Jack Monroe Wiki

An Introduction to Jack Monroe

Jack Monroe is a writer and anti-poverty campaigner with several bestselling cookery books, who has been widely featured in the media. She first became known in 2012 for her blog, where she shared budget recipes and wrote about her experiences of poverty.

More recently, she has been criticised for claiming donations with no transparency as to how much money she received, and what she has done with it. See below and wiki pages 2 and 4 for more details.

Page 1 of the wiki gives an introduction to Jack and her history until 2022.

Some common terms explained for newbies:

Canal of Hausfraus: One of Jack’s followers once referred to Tattlers as sad hausfraus and Jack herself has likened us to a cabal. Therefore we have become the Cabal of Hausfraus™️ (this has been amended to Canal as we understand the first term has antisemitic association). She has also referred to us as "gossip mavens" (so, we are gossip trusted experts). Other terms of endearment she has used for Tattle: conspiracy wankers, obsessive groups of completely unhinged bullies, bullying ninnies, mavens of manifesting misery, and malign, vicious bullies.

To "GrunkaLunka" or "Grunk" your way through a thread means to catch up on posts. Named after a member who rather epically caught up on many threads in a short period of time (and is also a fearless pioneer of the space-time continuum. She really was here both Now and Then).

A "squig" is someone on social media whose name and account handle we have "squiggled" out for privacy. We do this with most people unless they have a verified account, or are a known figure with at least 10,000 followers or so.

Triangulation or : Jack once threatened to use her Liam Neeson skills to TRIANGULATE online via IP addresses (when you see the red triangle/watermelon in posts - this is what we're referring to) our whereabouts in order to intimidate us. She may also threaten to take us to court - do not be afraid, this is not the first time and it won’t be the last.

A "sockpuppet"/"sock" is a fake social media account used by Jack. Tattlers have identified lots of these in the past. She has had some of them for a long time - just because an account has a long history, don't assume it isn't Jack.

"Comments Club" refers to Jack's policy of only allowing Twitter comments from people she follows, so that all responses will be positive (she can't control QRTs though.) She encourages her fans to join the "comments club" by privately messaging her so she can verify they're not TROLLS/haters/canal.

For other common terms, see "In jokes" on page 5. See below for a list of notable Jack events that are often referenced on the threads.

If you are new to Jack on Tattle, you may find this glossary or media gallery useful, as well as




Jack turned up on Tattle on thread 31 to clear her name. Read for yourself to see what happened.

A potted history

• From a middle class and well-to-do family, father is a landlord.
  
  
• Jack fell on hard times in 2011-12, after she left her well-paid job in the Fire Service - ostensibly because she could not get flexible working around childcare. For whatever reason (she's given conflicting stories), her parents and her son's father did not or could not help her financially.
  
  
• Began blogging, initially about local politics and her day to day life; later including budget recipes. In summer 2012 she shared a post called "Hunger Hurts" about how she couldn't afford to feed herself or her then two-year-old son. The post went viral, and she began appearing in the media. She gained a new audience and continued sharing recipes on her blog.
  
  
• Jack was offered a lot of writing and speaking work. She released recipe books, was given brand deals, and became fairly well known as a writer and campaigner. She moved in with the multi-millionaire restaurant founder Allegra McEvedy, but the relationship didn't last long.
  
  
• After breaking up with Allegra, Jack claimed that she was still poor and had just £20 a week for food, even though her social media showed evidence of lavish spending. She gave different reasons as to why she was struggling financially, such as saying that her agent stole book royalties from her, and that she couldn't work for a year whilst pursuing a libel suit against Katie Hopkins.
  
  
• Jack changed her story to say that she was actually from a poor working-class family. She also came out with conflicting accounts about her time in poverty, alcoholism, and many other things. She told more and more lies and caught herself out.
  
  
• Opened her Patreon in 2017. In 2020 she used it to replace income she lost from the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost 3 years later, she still hasn't produced the promised rewards for her sponsors. She admitted in a Guardian interview that she had spent Patreon donations on alcohol and designer furniture. There have been several other instances of crowdfunding, fundraising, or asking for donations; where it wasn't clear how much she had raised or what happened to the money.
  
  
• In 2022 she posted a follow-up to "Hunger Hurts" on the 10th anniversary of the original post. She said that after a decade of working in the media, she was still struggling financially and could not afford shower gel or electric lighting. Meanwhile her social media showed that she'd recently had lip fillers, multiple holidays, and bought a designer puppy. Questions began to be asked, in part because of Tattle and anonymous Twitter accounts drawing attention to Jack's many self-contradictions.
  
  
• Has increasingly squandered opportunities given to her and become known as A Bit of a Con Artist. She now rarely shares recipes or does any "campaigning", and spends much of her time arguing with people on Twitter. Jack's "career" will likely never resume, as there are now many more people writing about budget cooking/thrift and making a far better job of it than she does.

Slightly longer history

Birth: Jack was born on 17 March 1988 in Southend, Essex. Her birth name was Melissa "Mel" Hadjicostas, legally changed to Jack Monroe in 2012. We do not use her former name on Tattle however it is not a "deadname" - Jack herself has said she's fond of it and has considered publishing a book as Melissa Hadjicostas. She also sometimes calls herself Jack Xatzinikolas (a name from her father's side of the family, who are Greek Cypriot.)

Family: Jack was brought up by a high-ranking firefighter father and a nurse mother. Her parents were foster carers for almost 30 years, and her father received an MBE for his services to fostering. He has done a number of media pieces about the difficulties of fostering, with emphasis on the financial impact it’s had on him, having to extend his owned property and replace front doors. Jack was published in the Guardian criticising their foster children, calling them feral. She has three siblings: an older brother who is/was in the RAF, and a much younger adopted brother and sister. Her grandmother was portrayed by June Whitfield in a BBC radio drama (yes, really) and implied by Jack's father to be a Nazi.

Grandad: Jack’s Grandad was Greek-Cypriot and was a landlord with a string of properties and restaurants (including the BellaPais - Southend - not to be confused with the current one in Colchester) around Essex - in his will he left an estate totalling £1.8million in 2012. Included in this were a row of houses (at least 3, possibly 4 as per this sign), rented out as 'villa guest houses' to tenants on benefits. According to a local Southend news article, the properties were extremely run-down, had not been maintained since the 60s, and had to be completely renovated after they were sold.

When Jack pretended to be working class during a televised debate, Edwina Currie pointed out that Jack's grandfather was wealthy. Jack screamed “My Grandfather is DEAD” in place of an actual rebuttal (from about 32:00 in this clip). Then she wrote a whingey open letter as a response a few days later. Jack likes to hint at her status as a "third generation immigrant" on her grandfather's side; and will occasionally announce an attempt to "reclaim" her Greek-Cypriot heritage.

Middle class roots? Jack's parents have a five bed detached house in an affluent part of Southend. Her father describes his occupation as a landlord on Companies House. The family’s Land Rover was navy blue. Jack used to describe her upbringing as middle class in her earlier blogs. In Hunger Hurts she references a £4-5k Omega Seamaster watch gifted to her by the family for her 21st birthday. She has since changed her tune and says that she's from a poor, working class background.

Jack claims that her family lived in a house so small that today it would be illegal to rent it out as a dwelling, her father had to work three jobs to survive, and they did not have enough food. She now says her parents were struggling and had very little until Grandad died "relatively young" and left his guest house to Jack's father. This doesn't fit with her father stating in a 2006 interview that in the 12 years he had been fostering by that time, he had spent around £100,000 of his own money on renovating the house and buying a bigger car for the sake of the foster children. Long before her grandfather died in November 2012 at the age of 75 (as confirmed by his obituary in local press.)

Jack excused this by saying in the Guardian that she used to think she was middle class as a child, but later came to realise her parents were struggling and that they were not as well off as some of her classmates' families. The fact that her parents chose to spend their money on caring for foster children rather than going on foreign holidays doesn't mean Jack grew up in anything like the kind of poverty she describes. It's not classist or "nitpicking" to say that this is dishonest of her.

School: After primary school, Jack went to a grammar school (Westcliff High School for Girls). After receiving 4.5 GCSEs (the half GCSE is in RE), she left school in 2004. She has given three different accounts of why she left when she did:

1. Expelled for stealing a scalpel (which is disputed)
2. She was effectively kicked out because of her poor exam results, so that the school could keep its place in the league tables
3. She just "dropped out" of education. At that time, there was no requirement to be in education, work, or training until age 18. Leaving school at 16 was not normally considered dropping out.

Jack claims that she was intelligent and studious, but that her ADHD left her completely unable to follow rules, and the school destroyed her academic potential by failing to accommodate her ADHD. See wiki page 5 "Alleged illnesses": Jack says she was either diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, or as a child but she was not told and her parents did nothing about it. Either way, how was the school supposed to know? When Jack went there in the late 90s-early 2000s, there was little awareness about neurodiversity, especially in girls.

Hunting for fame? In 2007 when Jack was aged 19, a profile in her previous name appeared on the StarNow talent hub. The profile originally included a photo of Jack in a leotard. She described herself as having a "sunny personality" (questionable!), looking like Keira Knightley and Natalie Portman, and being told that she should be a model or on TV. She didn't mention particular skills or talents, or looking for any specific kind of performing work - seemingly she was open to anything that would get her attention.

Around this time, Jack tried out various ventures including acting (she took classes at a performing arts school, mentioned on her StarNow profile), music (writing songs and appearing in a photoshoot for what looks like a girl band), and modelling (she had photos taken for a portfolio.) She claims she auditioned for The X-Factor. Later, after her son was born, she continued to perform at open mic nights and began trying to establish herself in local politics. All of this leads us to suspect that she just wanted to be famous by any means possible - it was never really about campaigning against poverty.

First jobs: Jack went through a large number of casual jobs after leaving school. A detailed list can be seen in "Jack's Jobs" on wiki page 5. She has said she worked in a chip shop, department store, supermarket, warehouse, and at various cafés and bars during this time. According to court documents from her court case against Katie Hopkins, Jack tried out for the RAF at the same time as her older brother, but did not get in.

