Is Barbara Eden still alive: Social media has given celebrities a new level of exposure and accessibility that they never had before. It’s also given the public a behind-the-scenes look at their personal lives, which some may find intrusive or even unsettling. That being said, social media has also been a great platform for celebrities to connect with their fans and share their latest news and happenings. Unfortunately for Barbara Eden, she was wrongly reported to be dead in a trend on social media.
Is Barbara Eden still alive: On August 17, I Dream of Jeannie star Barbara Eden became the victim of a death hoax after reports of her apparent passing spread online. The 90-year-old actress was wrongly reported to have died early on Wednesday.
The apparent hoax of Eden’s passing appears to have originated from a YouTube channel called Allan Radio, which has around 20,000 subscribers. On Wednesday, the channel published a video titled: “7 minutes ago / R.I.P Barbara Eden / Goodbye Barbara Eden.”
The said video has generated over 97,000 views, with over 700+ likes from viewers. The channel seems to be targeting Barbara Eden as her 91st birthday is on August 23rd.
The Tucson, Arizona, nonagenarian is certainly in good health as she posted a picture of herself with Priscilla Presley at Elvis’ Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee on August 16.
In addition, the YouTube channel that sparked this rumor engaged in fake celebrity obituaries to generate views.
Immediately after the channel’s false announcement of the alleged death of Barbara Eden, they produced fake content claiming that actress Whoopi Goldberg had died. Other recent celebrities to fall victim to the channel’s absurd claims include Hot Fuzz star Simon Pegg and Star Trek star, William Shatner.
Ahead of their claims of Eden’s passing, the channel also uploaded a fake video purporting to announce the death of famous Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley. Marley actually died in May 1981.
These channels seem to be run by bots as these videos, falsely claiming celebrity deaths, are rampant on YouTube. Last month, the actor and director Clint Eastwood was among the few victims of these videos.
Many netizens initially believed that the famous Hollywood personality had died after a video claiming his passing was uploaded by Recuerda Gente Famosa. The video was titled “10 Minutes Ago/ Sad News / RIP Clint Eastwood / Goodbye Clint Eastwood.”
This aforementioned title follows the same pattern as the fake videos from Allan Radio’s YouTube channel, mentioned earlier. So it is possible that these false claims are made by the same individual or organization with multiple YouTube accounts.
These videos have the primary goal of generating views and ad revenue with the shock factor of such claims. Like most fake content on YouTube, these videos don’t even mention the cause of death of these celebrities. In most cases, these videos use generic facts about the stars to limit the duration to about five minutes to be revenue-friendly.
They also use text-to-speech synthesis to replace the generic voiceovers, which allows them to generate several contents with fake claims in a day.
Is Barbara Eden still alive?
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The actress is still quite active at the age of 90, as evidenced by her recent trip to Memphis. Last year, just days before her 90th birthday, Eden opened up about her health routine to Closer Weekly. She said:
“I’m very particular about (my) diet. I’m a carnivore … I like steak. We eat a lot of pork, chicken, steak [and] vegetables.”
Eden also gave an insight into her training routine. She added:
“I go a lot.”
The Flaming Star actress said that she also included spinning in her workouts and had a trainer for it, which she had to stop during the Covid.
Finally, after the world expressed its shock and sadness at the news of Barbara Eden’s death hoax, authorities finally confirmed that she is actually in good health.
In a statement to People magazine, her publicist said, “Good morning! We can confirm that there was no fraud here—just a very cruel prank. The 90-year-old actress is alive and well. She has been doing great thanks to all your love and support this week. We appreciate how caring everyone has been during this stressful time and we’ll keep you posted about any other exciting updates regarding her schedule as soon as they become available!”
