An American influencer who lied all the way to Cambridge University says she did it because she liked the idea of ’chic’.
Virginia-born Caroline Calloway, now 31, has been dubbed the ‘Gatsby from Cambridge’ after it was revealed she tricked the prestigious university into giving her a degree place in 2013 after she lied about her qualifications on her application form.
In a new interview with the TelegraphCalloway, who regularly documented her life on social media while studying art history at St Edmund’s College, says she rigged her application because she ‘f***ing loves chic’ and wanted to experience the eccentricities of English life of the upper class.
In 2015, on the back of a growing number of Instagram followers who posted about her life as an undergraduate student at Cambridge, she received a book advance as part of a $500,000 contract. to tell his life story – but failed to deliver it, pushing fans back two years later that the premise of the book was “sexist”.
In 2019, a former friend, Natalie Beach, published an opinion piece in The Cut claiming that she was in fact responsible for Calloway’s success and was the person behind his famous Instagram captions – and the life of the influencer quickly collapsed.
Speaking to reporter Celia Walden from her inherited apartment in Tampa, Florida, she said she has now repaid the initial advance in full and has finally written a self-published memoir – called Scammer – about her time at the British university, saying she would ‘damn batshit insane’ not ’embrace’ her story.
In a new interview with The Telegraph, Calloway – dubbed the Gatsby of Cambridge – said she found the British educational establishment appealing because it offered a gateway to upper-class English life.
She told Walden she found it impossible to resist the lure of English high society, saying, “I love everything about Oxbridge and chic country houses. I wish I had been drawn to something more classy and socially acceptable, but the thing is, I love classy!
She told Telegraph reporter Celia Walden she’d be “crazy ***” not to embrace her story; her former friend Natalie Beach revealed she helped her write many articles that won her fans over in an article for The Cut in 2019
Virginia-born Calloway, now 31, rose to fame through her Instagram social media posts while studying art history. She has now written a new memoir about her experiences called “Scammer”.
Her picturesque photos of Cambridge life, which were part of a blog she started in 2012 about an American student’s experience at university, have attracted thousands of fans.
She told MailOnline when she was a student at St Edmund’s College: ‘I feel like I’m in Harry Potter, coming to dinner in the Great Hall in my robe and having beautiful three-course meals.’
She studied at Cambridge from 2013 to 2016 and says she was plagued by prescription drug addiction at the time, taking the amphetamine Adderall.
Cambridge University has not commented on Calloway’s confession about how she secured her place at the university, telling MailOnline earlier this year: ‘We cannot comment on individual students, but we take very seriously statements like this.” In 2019, she held a series of “creative workshops” that cost $165 per session, but Calloway’s reputation began to falter when she was compared to notorious Fyre Festival con artist Billy McFarland after the pricey workshops she was she organized did not meet expectations.
The following year the Guardian reported that Miss Calloway had refunded disappointed customers.
The influencer, who says she now takes eight antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications a day, had her lies exposed by Beach around the same time her father took his own life.
Ms Calloway’s social media posts have been coveted by thousands of fans envious of her lifestyle
It has been claimed that the captions of her Instagram posts were written by one of her friends
‘I feel like I’m in Harry Potter, coming to dinner in the Great Hall in my robes and having beautiful three-course meals,’ she told MailOnline when she was a student. Pictured here wearing one of her basic flower crowns
Instagram influencer Caroline Calloway has been accused of buying followers to build a fanbase to sell her unwritten memoir
Although Miss Calloway defended herself in TV interviews and via her Instagram account, the controversy eventually led her to withdraw from social media and delete her Instagram posts.
However, before cleaning up her account, she revealed in a lengthy post that she had collected most of the money she owed her publisher through an OnlyFans account.
After going dark on Instagram for several years, she relaunched her account four weeks ago to unveil the cover of her new book, Scammer.
She captioned the photo of the book: “Babe wake up, the new maniacal pixie dream book is coming out mid May.”
Jumping for joy, Ms Calloway often seemed to be having the happiest time online
Ms Calloway’s popularity has sparked a £400,000 book deal, the result of which – titled Scammer – is about to be published
New York-born Cambridge University student Caroline Calloway has gained huge following on Instagram with her quaint photos and nostalgic captions that have supported a blog she started writing in 2012.
Caroline Calloway pictured in front of Oxford University’s Rad Cam holding flowers