After a few years of temp jobs, Jack somehow (read: Daddy) got a job in the control room for the fire service in 2007. She revealed during a talk at the Edinburgh Book Festival that she failed her first interview but was then given an opportunity to sit in the control room and observe how the job worked, following which she passed a second interview "with flying colours." It's unclear whether all potential candidates are afforded this opportunity or if this is a privilege reserved for relatives of the Head of Fire Investigation. The role was a highly paid one for someone in their early twenties with no qualifications. She's repeatedly stated that she earned £27k (see here in "Hunger Hurts").

When Grenfell happened she cosplayed as an ex-firefighter who helped on the ground ("I've seen a lot of fucking fires"), as detailed in her since deleted blog post.

Pregnancy: Jack got pregnant with her son, known as SB ("Small Boy") in 2009. She states that at that time, aged 21, she was working three jobs and earning almost £40k a year. SB's father is an old friend with whom she had a brief fling; Jack has repeatedly described him as a committed co-parent. However, in a Buzzfeed article about her experience of abuse by a female partner, Jack implied that she became pregnant as a result of being driven to sex work through poverty. She later confirmed via Pink News that she was "Sam" in the article.

November 2011 - leaving the fire service: Jack has given multiple reasons as to why she left the role, and here are some from the comments section BTL in the Guardian 2013. Her story ranges from being forced to leave because they would not accommodate her requests for flexible working (as per her comments in the article), or that she was dismissed. In February 2021, she tweeted that after a mental health breakdown she resigned from her hospital bed and then immediately rescinded her resignation. She claims to have had the full support of everyone, but the fire service upheld her resignation and she lost her job.

December 2011 - Christmas: Jack seemingly didn't fall into poverty immediately after leaving the fire service, as she had been in a well-paid job. In December, a few weeks after losing her job, she hosted a coffee morning for local parents at her home. She advertised this on Facebook, saying that she would serve cake and children could watch TV or play with her son's many toys. Yet two years later she wrote in the Mirror that she had spent Christmas 2011 sitting alone in her cold, dark flat with no utilities, while SB stayed with his father because Jack couldn't afford food or presents.

The start of the poverty (2011/ 2012): At some point between late 2011 and early 2012, Jack became poor and was living on benefits. She could not afford utilities or food. She has said that SB's father was working full time, but didn't pay her child support - this is the same man she has frequently described as supportive, and even wrote a Guardian article thanking him. She also did not ask her parents for help, and has given several different stories as to why (she was "too proud" / her parents are actually poor / they couldn't afford to help because they had two young children of their own / Jack was afraid social services would take her son into care.) Instead, she allowed herself and her baby son to go hungry for between six months and two years.

Jack finally told her parents in summer 2012 that she was poor and struggling. She sold a lot of her possessions at a garage sale and raised over £3000, which she spent on clearing her debts and putting down a deposit on a cheaper rented flat. She has given multiple conflicting stories of how she came to start using a food bank (either in Spring 2012, out of desperation after a mental breakdown; or in October 2012 after being referred by Sure Start staff) and whether she used the food bank once or repeatedly.

Early blogging: Jack had been running a blog since 2011, originally called "Our Southend" and about local politics. Early blog entries suggest she had a goal of becoming a town councillor and helping Labour win Southend West (her local seat.) She began writing about her daily life and budget recipes as a way of showing how she was affected by austerity measures and cuts to local services. Jack wasn't too proud, or too scared of losing her son, to tell her story on a public blog or to publicise her situation through a friend who happened to be a local journalist.

In July 2012, Jack's blog post "Hunger Hurts" went viral and her story of woe gained a lot of traction. The best known quote described her then two-year-old son going hungry: "Poverty is the sinking feeling when your small boy finishes his one weetabix and says ‘more mummy, bread and jam please mummy’ as you’re wondering whether to take the TV or the guitar to the pawn shop first, and how to tell him that there is no bread or jam."

Becoming well known: With "Hunger Hurts" gaining attention, Jack realised she could become better known as a sad single mother in poverty than as a plucky campaigner saving Southend from the Tories. She capitalised on this to the max and was increasingly given writing work and media exposure. By 2013, Jack had begun receiving corporate sponsorships, awards for her work, and a publishing deal for her first book. She was also hired by her local newspaper (the Southend Echo) and gained a regular column in the Guardian.

Cracks began to show in her armour early on when, in an interview with the Guardian, she made offensive generalisations about the working class. She has since defended this by saying that the journalist misrepresented her words when she was naïve to the media. This is false, as it was a direct quote from a speech she'd previously given to the House of Commons. At the time of the article's publication, she herself was working as a journalist for the Echo.

Despite Jack's success in 2013, and saying in her blog at the time that her situation had improved, she's since said that she was dependent on sex work and shoplifting to survive during the year.

First book: Jack's first published book, A Girl Called Jack, was released in February 2014. She says it was written on her "Jurassic mobile phone" as she couldn't afford a laptop or to travel to her publisher's office in London. The phone was a Nokia E72, which was a premium business smartphone and cost about as much as the then-current iPhone 3. Jack also says that it took her a long time to write the book, as she still had just £10 a week for food and no money left over for extra ingredients to test the recipes with. If you're wondering what happened to her advance from the publisher (which is intended for the author to live on whilst they write), it allegedly took so long to come through that she had already finished the manuscript by then.

The book is a collection of 100 budget recipes, also including some of Jack's blog posts, descriptions of The Poverty, photos she'd taken, and tips on budget grocery shopping. A Girl Called Jack was adapted into a BBC Radio 4 drama starring Jaime Winstone as Jack, and June Whitfield as her grandmother.

Well-known partners: By May 2014, Jack had moved in with millionaire chef Allegra McEvedy and began to rub shoulders with the West London media set, losing a £5,000 deposit on a flat in Southend due to the move. The relationship was short-lived and she soon moved back to Essex. In 2017, Jack started a relationship with Louisa Compton, head of news at Channel 4. She continued to get TV work, writing jobs, and book deals; despite her brief stint in poverty being increasingly irrelevant given spreading disadvantage and the rollout of Universal Credit.

Tattle threads start (Jan 2020 onwards): In March 2020, at the start of lockdown, despite living with a very well paid partner in a large detached property, she posted an extended freak out about loss of income and aggressively posted links to her PayPal and Patreon for donations. She implied that she would become destitute if she didn't receive donations and that she was planning to use the money for some kind of fund to help others - which never materialised.

Jack targeted Jamie Oliver ("That Man") on Twitter, when he got commissioned for a lockdown cookery show by Channel 4. Here's a link to the Lime Goss article, which explains what happened in detail. Her Twitter campaign quickly led to her being booked for Daily Kitchen Live which she was consistently underprepared for. She threatened to sue Tattle posters for saying she was not very good on the telly.

Pandemic finances: During 2020 and 2021, Jack secured several corporate partnerships, including Hellmann's, Del Monte, Linda McCartney's and Netflix. She also wrote for the Express, the Guardian, and GQ. Despite continuing to work, Jack regularly complained about being part of the "3 Million Excluded" freelancers who are not able to receive financial help from the government. She conveniently ignored the fact that the reason she was excluded is because she didn't file her taxes on time AND was unlikely to be entitled to much help, as she had been able to continue to work and even got her two-week BBC job due to the pandemic.

In May 2020, her partner Louisa Compton broke up with her. Jack rattled the tip jar again, saying that she was now trapped in a very expensive lease on the house they had shared together and could not get out of the contract.

Continued poverty? As late as 2019 she claims to "get paid £9 an hour", even though she is a freelancer who doesn't have an hourly wage. She had a now-dissolved business listed on Companies House (note that her date of birth is wrongly listed - it should be 1988, typo) so if she only pays herself £9 an hour that is a very different scenario to being paid £9 an hour.

Jack owns a large number of high end items, including a Burberry scarf, expensive crockery, an Emin (which is hung in her toilet), several Cotswolds sideboards, a Mulberry bag, designer coats, high end make-up and lots of tech. None of this is a problem in itself, however, she claims that most of these items were presents or "found" in markets, charity shops, etc. Even saying one of the Burberry scarves was found in a puddle. At the same time, she can't afford to buy food or pay her rent, and is in permanent fear of being destitute.

She claims that she is still living on a strict budget of just £20 a week for food, which feeds a family of three (herself, her partner, and SB). This is obviously not true as the £20 does not cover toiletries, cleaning products, pet food, or a lot of what appears in the photos she shares on social media. Meanwhile, Tattle uncovered an apparent private Twitter account of Jack's where she showed off regular food deliveries from Ocado. (See below.)

In November 2020 Jack conceded she was not poor, but living to a budget as she was saving up to put a deposit on a house for her and her son. But by July 2022 she was back to being poor again, blogging that she could not afford shampoo or shower gel and had to turn off her boiler, use solar powered garden lights in the house, and type out job applications on her phone. Amazingly, in the time frame she wrote about, she also managed a tattoo, a designer puppy, lip fillers and a couple of foreign mini-breaks.

Beginning of the end? Over time Jack has become an increasingly tarnished "brand." This is largely because of:

• Her ongoing refusal (for almost two years) to produce Patreon rewards or return donations
• Bad publicity for various reasons, including her book Thrifty Kitchen (see wiki page 4 for more details), and questions over a large sum of money she raised to sue Lee Anderson MP for libel but then did not file the suit before the statute of limitations expired.
• Becoming irrelevant due to the ongoing financial crisis and income inequality
• Failing to adjust her content to the times.

She has not had any corporate sponsorships since mid-2022, and now rarely updates her blog or shares recipes. Her current output seems limited to speaking at various festivals/events.

This is just a taster of the chaos that has been Jack since 2012. For a more detailed round-up of notable events through 2022, please see below, or see Wiki 4 for 2023 onwards.

A summary of “tip jar rattling” 2017-2022

Timelines

Jobs and Poverty timeline 2011-2014

***Primarily from this excellent post here ***
Sourced timeline of Jack's poverty experience. Obviously journalists may make mistakes, but Jack herself wrote that she sold pretty much everything of value before the "yard sale".

