NEED TO KNOW
Kylan Darnell’s mom teased potential legal troubles for the family in a recent TikTok video posted to her page
The video, which now has over 1.8M views on TikTok, touches on alleged controversies with their management
While Izzy continues to go through her recruitment process at the University of Alabama, Kylan has announced that she will be taking a step back from her senior year rush
Kylan Darnell’s mom is hinting at some potential legal drama surrounding the family, just days after Kylan, one of the original breakout stars of ‘Bama Rush,’ announced she would be taking a step back from rush during her senior year.
In a candid sit-down TikTok video, Tonya Darnell, who goes by “Mama Darnell” online, told her followers that she had been dreading making the post, but had felt compelled as “the mama of this whole app” to speak up with what she called a series of “truth grenades.”
“There are three of these grenades that will be dropped,” she said. “One of them is going to be a year out from now — legally. The second one, sooner than later — legally. And the one I’m dropping tonight, I am not held by a confidentiality agreement. However, my daughters and their manager are.”
Tonya Darnell/TikTok
Tonya Darnell.
She added, “This group is nasty, okay?” without specifying who she was referring to.
Though Tonya didn’t go into further detail in the first video about the alleged legal matters, her comments come amid heightened attention on Kylan following her decision to step back from rush — a move that surprised many of her longtime followers.
To further complicate matters, Izzy, Kylan’s younger sister and a newly minted freshman at the University of Alabama, has also been participating in recruitment as a potential new member, hoping to secure a bid at one of the 19 sororities that the university touts.
Speaking with PEOPLE in a recent, candid interview, Kylan opened up about the pressure and spotlight that social media has brought on her and her family, saying that she couldn’t imagine “rushing with a million followers,” referring to Izzy’s large social media following that has recently taken off.
In a follow-up TikTok, Tonya laid the groundwork for how things reached the point of legal troubles, stressing that what she was sharing was “my personal experience” and “for entertainment purposes only.”
She revealed that the situation, which appears to involve Kylan’s old management company, had, at one point, been “nearly a million-dollar lawsuit” and said that when Kylan’s following first took off, she was inundated with brand offers during rush week.
“These big brands are smart, okay? And your pages are going to be getting more views than the nightly news,” she said, as she urged PNMs to understand the value of that kind of exposure. She explained how Kylan initially said yes to almost every offer — often without a secured contract — and sometimes only realized later that her work should have been paid.
“A lot of business won’t pay a kid. There’s not a contract, so you have to go chase your money,” she explained.
Kylan Darnell/Instagram
Kylan Darnell.
All of this, she says, is what prompted her decision to involve a management team to help her manage and secure Kylan’s money. She was able to keep increasing the rate of Kylan’s influencing posts more and more and more.
The experience, however, quickly became so overwhelming that Tonya says she “couldn’t cook dinner for needing to answer emails,” prompting her to start looking for management help.
In a final follow-up video, Tonya opened up about how Kylan first got connected with her management company during her freshman year at the University of Alabama, after securing a bid from the school’s chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha — and why it seems that relationship may have soured.
She explained that when she first started looking for representation for her daughter, whose social media following began to take off after her content documenting her rush process went viral in 2022, she had “no idea” where to begin, noting differences between all sorts of management types — PR, PR management and even sports management.
Izzy Darnell/Instagram
Izzy Darnell.
However, after months of searching and looking at “other creators that we being successful” for ideas, Tonya says that she had the idea to reach out to Darcy McQueen, another Alabama content creator, who she believed “had it going on.”
But after several months — and learning more about exclusive rights in contracts — things changed. “Not very much time leaves and Darcy McQueen drops,” she said, blurring out what seems to be the name of the management company, adding, “Uh-oh, Spaghetti-O.”
In addition to rumors of purported legal drama for the family, Kylan spoke with PEOPLE about the impact that rumors about her younger sister, Izzy, have had on her and the family.
“There’s just a lot of online stuff between me and my sister, and it was hard for me,” says Kylan.
“I saw a video of somebody saying that my sister didn’t even get accepted to the university,” Kylan shares. “It was a bit ridiculous. I’ve got comments where people are going in on my sorority sisters and creating more drama for me.”
Read the original article on People
