Two TikTokers are feuding over a catchphrase and merchandise branding. Now their friendship is over.
Influencers Bella “Nosebleed” Fitz and Max Balegde were good friends. The two British content creators seemed to share a similar sense of humor and fanbase. However, when Fitz got word of Balegde’s merchandise line, everything seemed to fall apart.
Who is Bella Fitz?
Bella Fitz, aka “Nosebleed Fitz”, is a popular TikToker with 622,000 followers. She posts makeup, dance and lifestyle videos. Fitz resides in the United Kingdom and identifies as trans.
Who is Max Balegde?
Max Balegde is a TikToker with 1.3 million followers who is known for posting random lists and vlogs. He began posting on TikTok in 2020 and also hails from the United Kingdom.
Fitz and Balegde have a huge falling out
Fitz and Balegde appeared to be close friends until a recent spat they had over merchandise.
On June 18, Balegde launched a line of products called “Big Fat Merch.” Fitz subsequently unfollowed Balegde on all of her social media accounts. When Balegde confronted her about why she unfollowed him, Fitz revealed that she was upset over the name of his merchandise line. She claimed that “big fat” is her catchphrase because she had a viral video where she said “big fat liar.”
On July 18, Fitz tweeted a text exchange with Fitz that included a voice message. She told Balegde that she wanted to call her merch Big Fat Fitz but now she couldn’t because he had beaten her to the punch.
“I feel massively snaked with the merch. It’s a massive kick in the teeth because I thought we were quite good friends,” Fitz said. “I’m not gatekeeping or anything. But don’t make merch off my saying. Don’t make money off it to the point where I can’t do my own thing.”
Fitz asked that Balegde keep their falling out private so that their fans wouldn’t have to pick sides.
“I don’t think either of us should put anything on TikTok about it because the people that follow us both are going to feel like they’ll have to pick sides,” she said.
She also accused Balegde of gossiping about her and she threatened to “come to your house and I will beat the dogs*** out of you and your boyfriend. Let me know.”
After Fitz discussed the matter publicly, Balegde addressed the issue in a TikTok video.
“This morning she violently threatened me,” Balegde alleged in the video. “That’s where I draw the line.”
The influencer claimed that he thought Fitz was his good friend. He had donated to her transition fund, would recommend her for campaigns and planned to collaborate with her. In the video, he also shared screenshots of him saying “big fat” before he was even on TikTok in 2019.
Fitz posted a thread in response defending her actions.
“I’m not ‘gatekeeping words,’ I wanted to make Merch with one of my viral phrases but he got there first with it as a commonly used phrase of his. It hurt me as a friend because I feel it’s more my thing to use so I unfriended him,” Fitz explained.
She accused Balegde of using “other smaller creators’ ideas for his own use without credit.”
“Our conversations were private,” she tweeted. “The beef was private. No words came from me until yesterday when he was telling people I ‘asked him not to expose me.’ Once he got a bad response he made a video.”
“Silly fallouts are one thing but It’s never okay to threaten somebody’s safety. I just had to stand up for myself instead of being silent like she asked me to,” Balegde tweeted.
“I’ve been contacted by a few journalists/ news outlets to speak on the issue and I’ll just say here that I won’t be doing so. I’m not trying to pile on somebody and relish in the moment of ‘exposing’ bad things about her. She has shown you all who she really is, I don’t have to,” Balegde said.
It looks like this feud is over… at least for now.
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