2011

Oct 2011: Jack moves into a 2-bedroom flat after ending a relationship (4) The breakup was not with her son's father as they were never together.

Nov 2011: Jack resigns from fire service. Her son is 18 months old by this time

Nov 2011: Jack sells Omega Seamaster watch (1)

Dec 2011: Jack turns off heating (1)

11 December 2011: Jack posts in a Southend family group on FB, inviting people round for cakes, toys and chat.

25 December 2011: Jack spends Christmas Day sitting in the dark with no food or lightbulbs while her son stays with his father

2012

Link to what is left of Jack's 'A Girl Called Jack' archived blog from February 2012 to August 2013 (unfortunately many posts Deleted - therefore not fully complete).

In 2012: Jack is unable to move to a cheaper flat as she can't afford a deposit (3)
Jack sells iPhone for a quarter of its original price (1)
Jack unplugs everything (1) and claims fridge stays unplugged for two years (7)
Jack takes lightbulbs out (1)
Jack sells DVDs, netbook, camera, and all belongings except two plates, two bowls, two mugs, two glasses, two forks, two knives and two spoons (1)
Jack sells her "Ford Kia" (2) (presumably she meant Ka.) She somehow had a car despite later saying that she never learned to drive because her autism/ADHD causes a lack of spatial awareness.

12 March 2012: Jack shares her first known recipe on the blog - for "springtime blondies." The recipe uses expensive ingredients: matcha (which she suggests she uses often), macadamia nuts, vanilla pods, and lots of butter.

13 March 2012: Jack trials a new job at a pub and posts a recipe for roasted tomato with kale, stating that she gets regular veg box deliveries (again expensive)

20 March 2012: Jack has completed trial shifts for the pub job and waits to hear whether she'll be hired. She references having a degree despite having left school at age 16. She has since attempted to explain this by saying that at the time she was on an Open University course, but had to leave because she couldn't afford it.

22 March 2012: The Southend Echo publishes a letter from Jack, giving her address as Plaza, Royal Mews, Southend - where she wrote Hunger Hurts and was living in poverty (it appears she was here from November 2011 until November 2012). This is an upmarket building in an affluent area and rents are high.

27 March 2012: Jack is now working at the pub but struggling to find childcare for her son and provide the right information she needs to give to continue receiving certain benefits.

2 May 2012: Jack has had to leave the pub job or she would have lost her top-up benefits. Her landlord is now threatening her with "Section 21" (a "no-fault" eviction where the landlord doesn't have to give a reason) because she has two weeks' worth of rent arrears.

16 May 2012: Jack shares an update saying she found a job in a coffee shop just days after leaving the pub, but has just been fired with no reason given. As a single parent of a young child, Jack is not expected to look for work and won't lose her benefits for failing to find a job. Despite this, she makes disparaging comments suggesting that living on benefits is an easy/lazy option.

18 May 2012: an early reader of Jack's blog sees the light! Perhaps this frau or herr is with us now on Tattle!

21 June 2012: In a letter to the Southend Echo, Jack says she is on holiday. If she didn't pay for this then someone else did (likely her parents or her son's father), indicating they know about her financial situation.

29 June 2012: Jack mentions going into the office. It appears she is volunteering as a PA, which she later says she's doing full time - so she is evidently able to afford childcare for her son whilst volunteering.

Jul 2012: Jack comes out as poor (3)

30 Jul 2012: Hunger Hurts #1 appears: Jack sells guitar and TV (1), (4)

3-4 Aug 2012: Jack advertises her upcoming yard sale in the local newspaper and on Facebook. She has been planning this for long enough that it had time to get into the paper. However, a decade later she will claim that "Hunger Hurts" (which she had published just four days earlier) was intended as (warning - discussion of suicide) a suicide note, and that she had tried to end her life immediately after writing it. In a comment on the Facebook post she states she's not eligible for council housing because she isn't "homeless, disabled, pregnant, or overcrowded."

18 Aug 2012: Jack has her famous "yard sale" and sells everything including toy dinosaur, piano, two more guitars, Denby and Wedgwood crockery, curtains, clothes, her iPhone again, armchairs, coffee table and bathroom storage units (4). Also sells antique wedding dresses used for "photoshoots", suggesting she may have been paid for work as a photographer or model (she had done both before.) And a ticket for V festival that she says she bought whilst still in the Fire Service. This was clearly not true, as she'd left the Fire Service in November 2011 but tickets for V did not go on sale until March 2012.

She raises 3k, then ostensibly moves to a cheaper house share (3). The flyer for the yard sale is here. Jack is also being offered donations on top of the proceeds of the sale. She is interviewed on local radio about the sale and her experience of poverty.

19 August 2012: Jack's mum comments on a post about the yard sale asking her not to sell her camera. Indicates parents were fully aware of Jack's life situation.

21 September 2012: according to these posts here and here from Jack's old IG account, she has another job (seemingly in a shop or warehouse). A few days later she confirms she has a new job and is waiting to be paid.

22 September 2012: Jack is still receiving an Abel and Cole veg box (expensive) whilst in the height of the poverty. Confirmed in a now deleted post on her old blog.

24 September 2012: Jack shares a song/poem she wrote, about her interview on local radio regarding the yard sale. In the poem she describes herself as middle class and fallen on hard times - not working class and always poor. The poem also shows that she places a great deal of importance on material goods.

2 October 2012: Jack is looking for a better flat with both garden and parking. She can afford the £725 monthly rent on her current flat but feels it's not good value for money. She wants parking despite having previously said she sold her car (and later saying that she physically can't drive because of her autism.) Seemingly she is living with her son and two cats in their own apartment, not in a house share.

8 October 2012: Jack has found a new home to rent. She confirms that she's been living in Royal Mews and has to leave as she is still being threatened with eviction. The new flat is close by, i.e. still in an affluent part of town. Jack originally planned to apply for supported housing but then found this property. Supported housing is normally for people who have physical disabilities, learning difficulties, mental health problems, and so on - we are not sure on what grounds Jack would have qualified, as she ostensibly hadn't been diagnosed with autism/ADHD by this time.

13 October 2012: Jack announces that her craft business Bread and Jam will be based out of a local gallery where she will have a shop and studio space. She describes the business as a social/non-profit enterprise and says that all profits will be reinvested into the local community through "micro-grants."

25 November 2012: Jack promotes an exhibition of her photography at the gallery that is hosting Bread and Jam

Dec 2012: Jack is living on a tenner a week and will be spending Christmas with her parents. Bread and Jam is now for-profit and she "ekes out a tiny income" from the business alongside her benefits (2) She earns £250 a month from Bread and Jam alongside her benefits. Her new home costs £675 a month in rent.

NYE December 2012: Jack is feeling positive about the coming year in her blog (post Deleted) and is apparently debt free after a year of poverty. She again promotes Bread and Jam as her own for-profit business.

2013

In 2013: Jack is in prostitution and stealing to survive(7)

Feb 2013: Jack starts writing for her local newspaper, the Southend Echo (5) She is campaigning against poverty and featured in the Telegraph and still selling her crafts and photography. However, due to government cuts she is no longer exempt from Council Tax and as a result cannot afford to send her son to nursery school.

March 2013: Jack takes part in an outside sleepover to raise awareness of homelessness. She blogs about it. She states that she has never been homeless. In later accounts she claims to have slept rough for two years.

May 2013: Jack wins a prize from Fortnum & Mason (5) She proudly accepts this despite the fact that six months previously, she had promoted a campaign by Caroline Lucas MP to stop Fortnum & Mason selling foie gras. The relevant blog post was swiftly deleted. Meanwhile she moves into a shared house to save money so that she can keep her job and afford nursery fees.

July 2013: Jack is still living in a shared house with five others and her son (6) but her fridge must still be switched off, as she switched it off at the earliest in December 2011 (see above) and says it stayed off for two years (December 2013 at the earliest). (7)

July 2013: Jack is first published in the Guardian (8)

At some point between December 2013 and July 2014: Jack switches on her fridge (1 and 7)

2014

Jan 2014: Poverty over? Jack works for Sainsburys, signs book deal, goes to Tanzania, etc. (3)

Jan 2014: Jack moves to a new flat (3)

May 2014: Jack is now living with millionaire girlfriend Allegra McEvedy, who publicly confirms the relationship (9) The following year they will state in Diva magazine that Jack moved in only a week or so after their first date in February/March 2014. Therefore, Jack uprooted her son and moved him to London just weeks after another house move.

SOURCES:
1 https://web.archive.org/web/20130201235747/http://agirlcalledjack.com/2012/07/30/hunger-hurts/
2 https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/young-mum-turns-off-heating-so-she-can-1502710.amp
3 https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/15/...-has-become-britains-austerity-celebrity.html
4 https://web.archive.org/web/2013020...oyed-mum-sells-off-belongings-essex-enquirer/
5 https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jul/23/jack-monroe-face-modern-poverty
6 https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jul/20/10-pound-food-shop-blog
7 https://tattle.life/threads/jack-mo...dessicated-olive-and-grape.15760/post-3995885
8 https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...und-a-week-recipes?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
9 https://www.theresident.co.uk/food-and-drink/features/allegra-mcevedy-life-west-london-8866280

Kitten timeline (summer 2020)

*** The sad timeline of the kitten here ***

(Long/short) Covid-19 timeline (autumn/winter 2020/21)

On December 27, 2020, Jack strongly implies that she has long Covid-19. She never explicitly states it in her first tweet of many but soon also starts asking the #LongCovidCommunity for help.

If we take this at face value, she would have had Covid-19 since somewhere between October 4 and November 1 (it is generally accepted that you have to have had symptoms for 8 – 12 weeks before you get diagnosed with long COVID-19).

October takes us back to the heady days of what we refer to as Krishmateday, when she tried to instigate a pile on on Krishnan Guru-Murthy and calls him 'Krish, mate' to demonstrate her particular brand of #bekind

It also is in the heyday of her £20 shop, where she merrily scampers off to Asda multiple times a day to spend £20 on lard. It is clear from her extensive tweeting that she has no symptoms and is not self-isolating. One can only conclude she didn’t have Covid-19 then.

