A woman who went viral for selling jars of her own bathwater in 2019 has finally been paid for it.
Belle Delphine, 24, from Cape Town, South Africa, earned a whopping $90,000 (£71,000) from the stunt. However, in a thread on X (formerly Twitter), the content creator explained that PayPal took her profits – until now.
“PayPal, without any warning closed my account and took the $90,000 that I earned from selling my bathwater,” Belle wrote, as she described the event as her “biggest L I’ve ever taken”.
However, PayPal has now decided to reverse the decision, with the company returning all the cash from the bathwater stunt to Belle five years later.
She earned $90,000 (£71,000) from the viral stunt (DAILY MIRROR)Belle, who's real name is Mary-Belle Kirschner, launched the infamous GamerGirl bathwater merchandise on her official website for $30 (£24) each at the time, selling out hundreds of jars in just three days.
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“I knew it would be a better news story to say that I made ‘so much money’ from selling my bathwater so I just kept this secret,” Delphine wrote on X. “Ultimately I’m still glad I did since it was a really funny time on the internet when it happened.”
To make things worse, Belle revealed that PayPal fined her $2,500 (£2,000) for each violation of its rules – so that’s each bottle of bathwater.
After Belle posted about her problems with PayPal, the $90,000 was returned to her this week. “If I didn't have any [social media] following, they wouldn't have given my money back,” she told Business Insider. “Which is so s**tty because what are all the normal non-social media users meant to do in this situation? I followed all the normal protocols and was roadblocked and gave up.
"The Twitter post I made about it had SO many comments of people saying PayPal did the exact same thing to them. It was shocking, to be honest.”
PayPal have only just given her the money five years later (Belle Delphine/Youtube)PayPal's policy on adult and sexual content allows sales of physical goods like DVDs or magazines (or bathwater jars), but only for transactions within the US. Belle is based in the UK.
A PayPal spokesperson told Business Insider that they could not comment on individual accounts but said that PayPal dropped its policy on the $2,500 fines about a year ago.
It appears that because of that rule change, PayPal decided to release Belle's funds and return the money to her. However that didn't happen automatically — it was only once Delphine, who has 2 million followers on X, posted about the situation earlier this month and the tweet went viral.
PayPal has been contacted for comment.
The news comes after Belle previously revealed that her content creator job helped her buy herself a house. However, her father was reportedly furious when he found out how she'd made her money.
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