Influencer lashes out at love rival in viral spat over man they both dated: 'You are a liar and a bully!'

A feud between wealthy New York City influencers has taken another turn with 'villain' Sophia La Corte branding her love rival 'a liar and a bully.'

The drama between Halley Kate McGookin, 24, and Sophia LaCorte, 23, began back in December 2023 when LaCorte was caught on a date with McGookin's ex-boyfriend, Reed Williams. 

Now 10 months on it's back with a vengeance as Sophia accuses Halley of lying about the sequence of events that led to the falling out in order to bully her and encourage her fans to 'gang up' on her.

Halley revealed in an emotion-fueled video that she considered Sophia a friend and felt betrayed by the date. 

A feud between wealthy New York City influencers has taken another turn with 'villain' Sophia La Corte branding her love rival 'a liar and a bully'

Sophia accused Halley of lying about the sequence of events that led to the falling out in order to bully her and encourage her fans to 'gang up' on her

She was under the impression Sophia only knew of Reed because of his link to her, and accused Sophia of messaging him to organise the date while the girls were at an influencer event in the city together.

Sophia has long insinuated that Reed made the first move, and has copped intense backlash from Halley's legions of fans for 'breaking girl code.' 

For her part, Sophia argues she never considered Halley a friend, and instead characterised their relationship as one of co-workers who would spend time together at influencer - work - events. 

Halley hadn't commented on the renewed interest in her love life until Sunday, when she shared screenshots backing up her story of Sophia messaging Reed on Instagram shortly after the break up.

The first message was a simple 'hi', but once Reed responded, she followed up with: 'When's our first date?'

Reed responded describing the message as 'pretty bold of you', which Halley interpreted as acknowledging that she was moving in on her friend's ex.

Sophia and Reed are now back together after spending time apart

Halley revealed in an emotion-fueled video that she considered Sophia a friend and felt betrayed by the date

Since those screenshots were produced, Sophia has accepted that she messaged first.

'I never said I didn't,' she said. 'I'm allowed to say anything to a guy that's single. You didn't give birth to him.' 

Sophia also responded to Halley's complaint that it felt like 'a knife in my back' considering she'd been 'vulnerable with' Sophia the night before the date.

'It wasn't calculated or intentional, it was just really bad luck for me,' she said.

'The date was planned Monday, the event was Thursday, and the date was Friday. You're acting like I swaddled you on my shoulder like a little baby while you cried about Reed... I wasn't even listening to you.'

'I get why people would hate me. If that story was true it would be really, really bad. But that never happened.' 

Sophia has received intense backlash online. An audio clip of a woman saying 'I hate that little ginger b**ch' has gone viral on TikTok, while thousands of fans have weighed in on the drama.

Sophia also responded to Halley's complaint that it felt like 'a knife in my back' considering she'd been 'vulnerable with' Sophia the night before the date

Halley has tried to draw attention to the fact that Sophia is generating an income off the drama with a new video vowing to pay off teachers' classroom wishlists with the money she makes off her latest explainer video

But the 23-year-old has embraced the name calling and trolling, changing her short TikTok bio to 'the little ginger b' and creating dozens of videos - all of which generate income for her from the creators fund.

In one video, she described herself as 'your favorite villain's favorite villain.'

'I'm not going to sit here and let a bunch of girls gang up on me because I went on a date with a man that was single. I don't think a lot of girls would be able to handle this, like this is ridiculoius,' she said.

Halley has tried to draw attention to the fact that Sophia is generating an income off the drama with a new video vowing to pay off teachers' classroom wishlists with the money she makes off her latest explainer video.

'I can only speak for myself in this but I personally feel very uncomfortable with, find it bizarre and frankly gross to profit off of this situation for my financial benefit,' she said.

'My video clearing up the situation yesterday at the minute has over 4 million views and is over 4 minutes long which means it qualifies for the creator fund.

'There will be a couple thousand dollars because of the amount of views. I don't want to keep that, so I have decided to donate all of that money to teachers to clear out their wishlists.'