BUT, things are different in December. She clarified on December 27 that her symptoms started three weeks ago. She posted a "pyjama selfie" for sympathy on December 28 2020.

This is alarming, as that would take us to somewhere between December 6 and December 13. Yet, in that time period she went to an important meeting dressed as a school boy, foraged for mushrooms in her local Tesco, and (as any respectable left-winger would) bought three copies of the Daily Express. The last two actions also seem to coincide with her Bubble Buddy (BB) Louisa being symptomatic and self-isolating in JM’s rented bungalow. A full timeline of that shitshow

When some of her followers started questioning the timeline of her illness, Jack went on a mass tweet delete spree.

Jack's Books

Jack is the author of the following books:

A Girl Called Jack (2014)
A Year in 120 Recipes (2014)
Cooking on a Bootstrap (2018)
Tin Can Cook (2019) aka Tin Can't Cook or Tin Can Crook
Vegan(ish) (2019)
Good Food for Bad Days (2020) aka Depressipes. Jack actually tried to trademark "Depressipes" but was refused.
Thrifty Kitchen (2023) aka Grifty Kitchen

They are all recipe books that include personal stories and recycled blog posts. Thrifty Kitchen received a negative response because it contains a number of household tips that are actively dangerous and risk causing injuries, fires, food poisoning, etc. See wiki page 4 for more on this.

Books Jack has said she's writing but appear unlikely to ever materialise:

• A memoir - she said in early 2023 that she had signed a deal to publish it. Given her frequently changing accounts of her past, we question if the book will be written in a "Choose Your Own Adventure" style.
• A book provisionally titled The Hunger Names, seemingly a political polemic based around real stories of people who have gone hungry under Tory "austerity" policies.
• A cookbook provisionally titled Recipes For Recovery, based on Jack's experiences of recovery from drug/alcohol abuse.
• A Greek cookbook that she may publish under her birth name for "authenticity" (stated at the Edinburgh Festival on 14 August 2023)

Kickstarter campaign (December 2015 until 2018)

Jack Monroe ran a Kickstarter campaign to fund her third book, Cooking on a Bootstrap. She raised close to £70,000 but due to a lack of transparency and delays caused by her inability to complete any task, many of her backers ended up turning on her. The link to the campaign and comments is here: Kickstarter and our discussion is here in thread 124-125.

A brief summary:

• Jack fundraised for a book in December 2015 that was only to be available via the Kickstarter.
• She promised a delivery deadline of May 2016.
• Thousands of people pledged money to buy a copy for the book for themselves and another one for a foodbank.
• The book did not materialise in May 2016.
• Backers did eventually receive self-published black and white copies in summer 2018, after the same book was already available in colour on Amazon.

For how Jack treated people who gave her money to fund this project, go to the Kickstarter link above and read the comments.

BBC Daily Kitchen (April 2020)

After her Twitter outburst claiming she deserved a programme during lockdown above Jamie Oliver, JM landed a BCC gig, co-presenting Daily Kitchen Live with Matt Tebbutt. Links to all the episodes are below:

• Matt Tebbutt muttering terrible at Jack during the Daily Live Kitchen BBC Show
• Daily Kitchen Live Episode #1
• Daily Kitchen Live Episode #2
• Daily Kitchen Live Episode #3
• Daily Kitchen Live Episode #4
• Daily Kitchen Live Episode #5
• Daily Kitchen Live Episode #6
• Daily Kitchen Live Episode #7
• Daily Kitchen Live Episode #8
• Daily Kitchen Live Episode #9
• Daily Kitchen Live Episode #10
• Jack Monroe On Self-Care and Social Change at Edinburgh Book Festival
• This Morning Lingreenie clip

2022 Highlights

Corporate collaborations / promotions
In 2022 Jack was hired by:

- Netflix (Jan - tail end of Robin Robin with Aardman films)
- Twitter (April - campaign to use up leftovers)
- the Lorraine Show on ITV - Super Savers (April - cheap recipes to counter the cost of living rise)
- Superdrug (announced May - campaign to lower the prices of basic hygiene products, including sanitary). However the campaign never materialised and Jack has since hinted she lost the brand deal. Possibly because of her online theatrics, defending shoplifting, and/or blogging about how she could not afford shower gel or shampoo despite the wide range of budget friendly products available at Superdrug, which they were paying her to promote.

In the second half of the year Jack was due to speak at various media interviews / conferences (we assume these were booked to promote Grifty Thrifty Kitchen, but the book was delayed) - she was unprofessional / off message on some (Edinburgh book festival with Kit de Waal, Radio 4 interview, Hastings literary festival), or late (Bristol book festival with Jay Rayner, Radio Scotland interview) or simply did not turn up for others (Glastonbury, Wales Housing conference).

In spite of this work (together with her patreon / books / speaking slots on radio & TV), Jack has frequently claimed to have less than £50 in her account at various points in the year.

Rising food prices and the ONS survey / the Vimes Boots Index (#242 onwards)
On 20 January 2022, Jack claimed that food prices for the poorest using basic goods, were rising faster than for everyone else. Wild claims of the cost of rice rising by 344% were thrown around. The ONS went off to track the price of the cheapest grocery basket products and published an update on 30 May 2022. This research showed that figures for all groceries are essentially tracking more or less the same and at similar rates of inflation (6-7%).

To challenge this, Jack announced she was working on the "Vimes Boots Index" (VBI) - her own index of how much she says prices of the cheapest foods have risen, as opposed to the ONS' official index. She made a call for evidence on 24 January 2022 and provided examples of receipts she'd like submitted.

The name comes from the Terry Pratchett novel Men at Arms, in which the character Sam Vimes reflects on false economy and the hidden costs of poverty in relation to the boots he wears with his military uniform. Needless to say, there's an obvious difference between buying food and buying boots (even cheap ones you have to replace regularly.) See "In-jokes" on page 5 for more.

In an interview with BBC News, Jack claimed to have been working with the ONS in 'collaboration' (gently, softly, behind the scenes) although appeared to not have understood their new figures when posting on Twitter. This was backed up by an article in the Telegraph stating that she was wrong and that the ONS figures were correct. At a talk in Glasgow in June 2022, Jack claimed that 'the VBI is sanctioned and signed off by the ONS'.

By the end of 2022, the Vimes Boots Index, which she claimed to have started in January 2022, remained unpublished (apparently still lingering in a set of lever arch files in the shitty bungalow). Jack has stated that she needs to complete a UK wide tour of the poorest places, to go see what's on the shelves in each location and whether anything is in stock - it's unclear how this set of datapoints will be statistically relevant.

It now appears that rice has not in fact gone up by 344%.

UPDATE: A Freedom of Information (FOI) request was made to the ONS regarding Jack's involvement with them both in terms of regular mtgs / engagement about price indices, the workings of the VBI and other matters. They responded in September 2022 to confirm that other than one informal meeting (not minuted) with Jack on 28 January 2022, she is not working with them or involved on a regular basis - this is at odds to a number of tweets / interviews during 2022 where she implied heavily that they were in an ongoing relationship and that she had been responsible for changing their strategy of price indices tracked.

T-shirt fundraising (#251 onwards)
In early February 2022, Jack launched a charity t-shirt shop on Teemill. The shirts had tasteless slogans. She said the profits would go to the Trussell Trust. She then decided money would also go to other, unnamed food bank charities, too. She got some flack on Twitter for the slogans. She said TT were fully on board and she claimed to have raised just over 10k from tshirt sales in a couple of days.

After a a few days it transpired TT only found out about the fundraising after the fact. They didn't approve the slogans. Jack had to backpedal a bit and said money up to the declared 'just over 10k' would go to TT and other monies would go to the smaller charities previously mentioned.

What seems like a lifetime later she eventually donated around 11k to TT saying it was the tshirt money. Jack only donated the Teemill money after a journalist started investigating her. And she wasn’t actually transparent, we saw the end amount donated, but not how much had actually been raised.

UPDATE: Jack's Teemill shop remained open with donations apparently going to charities from February to September 2022, when it suddenly closed on 21 Sept 2022 after another lengthy discussion on Tattle about it. During that time, the blurb on the shopfront continued to state that 100% of the profits were going to the Trussell Trust, even though they were not (they confirmed in a tweet that they did not take any profits beyond 2 February 2022). Jack stated repeatedly that profits were going instead to small, unnamed charities, but refused to disclose the details of them (which is odd as most small charities would really want the publicity).

She claimed that proof of donations to the smaller charities through September 2022 were provided "at the time" but this is false - the only screenshots she ever posted related to the larger Trussell Trust donation. When the project was first announced Jack promised complete transparency and regular updates, which did not happen.

Whilst the shop is now closed, you can see what was sold and the slogans of the merchandise, in our archive here.

UPDATE: On 1 November 2022 a post appeared on Jack's blog titled 'Jack Monroe’s ‘Dead People Can’t Riot’ & ‘This Is An Eton Mess’ Merchandise Raises £11,369 For UK Food Banks'. In the blog, Jack explained that after the initial donation to the Trussell Trust, the remaining profits had been donated to a local Southend food bank (used by Jack during the poverty). She provided an undated receipt to prove her point, and did not explain why the multiple charities which she'd previously referenced (and which she'd asked her followers to nominate), had not received the donation instead.

Georgia Church Suppers (#292 onwards) : On 22 April 2022, and in an effort to show solidarity with Eastern European cookery writers, after the outbreak of the Ukraine war, Jack published a list of her favorite cookbooks from the area. Included in the list was this 'absolute banger', ostensibly from Georgia (the country), but actually from the state of Georgia USA: Georgia Church Suppers - currently only available on kindle (although at least one frau has a paperback copy ). It is fair to say that the evening of this 'error of geography because of a failure at GCSE level' as Jack is now describing it (as of September 2022), was one of the most hilarious of all these threads.

The Short Sweet Saga of The Other Half (OH) / The Dordrecht Mystery (March #264 for the arrival of the stetson -June 2022)
See here for a history in tweets.

