TikTok star Haleyy Baylee slammed over ‘let them eat cake’ video at Met Gala

TikTok star Haleyy Baylee is being called “sinister” for using audio from Kristen Dunst’s Marie Antoinette film at the 2024 Met Gala.

The 2024 Met Gala spawned a slew of viral moments, but influencer Haleyy Baylee’s divisive TikTok wasn’t on fans’ bingo cards.

On May 6, Baylee (real name Haley Kalil) posted a clip of herself decked out in a floral headdress and doll-like makeup at the prestigious fashion event, lip syncing to a famous line from Kristen Dunst’s 2006 film, Marie Antoinette: “Let them eat cake.”

The clip has racked up over 16 million views in just two days… and it doesn’t look like viewers aren’t too happy with it.

Users didn’t take kindly to Kalil’s choice of audio and laid into her in the comments section, calling the video “dystopian” and comparing the scene to something out of the Hunger Games.

“Watching this from District 12,” one user wrote.

“The Met Gala is dystopian enough, but adding this sound?” another pointed out.

“This feels kinda sinister given the times!” another said.

The phrase ‘let them eat cake’ was supposedly uttered by an 18th century princess after being informed that her subjects had no bread to eat, showing how little she cared — or understood — their struggles.

The saying is widely attributed to Antoinette, who ruled as the last queen of France before her execution during the French Revolution in 1792.

However, historians have debated whether or not Antoinette actually said it, as the phrase was tracked back to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions, published in 1765… when Antoinette was just nine years old and hadn’t even been to France yet.

Netizens feel as though Kalil’s TikTok shares a similar sentiment to Antoinette’s supposed attitude toward her starving subjects, given the current economic climate in the United States with surging gas prices and rising inflation.

Despite the criticism on her video, Kalil was stunned to see that she reached 10 million followers on the app after her appearance at the Met — something that literally brought the creator to tears.

Haley Kalil is an influencer, public figure, and model who’s attended numerous high-profile events like the Golden Globes and the Grammys, making the Met Gala just the latest on her list of star-studded escapades.

Her video wasn’t the only viral moment to pop off from the Met, by far. In fact, AI-generated images of Katy Perry attending the event took over social media, and CEO Mona Patel quickly became a fan-favorite thanks to her eye-catching gown with moving butterflies on the sleeves.