Olivia Jade Addresses Reference to College Admissions Scandal in ‘Gossip Girl’ Reboot

The Gossip Girl reboot premiered on HBO Max on Thursday and in the barrage of pop culture references, one, in particular, stood out to Lori Loughlin‘s daughter, YouTuber Olivia Jade Giannulli. In the pilot episode, Constance Billard School for Girls student Monet De Haan (Savannah Lee Smith) quips, “You as someone who loses is bad for business.” Luna La (Zión Moreno), another student, replies, “And everything will be fine so long as you win. Olivia Jade, 21, gained followers when her mom went to jail.” Olivia Jade shared the clip on her TikTok account, saying “No I didn’t” via green screen. The video currently has over 110k likes, but Olivia Jade turned off the comments when posting.

This isn’t the first time that Olivia Jade has addressed her parent’s legal troubles on her TikTok account. Loughlin and her husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, faced federal charges for allegedly paying $500,000 in bribes to have daughters Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose Giannulli admitted to the University of Southern California as crew recruits, even though they did not take participate in the sport. They have since completed their prison sentences. In March, Olivia Jade responded to a TikTok user who asked “How’s collage?” The social media star chose to answer the question by talking about her love of making collages, poking fun at the user’s typo. “Thank you for asking. I actually love collaging,” she said. “I’m working on this really f—ing sick scrapbook that I have to show you guys soon. It’s chef’s kiss, beautiful work I’ve done.”

The video has over 1.4 million views and racked up over 156,500 likes. However, many of the top comments were not positive. “The fact you joke about this shows how entitled you are,” one person wrote. “I don’t think joking about stealing a spot at a prestigious college away from people who really deserved [it] will never not be tone-deaf,” another wrote. “This isn’t funny, you took college from other people who deserved it,” another commented.

Many of Olivia Jade’s supporters pointed out that she apologized, referencing her appearance on Jada Pinkett Smith’s show Red Table Talk in December. “There is no justifying or excusing what happened because what happened was wrong,” Olivia Jade said. “I’m 21, I feel like I deserve a second chance to redeem myself, to show I’ve grown.”