In March 2022 Jack declared she was in a new relationship with someone she referred to as her "Other Half" or "OH." The canal started calling him Old Harold after the "Hide the Pain Harold" meme. Jack said that he was very private and not on social media; but then happily shared photos of his house for the world to see. She tried to ingratiate himself with his family, whom she referred to as "her outlaws." Jack dropped heavy hints that she and OH were already planning to get engaged and buy a house together after just four or five months of dating at the very most. Within a month of making the relationship public, she had started following wedding companies on social media.

Jack announced in June that she was going to Dordrecht for a break with OH. She made it sound like a planned romantic holiday, however there is some evidence she was tagging along on his business trip. That weekend, she returned from Dordrecht and went straight to Scotland to speak at a voluntary sector event. The event included a black tie dinner where she showed up in an old shirt and jeans, having chosen to wear the only clothes she had brought to Dordrecht rather than buy something suitable. Jack's tweets indicated she was in good spirits and still together with OH (saying he'd talked her out of trying to wear her hotel bedsheet as a dress to the dinner, and that they had plans to go to a barbecue together.) But a few days later she announced they had broken up and that he had left!

This caused much speculation among the canal about what might have happened on the Dordrecht trip. We refer to this as "The Dordrecht Mystery" and may never know the truth. Jack has since suggested OH didn't like her dress sense or tattoos, and had told her to "prioritise seeing a doctor" - presumably for her mental health or substance abuse.

Canal members with connections to OH alleged that:

• He is considerably older than Jack
• He is indeed not on social media, and hadn't heard of her before they met
• They were set up on a blind date by mutual friends in December 2021 and had been dating for around three months when Jack first mentioned him. So the relationship lasted about six months from start to finish
• He doesn't work in a shop like Jack said, but has a six-figure, C-suite job in a finance-adjacent field. His family is also very wealthy. This makes it even more outrageous that Jack wanted to buy a house together as soon as possible!
• OH's family liked Jack, but his brother was somewhat concerned about how invested she was in the relationship.
• The trip to Dordrecht, and another holiday in Venice, were paid for by OH - not from her Patreon funds.
• OH ended the relationship because of Jack's constant IRL drama. She couldn't handle it, and sent him abuse after HE LEFT
• Something did indeed happen in Dordrecht that drove OH to break up with Jack, but what it was is still a mystery.

Threat to sue MP Lee Anderson, Martin Daubney and Laurence Fox (#303 onwards and continued in wiki 4)
In April 2022, Jack accused Lee Anderson of libel (or slander, all legal terms are interchangeable) when he stated on an interview with the Reclaim Party’s social media, that she was 'taking money off some of the most vulnerable in society'. She started counting the views on the video, republishing the count on her own Twitter feed and talking to her pro bono (or no win no fee - again, all interchangeable) lawyer in Israel to take them to court.

Laurence Fox got involved and even sent her a fiver after she announced people could contribute to her legal fees (for a court case that her lawyer hasn't even agreed to take yet) via Paypal. She then swiftly started discussing / planning how to spend the winnings from her court case that hadn't been taken by a lawyer, let alone made it to court and won. The canal are thrilled as we planned our court outfits two years ago and we may finally get a chance to wear them.

She also started making frequent references to her "team of paralegals", presumably in an attempt to instil fear in anyone who dares to criticise her. In an interview on Tortoise media in May 2022, Jack confirmed to the presenter that legal proceedings were underway (listen from 11 minutes onwards).

UPDATE: In a Twitter exchange during September 2022, Martin Daubney (having read 'Saint or Scammer' post) confirmed that no legal action had been taken by Jack Monroe to date against any of the parties named above. Anderson corroborated this in a Facebook post on 3 November 2022. Which begs the question - where has all the money gone which was donated via Paypal to this cause? By the end of 2022, it had not been donated or returned to donators, in a transparent fashion.

UPDATE: On 13 May 2023 the statute of limitations for suing Lee and Martin expired. Please see wiki 4 for what happened on Happy 'Sue Lee' day and events following on from that.

The Man From the Mortgage Broker, He Say No (#314 onwards)
Jack tweeted about having a very important meeting at the bank. She didn't explicitly say what it was for, but said it was to do with her son and dropped heavy hints that she would finally get a mortgage and be able to buy a "forever home" for him. Two days later she said it was a "trial run" for a mortgage and she'd known all along that she wouldn't get it. This was a huge change in tone from how she spoke about it before. From what she said, Tattlers surmised she had tried to get a mortgage citing the proceeds of her Patreon as earnings from self-employment. They would have rejected her because it's not a stable income (if you are self-employed, it's difficult to get a mortgage even with a regular, consistent income.)

Jack Does Tinder (#330 onwards)
Around two weeks after OH walked out in June 2022, Jack told the world she was now on Tinder. Announcing on her professional social media account (which she says her 12-year-old son reads) that she was looking for casual sex. Her profile expressed that she would prefer a doctor and indicated she was looking for men only, strange given that she has frequently described herself as a lesbian. She then latched onto a man she called "The Teacher" and talked as if they were getting married after just a couple of days of knowing each other.

Jack tweeted every minute detail of her Tinder messages to her millions of followers, as if she were a 14-year-old writing in her diary. When followers expressed concern, she snapped that she'd been in several abusive relationships before, and knew what to look out for and how to stay safe. Why then was she comfortable with not only putting all her personal information on a dating app, but sharing it with millions on her public Twitter? As a single mother and semi-public figure, she would be an attractive target for predators.

Hunger Hurts 2 - 10 years on and the appearance of people repeating tattle on Twitter (#348 onwards)
On 31 July 2022, Jack published an article on her blog entitled 'The Curse of Poverty Hangover, 10 years on'. In it she claimed amongst other things, to be right back to unscrewing the light bulbs and not having purchased basic toiletries for two years, in spite of evidence to the contrary on her own Twitter feed.

The blog ended, as usual, with a link to the tip jar and saw an outpouring of donations to both that Paypal link and to her Patreon (rising to 800+ over the course of that week), in the hours / days following. As usual, it looked like the grift was continuing and more money would be going into the Monroe coffers with absolutely nothing in return for Patrons.

Within 24 hours of the blog, an anonymous account appeared on Twitter: debunking in a drip-feed, many of the lies that Jack has told over the last 10 years. The account posted contradictory statements from Jack side by side on the feed - posts from JM's own account and various articles / blogs, which show the extent of both the lies - completely in her own words. The tweets went viral over the first week of August 2022, spreading far and wide over multiple social media channels, including to Mumsnet (which does not usually allow overt criticism of JM).

Having published a number of posts during August 2022, they followed up with a post on Medium platform on 21 August 2022, entitled 'Jack Monroe: Saint or Scammer'.

During 2022 the consensus view on Twitter was a dawning, more widespread, realisation that JM is both a compulsive liar and a grifter, together with a growing amount of piss-taking / mocking. Whilst there was no cancellation, more and more questions were being asked - including by journalists coming out into the open for the first time. Even Nigella found Jack's claims to be 'unfathomable'.

Tom Kerridge, chaos on the Jewish sabbath, and potential insta shade from Gordon Ramsay (#355 onwards)
On 6 August 2022, in a quickly deleted post, JM accused Tom Kerridge of stealing her ideas for the Full Time Meals campaign. Things unravelled over the course of a v long Saturday, with Jack claiming that an orchestrated (but smallish) takedown was taking place on said day, because her lawyer is Jewish and therefore couldn't be working either pro bono or 'no win no fee' in order to read all of the malicious tweets (which may or may not have come from an alleged Tory bot farm) on the sabbath. Various Twitter accounts requested that the Patreon income be made public - to date this hasn't happened.

Multiple Jack socks were deployed on both Twitter and Mumsnet as she tried to defend herself, whilst also claiming to be having 'a lovely day' in the park with the famalam (some / none of whom may have been present). There were rumblings via professional food Twitter, that people were not happy, and had plenty more to say on the matter. By the end of the weekend, Gordon Ramsay had reposted a TikTok video on his main insta which whilst it had been recorded a few days earlier, may or may not have been shade over the Jack / Jamie Oliver / recipe stealing sitch - if you know you know!

Care costs confusion (#365 onwards)
Jack complained about the rising cost of adult social care, and shared a fragment of a letter that someone close to her had received from their local council. She said that they currently paid £24.80 a week towards their care but would now have to pay £180.81- an overnight increase of more than six times the cost. What the letter actually said was that the person would owe either the maximum charge (£24.80) or the full cost of care (£180.81), "whichever is the lower amount." Therefore they would pay £24.80. Squigs who had received similar letters confirmed this and pointed out that the cost is means-tested. Jack insisted this was "misleading" on the council's part and people were "jumping in with the wrong end of the stick," doubling down on her evident lack of reading comprehension.

Journalists start sniffing around - August 2022 (#374 onwards)
26/08/2022: freelance investigative journalist Matei Rosca starts questioning the financial situation
29/08/2022: an in-depth investigative blog from indie author and blogger, Katie Roche is published

By the end of August 2022, questions were continuing to be asked, this time about the origins of Jack dissing the poors in a 2013 article entitled 'Food Poverty, you think it doesn't happen to normal people', written by Patrick Butler of the Guardian. After maintaining she was tricked by the journalist into making inappropriate comments about poor people, whilst early in the public eye and naive, testimony from a few days earlier (which had triggered the article in the Guardian) in the House of Commons, was unearthed and posted on Twitter. The dates show clearly that the Guardian article was published after she had already, voluntarily, made the statements below in the HoC. It would appear therefore that Jack lied about her timeline and actions.

31/08/2022: House of Commons interview republished 'benefits, tracksuit, Jeremy Kyle' mentioned (recorded June 2013).

UPDATE:
10 November 2022: Josephine Bartosch published an article in The Critic 'The panhandlerati: what are the ethics of asking for money'?
11 November 2022: Mallika Basu published an article on the More Than Curry website 'Navigating the cost of cooking crisis sensitively: read the room, reality check and stay in your lane'. In the first paragraph of this - Mallika links to clout chasing accounts and says that Jack's lived experience as a frugal cook / expert is now contested.
17 November 2022: The Daily Mail published an article 'Ongoing row between anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe and detractors who claim her hardships 'don't add up' flares up on social media'. We have an archive copy stored for those who don't like to click through to the DM. They also published a link to it on Twitter. Whilst comments were turned off on the article, they were lit on Twitter. Check it out here on Nitter.
6 February 2023: Katie Roche posts a follow-up investigation on her website.

