Woman speaks out after YouTuber admits to faking her death for clicks

A YouTuber has been forced to admit he faked his girlfriend’s death in an elaborate video hoax just for clicks.

His now ex-girlfriend Alexia Marano, who began dating Jason Ethier (known on YouTube as ImJayStation) in August 2019, has spoken out after the bizarre video went viral.

Alexia opened up about the ordeal in a 19-minute video posted to her own channel on Tuesday, revealing she is very much alive and explaining how her tumultuous relationship with Jason ultimately spiralled into her playing along with a prank that made her “sick to [her] stomach”.

Jason’s original video announcing Alexia’s death, which has since been taken down, was released on January 21 under the title ‘My Girlfriend Alexia Died… Rest In Paradise’. In the clip, Jason claimed that she had died in a car crash, crying while stating she was “gone too soon”.

The YouTuber then proceeded to post a series of monetised videos — which linked out to opportunities to purchase his merchandise — on he and Alexia’s joint channel, Dream Team. In one video, Jason also attempted to contact his ‘dead’ girlfriend with an ouija board.

But Jason was forced to reveal the hoax shortly after, releasing a video on Sunday titled, ‘ALEXIA MARANO — THE TRUTH ABOUT HER’ in which he said he and Alexia had decided to fake her death.

Jason claimed the goal of the prank was to help Alexia gain followers and boost views on their joint channel, but that his now ex-girlfriend had turned against him.

“Alexia is trying to ruin my life because of videos that she helped me make,” he said in the newer clip. “I now face serious charges and can’t leave my house without getting arrested, and I did not even commit the crime.”

However, Newsweek reported that police have said no charges had been filed against Jason.

Of course Alexia’s video paints a largely different picture of the hoax. According to her vlog, titled, ‘ALEXIA IS ALIVE (truth about ImJaystation)’, she describes Jason as a controlling boyfriend who read her text messages while she slept and asked her to delete her social media pages because he was paranoid about her cheating on him.

“I was honestly really shocked because I never saw this side of Jay before,” Alexia says in her video.

Despite that, Alexia said that Jason made her feel “really special and so good,” but she consistently feared that “if I didn’t do exactly what he said, he would get so mad.” She claims she was pressured into the prank and immediately regretted it, especially after receiving hundreds of texts and calls from people who feared she was actually dead.

"This guy needs to be stopped," Alexia says of her ex-boyfriend. "Jay is so concerned about views and money that he is trying to profit off my own video."

Additionally, Alexia appears to have deleted all videos from her and Jason’s joint YouTube channel, Dream Team.

With additional reporting by Dillon Thompson.

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