caps for $A65.
Welch remained largely anonymous in the immediate aftermath of the clip rocketing her to online fame, but has now spoken to Brianna Lapaglia on her podcast.
She told Lapaglia she was with friends at the CMA Fest music festival when the “next thing I know, there’s a microphone in my face”.
Welch confirmed she’d been drinking with friends when she made the lewd comment but that it was intended as a joke and she “didn’t mean anything by it”.
She also said her parents weren’t fazed by the video.
“They think it’s so funny … they never know what’s gonna come out of my mouth.”
Before Welch spoke on the podcast, rumours circulated about her identity and her life, including that she was a schoolteacher who was sacked when the clip surfaced and that her dad was a pastor.
She’s since refuted both of those claims.
“I worked in a spring factory, I’m not a school teacher,” she said.
“My father is so far from a preacher, it’s crazy.”
She told the podcast that she quit her job following the online fame and now plans on travelling the US, being “on a show and be on a bunch of podcasts and everything else in between”.
Alongside a wave of fans of the clip have come “haters” and “creepy” interactions where some have duplicated her details and started fake social media accounts.
To them, she said: “The people that are out here hatin’, I don’t even know ‘em. So what the f*** do I care?”