Burger Boy and Sex Jack (#378 onwards)
Jack has been known to share a little too much information about her sex life. This came to a head (no pun intended) in August 2022 when she tweeted in the middle of the night that she had been enjoying a six-hour shagathon with her "delicious new beau." More details were shared, of an increasingly graphic nature. Jack referred to this man as "Burger Boy" because she said the epic sex happened after he took her out for burgers. Their night of passion supposedly ended around 3am when he left abruptly "to start his shift at work". Sure, Jack.

However, questions have been raised as to whether he really exists or Jack made him up to make OH jealous - this was only a couple of months after she had just broken up with OH. If so, it's concerning that Jack thinks being "pumped and dumped" sounds romantic or would make her ex want her back!

An own-goal by Diva.pdf (#400 onwards)
During September 2022, Jack continued to complain of a 'targeted campaign' of bullying / harassment on Twitter. After a manic weekend of tweeting over 17/18 September preceding the Queen's funeral, things finally (and blessedly) went quiet. Various tweets were deleted and by 20 September, it was clear that Jack was 'gently, softly, behind the scenes' asking if people would post supportive messages on Twitter. In what turned out to be a spectacular own goal for their PR team (probably one unpaid intern), Diva magazine .pdf took up the cause - this lead to an outpouring of negative tweets which they then hid / deleted over the course of the day. Fortunately we have them archived though - you can read the replies here.

Campaigner of the Year? (#402 onwards)
In September 2022 Jack was nominated by the Pink News for 'Campaigner of the Year' and asked her Twitter followers to vote for her. When asked what campaigns she'd delivered she provided a range of suggestions here and here. Truth or lies? Decide for yourself...

UPDATE: The award winners were announced on 20 October 2022, and after a tedious evening of watching the live feed (which was probably made up of c.20 frauen / herren online), we were relieved to see that Jack had been beaten by Nemat Sadat (total twitter followers c.4000). You can read all about it in Pink News here.

Potatopocalypse (#404 onwards)
In September 2022 Jack shared a photo of some roast potatoes allegedly cooked by her mother. We've saved them for posterity so you can decide for yourself about their quality!

A Twitter user known only as Tom gave the opinion that these potatoes looked "dire" and "shite." Jack lashed out, saying that Tom was unfairly picking on her disabled mother. It's only ok to criticise someone else's food when it is Jack sneering at people's trifles. She and her squigs continued to pile on Tom for around 36 hours, calling him an evil bully. Meanwhile, there wasn't a word from Jack about the news of the pound crashing to record lows against the dollar.

On 26 September, Jack complained that she was being trolled and the tweets were upsetting her mother (Jack did not read them out, her mother is on Twitter, thank you!) She casually mentioned that she was upset because two friends had just died, one of whom had "topped himself". A truly sensitive way to break this news, on her professional account no less. She then flounced and deactivated her Twitter. Squigs soon began to suspect that her absence was not about potatoes, but increasing concern over Jack's Patreon and Teemill funds along with the rest of her grift.

Many jokes and memes at Jack's expense ensued on Twitter, but a crowd of loyal fans continued to defend her; demanding that others be kind, while expressing sentiments such as wishing death on people who had made fun of Jack. The morning after deleting her Twitter, Jack had returned to Instagram, proving that she can't be off social media for more than a few hours. Her Twitter account was restored less than a week later. Due to Jack uncharacteristically disappearing mid-argument with Tom, fraus believe her Twitter deletion came after her agent and/or family staged an intervention.

Blocked and Reported / BBC Scotland (#407 onwards)
Blocked and Reported (BARPOD) is a US podcast hosted by Jesse Singal and Katie Herzog. You can listen to the first 10 minutes of it here and also view an image of the paywalled descriptive blurb from the creators.

The podcast generally focuses on internet drama, usually but not always of the political variety. On 28th September 2022 (US time - so, early in the morning of the 29th for the UK) a new episode of the podcast was released focusing on Jack. Singal and Herzog had approached her for commentary but she declined to say anything. Her knowledge of the upcoming podcast may have been the reason for her Twitter flounce.

Singal and Herzog referenced Tattle and thanked us for our "receipts"; they also claimed to have had help from a Tattle user in compiling the episode. It contains nothing new to Tattle but gives a detailed history of Jack's lies and scams, aimed at a mostly US/Canada-based audience that won't have heard of her before. Later that morning Jack appeared in a live phone-in on BBC Scotland, she sounded very strange (possibly from a cold and/or medication) and gave very generic, largely useless advice about saving money.

2022 Food Hero - Jack Monroe! (#415)
On 13 October 2022, Jack was announced as the winner of the Observer Food Monthly awards for Food Hero 2022 - an award which was apparently voted for by the public (voting closed in June 2022 - prior to the publication of HH2). Jack appeared at the awards to accept her prize, but the Twitter feed announcing her win was lit with disappointed commentary. You can read the puff piece about her win here. Will she win a popular vote ever again? We shall see...

The Clean Up: Patreon password located (#422 onwards)
On 31 October 2022 Jack finally updated her Patreon with a new post entitled 'Dear Patrons - I'm Sorry'. You can read the text here, here and here. An online post also showed a performative table (and newish Macbook Air) full of items due to be posted out. The text of the mea culpa had a whiff of a helping hand in the narrative (excuses) - not least because 'thank you' was spelled correctly! Jack had previously alleged that she was unable to update her Patreon for many (lazy) reasons, including that Caroline had the admin password and hadn't shared it with her when she left.

Prior to 'Dear Patrons' appearing, there was some 'cleaning up' and attempted damage limitation both on the Patreon site (removal of all previous posts and negative comments), an update about Teemill on Jack's blog (see Wiki 1 for this update) and the apparent appearance of Jack's previous assistant 'Caroline' on Tattle in the week preceding (for more on this, see the Dramatis Personae section of Wiki 1).

All became clear as to the purpose of the great 'Clean Up', when within 24 hours on 1 November 2022, Jack started promoting pre-sales on Twitter of her new tome: Grifty Kitchen (or should that be Thrifty Kitchen)? So hard to keep up these days! This latest work can be yours, for the princely sum of £9.99 of your hard-earned - out in January 2023.

The sad demise of Essex Police Celebrity Squad (RIP) (#425)
During 2022 Jack stated a number of times that as a result of being hounded online, Essex Police had visited her property and were actively monitoring her social media at all times, for signs of nefarious behaviour. They had apparently also advised her that she must take a bodyguard with her for all public appearances (although there has been no sign of one to date). Following a Freedom of Information request, we were disappointed to learn on 3 November 2022, that Essex Police Celebrity Squad does not in-fact exist (bad & sad times).

Grifty Kitchen pre-promotion (#426 onwards)
Jack's new book - Grifty Thrifty Kitchen is out in January 2023 and the pre-promotion for it started officially around 1 November 2022. Tweets put out by Waterstones and by Bluebird Books (her publisher) have not met with a positive response however. It's also been noted that Jack's Twitter bio no longer contains a link to her agent. Stay tuned for details of book sales in the NY.

Turkish Barber Palaver (#429 onwards)
After weeks of silence on Twitter, Jack resurfaced on 19 November 2022 with cheerful tweets about moving house and a new haircut. She was keen to specify the barber was Turkish and they were best friends, despite her being GREEK. Predictably, she switched off commenting and ignored any mentions of her Patreon. In these tweets, Jack mentioned expensive home renovation plans and buying Farrow & Ball paint, along with sharing a photo where she was obviously wearing her Tiffany earrings but had blurred them out. This obvious display of wealth led squigs to question if she was renting or buying her new home, and exactly how much she was raking in from Patreon. Genuinely poor people, who had donated to her in good faith, wanted to know where their money had gone.

Jack picked up on this and her tweets took a darker tone, saying Certain People - "you know who you are!" (presumably including the canal) were making her suicidal with their comments about her. She ranted about her mental health and threatened legal action, then deleted her Twitter again for the second time in as many months. Just before she deactivated, she appeared to have been tweeting from her camera roll (or WhatsApp images): including the famous trifle, what looks like SB in a Wetherspoons, and an old photo of Allegra. Was it drunk, accidental, or is there another explanation? Jack's friendship with the Turkish barber seemingly didn't last, as less than two weeks later she had yet another new hairstyle.

If you're too EXHAUSTED to read the full thread from the weekend, then there's a great summary of 24 hours on Twitter from @Zelda.

Cancellation, Cancellation! (#432 onwards)
On 23 November Jack was due to speak at the CHC Annual Conference in Wales as headline act. On the morning of the conference, her keynote speech at 11:00 was replaced (and really, thank goodness as she knows nothing about poverty in Wales) by Liz Zeidler. Right up until the evening of 22 November, the draft timeline had been shown as her attending. What could have happened?

Concurrently in the same 24 hour period, on 22 November the Guardian started advertising a ticketed 'live' on 11 January 2023 with Jack. Within 24 hours the event had been pulled due to 'unforeseen circs' aka - many neggy comments online.

Cancellation at last??? Or a flounce? Time will tell.

By December 2022, the Guardian's list of contributors no longer highlighted her as a writer on food, even though she'd written three or four articles for them that year. Is this connected to her event being cancelled?

Silencing the TROLLCLAIMS (#436 onwards)
On 6 December 2022, clout chasing anon Twitter accounts that repost Tattlers' comments posted a recap of some of Jack's past shenanigans including her Patreon grift. Jack said on Twitter that she would address some of the criticisms aimed at her, aka "TROLLCLAIMS." She shared a selfie to prove that she didn't have "£500 worth of Botox" in her forehead. That doesn't mean she hasn't had Botox before; and the lines on her forehead appeared to have been outlined with pencil to make them look deeper. Jack then said she was going to bed and would return in the morning.

