CNN Helps Raise 230K For Mom Facing Eviction: Turns Out She’s Not The Mother

Liberal news network CNN promoted an eviction moratorium tear-jerker about a mother of three that was losing her housing, and it turns out that she isn’t the mother of the children.  

Last week reporter Nick Watt interviewed Dasha Kelly, a woman who claimed that she and “her little girls” were going to end up on the street due to the eviction moratorium lapse, and pushed for viewers to donate to a GoFundMe page to help raise the rent. 

Watt detailed that the “single mom” had lost her job as a result of the pandemic and could no longer afford child care for her three children ranging from five to eight years old, nor could she scrape up the rent needed to keep a roof over their heads. 

“Mom braces for eviction,” the onscreen caption read. “Dasha Kelly has started a GoFundMe page to try and cover that rent, $2,000. It’s a Hail Mary, she says she’s praying for a miracle, hoping for a miracle,” Watt encouraged viewers.

“My name is Kelly and I have 3 daughters living in Nevada,” Kelly wrote on the GoFundMe page. “We were maintaining just fine before this pandemic hit. Now we are suffering. We do have EBT for food, and also applied for Chap. However, they do not assist immediately.” 

“We owe $1,900 for rent alone not including utilities,” she continued. “I will figure out utilities by pawning a few things. As you all know it is entirely still to hot to be homeless. My daughter’s [sic] are aged 5, 6, and 8. Please help with anything you can.”

CNN promoted Kelly’s GoFundMe page across all the company’s social media accounts and managed to raise more than $230,000. Then the network learned that Kelly wasn’t actually the children’s mother.  

CNN updated their online report to reflect that Kelly had “clarified to CNN that she is not the mother of the three children featured in the story,” and she merely takes care of the children at her home for periods of time. “She says she originally described herself to CNN as a mother because she considers herself to be like one to them,” the correction read.

As it turns out, Kelly is the children’s father’s girlfriend and they will return to their mother’s custody prior to the beginning of the school year. GoFundMe has placed the funds on hold and no money has been withdrawn.

Marie Finn