A billionaire’s new wife has gone viral after she apparently tried to bully a woman who shares her new name into selling her Instagram handle.
Katherine Asplundh, formerly Driscoll, married Cabot Asplundh, 27, of the Pennsylvania billionaire family at a reception in Palm Beach, Florida, two weeks ago.
After the happy couple exchanged vows, Katherine, an influencer with over 14,600 Instagram followers, attempted to change her handle from @katherinedrisc to @katherineasplundh, but her desired username was already in use.
Katherine contacted the account owner, a woman who goes by Kate, to ask if she could purchase her handle, a practice that is in direct violation of the platform’s terms of service.
Kate refused and explained how she feared selling the username would get her ‘banned from Instagram’. This prompted Katherine to launch a tirade of seemingly entitled messages.
Kate, who claims she was initially open to changing her username but decided against doing so after Katherine ‘came off snarky’, later shared the exchange online.
Katherine Asplundh, formerly Driscoll, married Cabot Asplundh, 27, at a reception in Palm Beach, Florida weeks ago
After the happy couple exchanged vows, the new Asplundh reached out another woman of the same name in hopes of purchasing a new Instagram account name
In reaching out to the woman known only as Kate, who has since shared the messages on social media, the newlywed has unintentionally gone viral
In the now-viral exchange, Katherine can be seen messaging an anonymous user, believed to be Kate, asking if she could purchase her Instagram handle.
‘Hi I was wondering if I could purchase your username from you,’ she wrote. ‘Just got married and this in my new name!’
Kate replied: ‘That’s my name too. I just googled and it said selling my username would get me banned from Instagram.’
But Katherine pushed back, saying: ‘I purchased my username in the past actually that’s not true. Celebrities do it all the time that’s how they all have their handles as their full names.
‘So weird, I didn’t know there was another Asplundh’s family out there. There [are] no Katherine Asplundh in our family.’
She then adds: ‘I see that you’re not that active on here but started Instagram in 2018 but changed your username three times? Is there anyway I can get you to change your username one more time?’
Kate responds, explaining that the @katherineasplundh account is her so-called ‘finsta’, a term that refers to a ‘fake’ or secondary account that users create to share content just with close friends and family.
The conversation turns sour, with Katherine seemingly questioning Kate’s identity.
‘I actually don’t believe that your name is Katherine Asplundh who would make their finsta their actual name?’ Katherine wrote.
‘I reported you to Instagram and they’re actually able to tell me your real name I really hope I don’t know you because that’s gonna be really embarrassing for you.’
Kate asks the influencer to report her, but Katherine confirms that she and her new husband have already done so.
Katherine then continues to question the legitimacy of Kate’s name, alleging that her husband’s family are the only Asplundhs in the US.
Kate confirms she is not American, to which Katherine replies: ‘Do you have proof that this is your name? Would love to see that.’
Asplundh then continues to question the legitimacy of her name, who confirms she is not American
Kate eventually tells Asplundh that if she had been nice about it, she would have considered giving her the account name for free
The family that she married into founded Asplundh Tree Expert, which in 2021 reported revenue of over $5.4 billion dollars
Kate then tells Katherine that if she had been nice about it, she would have considered giving her the account name for free.
She hits back at the influencer, saying: ‘But you weren’t. I reported you for asking me to sell my account and another for harassing me. Have a good day.’
Speaking to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Kate told the outlet: ‘I was open to giving her my username.
‘I just didn’t want to sell it because that would get me banned. After I replied to her, her messages came off snarky so I told myself, “OK, this isn’t worth it”.’
According to her social media pages, Katherine is originally from New Vernon, New Jersey, having studied at College of Charleston.
Her TikTok page, named Lost Etiquette, boasts over 80,000 followers with over 5.5 million likes on her profile.
The family that she married into founded Asplundh Tree Expert, which in 2021 reported revenue of over $5.4 billion dollars.
The two met in Prague while Katherine was studying aboard and connected over growing up at the Jersey Shore, according to their wedding website.
Two years later, Cabot, the great grandson of Carl Asplundh who founded the family business alongside his two brothers, proposed to her in Mantoloking, New Jersey.
Since then, Asplundh’s social media pages have been filled with comments and she reportedly had to privatize her page – before making it public again
Her TikTok page, named Lost Etiquette, boasts over 80,000 followers with over 5.5 million likes on her profile
Former Senate candidate and celebrity surgeon Mehmet Oz is part of the family by marriage, with his wife Lisa’s grandfather cofounding the family business in 1928 with his two brothers.
The company, which maintains trees for electric utilities, municipalities and others, is run by the third generation of Asplundhs and owned by nearly 200 family members, who are collectively worth at least $3 billion, according to Forbes.
Kate, who only told The Inquirer that her name was Katherine J. Asplundh, shared the exchange onto Reddit, telling the outlet: ‘The whole thing just seemed silly and ridiculous to me. I thought they’d have a laugh and that would be it.’
One user commented: ‘Legitimately insane behavior “I don’t believe that’s your name” HUH?!?!.’
Another posted: ‘The pivot from hey girly to let me see your birth certificate gave me whiplash.’
While another said: ‘Omg this is crazy- she married into a billionaire family and is acting like they’re the only ones allowed to have that last name wtf.’
Since then, Katherine’s social media pages have been filled with comments and she reportedly had to privatize her page, before making it public again.
In posts about the wedding, Katherine described it as the ‘best day’ of her life, sharing pictures of the her in her dress.
According to Instagram, users are forbidden from buying, selling, or transferring ‘any aspect of your account’.
Despite this, an investigation by Vox shone the light on an entire economy of people selling and buying names on dedicated online marketplaces.
Social media handles are supposed to be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis but in some cases celebs have used their influence to pass these rules.
In 2019, Kevin Keiley of West Sussex claimed that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle took his @sussexroyal handle.
Instagram said that the account name being reassigned was due to Keiley’s being inactive.
