You guys. It’s happening. I thought this day might never come, but Olivia Jade Giannuli has officially returned to Instagram. In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, Olivia Jade is Lori Loughlin’s daughter, and she was one of the biggest players in the infamous college admissions scandal that broke earlier this year. After Olivia Jade’s time on the USC rowing team was exposed as a total scam, she went totally dark on social media. Her YouTube channel has been dormant for months, and before today, her last Instagram post was in February.
I didn’t care much about Olivia Jade before the scandal broke out, but it’s fair to say that her whereabouts have become sort of an obsession for me in the last few months. There have been some paparazzi photos of her, and last week many people texted me about a reported sighting in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Random, but I’ll take what I can get.
But now, the wait is over, because Olivia Jade posted on Instagram today for her mom’s birthday. This seems like a pretty normal reason to post on Instagram, but I have a theory that the layers here go deeper than it appears. Come with me as I dive down the rabbit hole of what (I think) is going on behind the scenes of Olivia Jade’s return to Instagram.
First, let’s all get on the same page about Lori Loughlin’s birthday. Her birthday was Sunday, July 28th. In other words, it was yesterday, if you’re reading this on Monday. Obviously, Olivia Jade said in her caption that her post was a day late, so she knows when her mom’s birthday is. Bella, Lori’s other daughter, posted for her mom’s birthday 11 hours ago as I’m writing this, which would translate to about 8pm California time. Not super early in the day, but an acceptably on-time birthday post.
Olivia Jade then commented on the post five hours ago right now, which would be like, 1am in California. Weird that she was so behind on this, but we know that she saw the post at least five hours ago. Which means that, even if she forgot about her mom’s birthday, she would’ve been reminded five hours ago when she saw Bella’s post. But then she waited four more hours to post her own photo, making it officially one day late. She also posted before 7am California time, so all of this is making me think that she just doesn’t sleep. (Same, girl.)
Now that we’ve got the timeline down, we need to talk about a piece of information that’s crucial to my theory. Recently, all of the anonymous sources with mysterious knowledge of the situation have been saying that Olivia Jade and Lori Loughlin are not on good terms. According to the reports, Olivia was reportedly furious with her mom over the admissions scam, because she didn’t even want to go to college in the first place. She had a booming career as a vlogger and makeup guru (I hate 2019), and her involvement in the scam totally tanked those opportunities. If I was in Olivia Jade’s position, I’d probably be mad too.
These reports are the reason I’m thinking deeper about Olivia Jade’s post. If I had to guess, she saw Bella’s post, and wasn’t going to post anything herself at first. But then, four hours later, she realized that not posting was just making people talk more about the reported rift between her and her mom. Even if she hates her mom, she probably doesn’t want the entire world to know, so she posted a photo (a day late) to hush the rumors. Of course, she could’ve just forgotten to post yesterday, but deciding to post on Instagram after staying silent for so long feels to me like a calculated decision.
In terms of Olivia Jade’s future as an influencer/blogger/whatever, it’s probably a good move for her to start working her way back onto social media. Before the scam was exposed, she had a huge, loyal following, but that’s basically been squandered in the last six months. If she wants to work with brands again in the future, she has to start making content again at some point. She’s still so young that I feel like she can bounce back if she plays her cards right.
Interestingly, a brand new People report says that Lori Loughlin had a small birthday celebration on Sunday after going to church, and that both Bella and Olivia Jade were in attendance. Maybe they’re working on making their relationship better, but then it seems even stranger to me that Olivia would wait to post until this morning.
I would say that I’ll be monitoring Olivia Jade’s Instagram closely in the next few days, but I’ve already been doing that since February. I’m an Olivia Jade truther, that’s just what my life is about now.
Images: oliviajade, bella / Instagram
