Social media sensation Livvy Dunne has claimed she is being stalked by a group of middle-aged men at airports across America.
The former LSU gymnast and model, 22, made the shock allegations in a TikTok video posted on Friday night.
Dunne is currently in a relationship with MLB pitcher Paul Skenes. She has revealed that she has been facing harassment from a group of men who demand her autograph. According to Dunne, these men go to the extent of chasing her through security and shouting at her if she refuses to sign their items.
It follows similar claims made recently by tennis star Coco Gauff and Olympic athlete Gabby Thomas.
In a direct address to the camera, Dunne expressed her concerns stating, ‘I feel like I am being stalked and I am unsure of how to handle the situation. Every time I visit the airport, I encounter a group of around 10 middle-aged men who wait for me, causing me distress.’
‘These men are persistent in their pursuit of my autograph. They often carry a large number of photos of me or my magazine covers. They follow me even through the TSA PreCheck line, and if I do not comply with their demands, they become aggressive and raise their voices at me. It has become a truly overwhelming experience for me.’
‘But they will yell at me and make a scene and the people around me are scared. It’s crazy. Even this morning was a terrible experience.’
Dunne then showed a video of her crying in what looked to be the back of a taxi leaving an airport.
She continued: ‘This is me literally crying, fresh off a red eye at 6am. They circled me at the baggage claim and were in my face. It’s not only when I’m going to big events, it’s if I’m going on family vacation, they’re waiting there.
‘It’s something with the airline and it’s weird and my parents are like “what the f***?”
‘The worst part is, it’s not only me. I remember Gabby Thomas made a video about this and it needs to stop because it’s scary for girls. It’s weird.
‘Yes, I know I’m chronically online and I post my life but I’m talking about like a 20 minute connecting flight through Omaha, Nebraska they would be waiting there.
‘I’m not making content on a connecting flight. I’m talking about the most random cities. It’s just so strange. Stay safe.’
Dunne’s stardom has exploded in recent years and as a result she now has over 5million followers on Instagram and 8million on TikTok. She was recently a cover model for Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit edition for the first time in her career.
The Hillsdale, New Jersey native has just completed her fifth and final gymnastics season with LSU. She is one of the top earners in name, image and likeness compensation, with an estimated valuation of $4.1m.
Because of her immense popularity, Dunne and LSU were forced to take extra security measures to guarantee her safety. They had security guards traveling with the team while traveling.
There was one chaotic scene at the University of Utah in January 2023 when an army of young male fans carrying posters and a full-sized cutout of Dunne gathered outside the building and chanted ‘We want Livvy! Give us Livvy!’.
ESPN analyst Sam Peszek posted at the time: ‘This is actually so scary and disturbing and cringey. I’m embarrassed for them.’
Dunne also had to stop attending her LSU classes in person after an apparent stalker threatened to ‘shoot-up’ the school’s campus in Baton Rouge.
But Dunne is not the only female athlete to have encountered such issues as both Gauff and Thomas recently revealed their encounters with overzealous fans.
In January, Team USA track phenomenon Thomas revealed she’d had a string of ‘stalking’ incidents with people appearing to follow her around different airports throughout the country.
Thomas spoke out about the ‘three to six men’ who had been waiting for her at airports in Chicago and Miami on TikTok.
Her plea for help brought support from all corners of the internet, including an admission from tennis star Gauff that Thomas is not alone in her experiences.
‘This happens to me too, I don’t know how it happens,’ Gauff said. ‘My theory is maybe someone at the airport tips them off.’
As proof, Thomas posted a clip of her trying to scare the stalkers off at Chicago’s O’Hare airport.
Like Dunne, Thomas said the men approach her to sign photos of her.
‘At this point, every time I travel, I’m afraid that these men, it’s three to six of them, middle-aged, are going to show up and harass me,’ Thomas said.
‘They have my flight information. And they show up at the front door of the airport at the correct concourse or they show up at my gate, which means they have flight tickets and they get past security and all that.
‘And they show up and they ask me to sign a bunch of these photos and pictures of me, like 40 of them. I don’t know what they’re doing with them, probably selling them, I don’t care. What scares me is that they have my flight information.’
‘I don’t even know what time I’m flying out sometimes. I don’t tell anyone my flight information. I’ve changed all my email passwords, I don’t know if they’re hacking me. But they get really aggressive and hostile if I say “no.”‘
‘When I’m by myself, it’s really scary. They got really hostile with my boyfriend yesterday. It’s not even airline-specific but I don’t know how they’re getting my flight information. And it’s really starting to freak me out.
‘And honestly, I don’t know who to go to about this. Do I go to the police? Do I go to airport security?’
When Thomas asked the men how they got her flight information, she said they lie and made up excuses about being in the right place at the right time.
