Days after a clip went viral on TikTok allegedly showing Radcliffe, a whale trainer, being killed by an orca during a performance in front of a live audience, it turns out the entire episode was a hoax. In fact, no official records, news reports or credible sources show that Radcliffe even existed.
Furthermore, there is no evidence that the attack even took place, with the video being an AI-generated fabrication, according to multiple reports. Experts examined the footage and, according to the International Business Times, found that it featured AI-generated voices combined with archival footage.
The original video, which spread across the internet like wild fire, claimed to show Radcliffe performing alongside an orca in a whale show at Pacific Blue Marine Park. The video said that she was killed during the set, with another video alleging the attack was triggered by menstrual blood—with experts noting, via the IBT, that such details are common in fake stories to heighten the emotional impact.
The AI video did appear to take inspiration from two real life orca killings: Alexis Martínez’s 2009 death and Dawn Brancheau’s death in 2010.
Martínez, 29, was an orca trainer at Loro Parque on the Canary Islands who was involved in an incident with a whale named Keto. He was rushed to the hospital and died of internal bleeding and injuries.
Meanwhile, Brancheau was killed by Tilikum, an orca at SeaWorld Orlando. The 36-year-old had been dragged by her hair underwater, where the whale repeatedly struck her in front of an audience. Brancheau’s death was explored in the 2013 documentary Blackfish.
Experts pointed out to IBT that the similarities to the real deaths as one the reasons the fake video was able to gain traction, according to the IBT, as oftentimes using real or recognizable incidents make the false story feel more legitimate.
While the video of Radcliffe is a fake, keep reading for real life freak accidents.
Maddie Aldridge
Jamie Lynn Spears‘ then-8-year-old daughter Maddie Aldridge was driving an ATV in February 2017 when she accidentally flipped it into a pond near their Louisiana home, leaving her submerged under water for minutes.
“When we were finally able to get her out of the water and I saw her and then the first responders took her from me, we thought she was gone,” Jamie Lynn recalled on a 2020 episode of Maria Menounos Better Together podcast. “We thought we’d lost our daughter.”
Though the family wasn’t sure what sort of damage had been done, Maddie was awake and talking two days later. A few weeks after that, she was back to her normal routine.
“God gave me the blessing of giving me my daughter back,” Jamie Lynn continued. “I lost her and I got her back.”
Rebel Wilson
Filming on Rebel Wilson and Anna Camp‘s 2025 action comedy Bride Hard turned dramatic during the Aussie’s final day of playing secret agent. “In a fight scene, a gun accidentally got whacked across my face,” Rebel explained to Access Hollywood in a June 2025 interview. “It was just a freak accident, and my nose got split open, so I left set. It was my last night of shooting. I was like, ‘How unlucky can I be?'”
Surrounded by a pool of her own blood, “I was freaking out,” she admitted of the 2023 incident. “They take an ambulance and they have to call a plastic surgeon, because if they didn’t, I would have been permanently disfigured. So we got the plastic surgeon, they did all the stitches, and you can’t tell now.”