She resurfaced in the middle of the night saying SB was very ill and having trouble breathing. If that were true, she should have called an ambulance or at least be watching him - not tweeting. She tried to suggest he was affected by Strep A or black mould, both of which were in the news after the deaths of children. Jack appears to have been "inspired" by a well known account that had recently made a touching post about their son.

Squigs asking about Jack's Patreon rewards were not deceived, and called her out on using her child (who probably was ill, just not to the extent Jack said) as a distraction. Much to the canal's sorrow, she vanished and did not address any more TROLLCLAIMS.

Agent musical chairs (#438 onwards)
Ever since the Potatopocalypse, Jack has been uncharacteristically quiet on her main Twitter account (she's still been arguing with people on alt accounts.) In early December 2022 her agent tweeted to remind her they were due to have a "chat." Less than two weeks later, the canal discovered Jack was no longer with this agency (United Agents) and had moved back to her old agency, Kruger Cowne. This is very interesting, because Jack has repeatedly claimed that her agent at Kruger Cowne stole a large amount of royalties from her. It's also unusual for someone to change agents right before their new book is released.

Was Jack asked to leave, or was she dissatisfied with United? (Perhaps she blamed them for her losing work, or didn't like being asked to rein in her social media tantrums.) Why go back to her old agency? Has her career really tanked so far she had no choice but to return to an agent she cannot trust to pay her? Or was that another lie - if so, why is Kruger Cowne happy to work with someone who has tried to publicly discredit them? We wait to see if any of these questions will be answered in future.

Jack's new profile - for speaking engagements at Kruger Cowne, is here.

This concludes 2022. 2023 highlights start in Wiki 4.

Notable Jack events / chaoi 2012-2021

See above and Wiki 1 for anything from 2022 onwards.

Live Below the Line - 2012
"Live Below the Line" is an annual charity fundraising event to raise money for Oxfam. Participants take part in a sponsored challenge to live on an amount equivalent to extreme poverty, for five days. In the UK, this means a maximum of £1 per day. Jack took part in Live Below the Line each year between 2012-15, and documented the experience on her blog. Even in 2012 and 2013, she said she was poor but did not normally live like this and that the challenge had been difficult for her. But in a 2022 blog post ("You Don't Batch Cook When You're Suicidal" - see below) she shared photos from Live Below the Line as an example of her everyday life in poverty.

"Jackie" in the Mirror - 2012
In December 2012 the Mirror ran an article about Jack living in poverty and having just £10 a week for food. This was one of the first articles about her in the national press after she became known for "Hunger Hurts." Oddly, they referred to her as "Jackie" Monroe, which she has never called herself. Jack made several claims in this article that she would later contradict, such as saying that she couldn't afford to drink (yet she told the Evening Standard that in 2012 she'd been getting sloshed on cans of value lager every night.) Or that SB's father was not paying any child support despite being employed full time - strange, coming from a man who Jack has frequently described as a very committed parent.

Bread and Jam Foundation - 2012-13
Jack ran a "crafting business" that she called The Bread and Jam Foundation, or just Bread and Jam. She said that she made clothes, crafts, and homeware and donated the proceeds to local charities. On her blog she repeatedly claimed that she was preparing to develop the business, sell through local shops, and open an Etsy store - only to backtrack and say nothing was confirmed yet. Perhaps the reason for its failure to launch was that what she wanted to sell was evidently made with a cheap crafting kit or from AliExpress-quality plastic tat glued together. Bread and Jam quietly died sometime in 2013 but was an early example of Jack's grift. More information/pictures/old blog posts about it here.

Iqbal Rafiq vs The SH1TTER - c.2012-13
Someone has been known to repeatedly comment on articles about Jack on the website of the Southend Echo (her local paper.) They allege that she rented from a landlord named Iqbal Rafiq, and trashed his house, including breaking the toilet. She was evicted and left behind dozens of bags of poo (since, obviously, the toilet was no longer working.) As a result, Iqbal lost the house and has since had to work at Sainsbury's to repay his debts. The commenter refers to Jack as "the SH1TTER." We're inclined to take this with a pinch of salt, as this person sounds more than a little unstable and made some wild/implausible claims about Jack. But we still find it very funny.

Jack vs Richard Littlejohn - 2013
Right-wing columnist Richard Littlejohn attacked Jack in a column that portrayed her as your stereotypical Daily Mail caricature of a lazy, benefit-dependent single mother. He claimed she had deliberately chosen to leave her Fire Service job to live on benefits, and that SB's father wasn't involved in his life. Jack wrote a smug response where, among other things, she admitted she made some money from her blog - which she has since repeatedly denied.

Tattoogate - 2013
Jack was writing regularly for Waitrose's magazine and complained that they airbrushed out her tattoos in a photo used on the cover. She said that she always brought a long-sleeved shirt to photoshoots in case the publication did not want her tattoos on display. Waitrose apologised and said they were not discriminating against Jack, as they had previously featured her tattoos in the magazine. Jack ranted on Twitter and said she would soon share a blog post about how people treated her poorly because of her tattoos; but ultimately she never posted it.

Jack Does Tanzania - 2014
Jack was hired as a guest blogger to go to Tanzania and write about various community projects funded by Oxfam. She wrote several blog posts and newspaper articles with a rather patronising tone, informing her audience that Africa isn't a country or universally poor, and expressing surprise that she has things in common with some Tanzanians. (They're from another country, Jack; not another planet). The fact that she was applauded for publishing this stuff is an example of the regard she was held in by the press at the time, as the palatable face of poverty in the UK. To see more, watch Jack's 'Female food heroes' video on youtube and read this article in the Mirror.

Sainsburys Sacks Jack, Allegedly - 2014
It was reported in November 2014 that Sainsburys had ended its brand partnership with Jack, after she tweeted that then-Prime Minister David Cameron "uses stories about his dead son as misty-eyed rhetoric to legitimise selling our NHS to his friends." (Cameron's son passed away in 2009 at age six.) Jack denied that Sainsburys had said anything to her about it. She was attacked in right-wing press, some of which accurately pointed out that Jack herself is known for using SB in sob stories. She has since claimed that she no longer shops at Sainsburys because they donate to the Conservative Party.
Source: Huffington Post article

Jack and the Birthmarks - 2015
On Facebook, Jack shared a news article about a child with disfiguring birthmarks, whose parents had tried to cheer her up by getting tattoos that looked like the birthmarks. Jack said that she'd had years of laser treatments for birthmarks on her legs when she was a child, and her parents pressured her to continue with the painful treatments, making her feel like she was ugly or not good enough. Her mother commented to say Jack is the one who insisted on having the birthmarks removed, while her parents patiently drove her to hospital appointments and supported her in any way they could.

Shut Yer Legs! - 2015
Jack had a clash with Michael Portillo on an episode of the TV show The Week, where she claimed that he had told her she shouldn't have got pregnant and should have "shut her legs." This is not in fact what happened, as we have the transcription for you here, along with a write up in the Huff Post. Jack has made dozens of claims of being told to "shut her legs" or "should have kept her legs shut" - at this stage it's basically just crying wolf, any plausibility is long gone.

Open the Doors, Jack's Coming Out the Closet - 2015
In late 2015, Jack announced on her blog (see below) that she was non-binary and would now use they/them pronouns and the title Mx. She said that she had been considering transitioning for a long time and that this had led to a breakup with a past fiancée - seemingly a policewoman she was engaged to in 2013. She also indicated she wanted top surgery and was on hormones. Jack gave an interview about her gender identity in the Observer; accompanied by a bizarre and highly stereotyped photoshoot.

Jack has now reverted to she/her pronouns, has not made any further mention of medical transition, and rarely talks about the subject any more. Unless it is to accuse her critics of being "TERFs" and/or brag that she was the first non-binary person in the UK to do something or other.

Jack vs the Mail and Echo - 2015
Jack had recently received an honourary doctorate from the University of Essex, and changed her Twitter handle to Dr Jack Monroe. A writer in the Daily Mail gave the opinion that Jack shouldn't be allowed to call herself Dr. She does have the right to use the title, but has to put Hon. after it, i.e. "Dr Jack Monroe (Hon.)" At the time, Jack was writing a column for her local paper, the Southend Echo. The Echo published a letter from a reader who felt it wasn't fair that Jack gets to be a Dr, and that she is, in fact, a bit of a grifter. Jack wrote an irate response on her blog. She said she would pause her column while deciding if she wanted to continue writing for the Echo; and subsequently left the paper. The Echo has since allowed many comments critical of Jack to be published on its website.

Heather and Jack/Broken Rainbow - 2016
Jack announced that she and her friend Heather were setting up a store together to sell books and art - including some pictures Heather drew for Jack's first book A Girl Called Jack. They subsequently held a fundraiser for the Pulse nightclub shooting, however, no proof of donation was ever shown. As of 2023 the shop's site is still up; Jack no longer promotes it, but the link can be found on her blog and social media. It includes a link to a print being sold in aid of the charity Broken Rainbow - which closed in 2016, shortly after Jack set up the store. Is Jack still making money from the site and if so, where is that money going?

Alleged wallet theft - 2016
In August 2016, Jack posted on Mumsnet's infamous "AIBU?" (Am I Being Unreasonable?) board. She said that she'd had an unpleasant encounter in a pub beer garden with a mother who was abusive to her kids, let them run wild, and threw a drinks tray at Jack. Jack supposedly then had a text from her bank about an unusual transaction and realised that her wallet had been stolen - seemingly by the woman in the pub. This caused huge inconvenience to Jack, as she had to pay £2200 to a letting agent before her forthcoming house move, and would now have to go to the bank to withdraw it with ID. She claimed she'd also left her phone on the table with the video camera running, and it would have caught the theft on tape. Jack planned to not only go to police, but social services over the mother's treatment of her kids.

She never followed up on this particular story, but the following day she moved into a new house that evidently cost nowhere near as much as she said she was paying. Jack has repeatedly told her followers not to report people for stealing as they may be desperate and trying to feed their families. So, shouldn't she have extended the same courtesy to this mother?

