A report this week claims that reality star Chumlee of Pawn Stars died of a heart attack. Is this real or fake?
It’s a hoax.
In an article by eBuzzd, we read:
Austin Russell, also known as Chumlee, star of History’s reality series “Pawn Stars,” has died from an apparent heart attack, sources confirm to eBuzzd. He was only 31 years old.
The news comes as a shock considering Chumlee’s had just recently altered his lifestyle habits, and lost 75 pounds in a year by exercising at a gym six days a week and improving his diet, including drinking more juice, eating more vegetables and abstaining from red meat, a change that was inspired by his father’s death at age 54 from pancreatic cancer, two weeks before Pawn Stars debuted.
This same website, with a tagline of “Entertainment for the Buzzd,” also issued a fake death report for Betty White last month, along with other outlandish articles. The bogus article included screenshots of fake tweets from Rick Harrison and Katie Couric. Neither of those verified Twitter accounts actually had the tweets listed in the fake article.
Rick Harrison, in fact, responded to the death hoax, tweeting:
Breaking news: CHUMLEE IS ALIVE & WELL! He is actually filming today but we all really appreciate everyone’s concern!
— Rick Harrison (@GoldSilverPawn) March 12, 2014
No reputable news outlet has reported the death of Chumlee’s. Indeed, Chumlee lives on, as evidenced by his active Twitter account.
Chumlee was the target of a death hoax in 2013. That death hoax claimed that the reality star had overdosed on marijuana.
Bottom Line
Chumlee did not die of a heart attack. The report making this claim is false.