Woman speaks out after YouTuber boyfriend faked her death

The ex-girlfriend of a popular YouTuber who admitted to faking her death is now speaking out against the elaborate video hoax.

Alexia Marano, who began dating Jason Ethier (known on YouTube by his channel name, ImJayStation) in August 2019, shared her account of the ordeal in a video posted to her own channel on Jan. 28.

In the 19-minute clip, Marano, who is very much alive, explains how her tumultuous relationship with Ethier ultimately spiraled into her playing along with a prank that made her “sick to [her] stomach.”

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

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

But Ethier revealed the hoax shortly after, releasing a video on Jan. 26 titled, “ALEXIA MARANO — THE TRUTH ABOUT HER” in which he said he and Marano had decided to fake her death. Ethier claimed that the goal of the prank was to help Marano 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 says in the video. “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 Ethier.

Marano’s video paints a largely different picture of the hoax. According to her vlog, titled, “ALEXIA IS ALIVE (truth about ImJaystation),” she describes Ethier 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,” Marano says in her video.

Despite that, Marano said that Ethier 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,” Marano says of her ex-boyfriend. “Jay is so concerned about views and money that he is trying to profit off my own video.”

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

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