I, Daniel Blake - 2016
I, Daniel Blake is a film directed by Ken Loach about the lives of people who live in desperate poverty because they have been denied benefits. Jack claimed in a Guardian article that the makers of the film had contacted her for "research", and tried to imply that the character of Katie was based on her. Just like she wanted, this led to mistaken reports in the press that I, Daniel Blake was partly inspired by her life. (The script was actually written around 2010, when she says she was not yet in poverty.) She subsequently gave a melodramatic review, saying she was so moved by the film that she had burst into noisy sobs and punched a wall outside the cinema.

MrsGloss&TheGoss - 2016-2017
At this time, SB's father was married to a makeup artist (they are now divorced.) She was active on MrsGloss&TheGoss, a popular Facebook group about fashion, beauty, and makeup. Jack spotted an opportunity for attention, and joined the group. For several months she shared photos of numerous new hairstyles, clothes, and beauty products. Jack claimed she needed a whole separate bag for all her beauty products when travelling which included six eyeshadow palettes, a full set of 30+ makeup brushes, and two perfumes. She also showed a photo of her bathroom which she said she had to rearrange to accommodate her 77 lipsticks, 14 foundations, and over 40 eyeliners. Many of these were high end brands like Chanel. At one point she admitted in the group that she had a perm, but said on Instagram that her hair naturally dried like that.

Understandably, this raised questions over how someone who claimed to be poor could afford so many expensive things. Jack later claimed on Mumsnet that she only posted on MrsGloss&TheGoss because she thought it had a "confidentiality agreement." This is obviously ridiculous: it's a huge group with thousands of members and, although private, anyone can request to join.

Jack vs Katie Hopkins - 2017
In 2015, the writer Laurie Penny defended protesters who had vandalised the Cenotaph in London during an anti-austerity demonstration. Katie Hopkins attacked Jack on Twitter, confusing her for Penny; and falsely said that Jack was involved in the vandalism. When it was pointed out that Jack is not Laurie Penny, Hopkins said there was little difference between them and called Jack "social anthrax." She refused to apologise or back down on her remarks. Jack sued for libel and won £24,000 in damages when the case concluded in 2017. The court costs led to Hopkins losing her home, for which Jack expressed sympathy.

Grenfell - 2017
Jack volunteered at the scene of the Grenfell fire, and was tasked with sorting through donated clothes and shoes. She wrote a now-deleted blog post about this experience, where she gave a self-centered and patronising take on the tragedy and gave the false impression that she was an ex-firefighter ("I've seen a lot of fucking fires.") In the blog post and on Twitter, she gave an obviously made-up story of being waved through a police cordon, somehow obtaining plans for the building, and being in contact with lawyers and architects. All of this was used to draw attention to herself, rather than benefit others. The Metro and other publications described her as an ex-firefighter, which was just what she wanted.

Why she deleted the blog post is unknown; perhaps because what she was saying was easily verifiable as false, or perhaps her dad (an actual ex-firefighter) didn't like being mentioned in it.

Jack Does Politics - 2017
In 2017, Jack stood as an independent candidate for MP of Southend West. This met with a very negative response from local voters, who accused her of promising more than she could deliver, and only running for office for her own glory. They were also concerned that she would split the left-wing vote in the area; the NHS was a key issue, and the Green Party had already agreed not to run against Labour. Jack withdrew three weeks later citing arthritis, death threats, and concerns for SB's safety.

Jack vs Jamie Oliver (#1 onwards) - 2020
In March 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people had lost their jobs or been "furloughed." So Channel 4 hastily launched a show called Keep Cooking and Carry On about cooking with store cupboard leftovers. Jamie Oliver was announced as the host, and Jack wasn't happy. She ranted on Twitter that the show should have been hers, and "That Man" (Jamie) had taken over her "niche genre." She also said "it's jollof rice all over again" - referencing an incident where Jamie was accused of cultural appropriation over a recipe. Effectively, she was arguing that not asking her to host the show was akin to racism. She's hardly the first person to cover budget cooking or cooking from tins. It's been done so many times it barely counts as a niche.

Jack's followers began attacking Jamie, and she attempted to marshal support for her to be given her own TV show. She also started a daily Twitter thread for recipes, trying to "compete" with Jamie. Bear in mind that Jamie is an experienced professional chef who is popular with audiences, has a ton of TV experience, and owns a TV production company - making him a good choice for a show that was quickly put out. Jack, however, does not cook professionally and had almost no screen experience; not even on Instagram or YouTube! The BBC eventually placated her with a two-week stint on Daily Kitchen Live. More details about the Jack vs Jamie saga here.

Jack vs Vonny Leclerc (#6 onwards) - 2020
Vonny Leclerc (also known as Vonny Laing and Vonny Moyes) is Scotland's answer to Jack. They have many things in common, including:

• Both writers who gained attention through a political issue (Jack - poverty, Vonny - Scottish independence)
• Both have used several different names
• Both are huge attention-seekers
• Both give many conflicting accounts of their backstory
• Both middle class but claim to be from desperate poverty
• Both make dubious claims of ancestry (Jack - Greek, Vonny - Jewish)
• Both identify as non-binary
• Both say they are diagnosed with autism and ADHD
• Both have claimed they were sex workers
• and more

They had apparently met at a public event, and occasionally mentioned each other on Twitter. Jack referenced visiting a friend in Edinburgh who may have been Vonny.

In early 2020, Jack was getting more attention because of the pandemic and resulting financial crisis. Vonny began a sort of one-sided competition and was obviously trying to outdo her - posting about the same subjects but trying to be even more over the top than Jack. They both claimed around the same time that they had long COVID as well. Vonny eventually disappeared from social media (and her Tattle thread was locked) but the similarities between her and Jack are uncanny.

Jack Lives Matter (#22-#23) - 2020
Following the death of George Floyd, Jack made a monetised video in support of Black Lives Matter. When she was criticised for profiting from the video, she promised to donate all proceeds to the Minnesota Freedom Fund. This was never mentioned again and Jack did not provide any evidence of a donation. At that time, she had a brand deal with Hellmans, and did a livestream with them every week. One of these lives was due to take part on Blackout Tuesday: a planned initiative to stop posting on social media for one day in solidarity with Black victims of police violence. Millions of people worldwide took part.

Hellmans invited a squig (social media user) to take part in that week's live, but the next day she saw that Jack's planned guest was joining in Blackout Tuesday. She asked Hellmans if the live was still going ahead. They said they'd check, and later confirmed it had been postponed. The squig was left with the distinct impression that Jack had no idea about Blackout Tuesday, and she'd had to hastily cancel the live after finding out. Later, the squig shared her experience on social media (and briefly joined us on Tattle.) Jack claimed to have made the bold decision to postpone the live herself even though Hellmans threatened to end her contract.

The food influencer Alexis Adjei, whom Hellmans once cut out of a TV advert because she is Black, called out Jack for working with them while professing to be anti-racist. Jack chose to respond via DMs rather than address the matter publicly, she also swiftly backpedalled on her claims that Hellmans wanted to drop her. The postponed live eventually went ahead but was a disaster, with Jack obviously poorly prepared and Hellmans only allowing pre-approved contributors.

Jack vs David Walliams (#39-#40) - 2020
Jack launched a Twitter crusade against David Walliams, whose books she described as "Little Britain for kids" and "sneering classist fatshaming grim nonsense." She gave several examples of elements from his books that she found offensive. One of these was the character of a teacher named Miss Tutelage; who, according to Jack, was an offensive caricature of Black people, and whose name was obviously making fun of Desmond Tutu. In fact, the character was white, and the word "tutelage" means tuition or instruction. Jack accused Walliams of lying about writing the books himself, and suggested he was a cocaine user. She then backtracked and claimed she was actually making fun of drug use in the publishing industry.

Jack's criticism of Walliams failed to achieve anything; there were no apologies, nothing was withdrawn from sale, and he continues to be a bestselling author. However, the following year, two British Chinese writers successfully campaigned to have a short story removed from one of Walliams' books because it contained harmful stereotypes of Chinese people. If they could manage this despite having nowhere near as much of a platform as Jack, why couldn't she make change happen?

The For Sale Sign (#73) - 2020
In September 2020, Jack tweeted that she had woken up to find a For Sale sign on the lawn of her rented home, with no warning. She called the agency and was told it was a mistake and the sign had been placed at the wrong property. There followed a string of self-pitying tweets where she said she was crying and panicking because she'd had to move home so many times, and all she wanted in life was a stable home for her and SB. She announced she was taking a break from Twitter to "feel all the things." Five minutes later, she instead decided to chop down the For Sale sign because it would have upset SB - instead, he could just go on Twitter and read all about it. Tweet thread can be seen here.

Peeky_Mink (#74 onwards) - 2020
Tattler @Veronicaaa triangulated () a Twitter account called @Peeky_Mink as being a personal account of Jack's (here's why.) While Jack was pleading poverty on her main account, saying she was on a £20 food budget, @Peeky_Mink detailed frequent Ocado deliveries and generally enjoying the good life. The account was quickly made private when Tattle spotted it, and eventually deleted.

CAROLE MALONE IS AWAY (#119-#120) - 2020
In late December 2020, Jack stood in for Carole Malone as a guest columnist in the Daily Express. Jack's fans might have been wondering why she was writing for a pro-Tory, pro-austerity paper whose values are the polar opposite of hers. It was surely a coincidence that Jack only mentioned the fact of her column appearing (and that she'd bought three copies of the paper) late in the evening, when newsagents were shut. However, the canal had copies of the column with Jack's face next to the announcement that CAROLE MALONE IS AWAY.

Jacknapped (#123-#124) - 2020
When Jack claimed on Twitter that she'd been abducted and traumatised as a child, leading to days of "selective mutism." Her mother posted about it on Facebook and said that what actually happened was that a stranger tried to lead Jack out of the park but was stopped.

The Tea is Coming from Inside the House - IRL friend of Jack appears (#143 onwards) - 2021
A new frau appeared on Tattle claiming to be a former IRL friend of Jack who has known her since high school. We can't confirm anyone who posts here is who they say they are - however she seems legitimate as she spoke to site moderators. She alleged that:

• Jack was clever at school but easily distracted and didn't work hard. She was not expelled
• Her parents are middle class and she was not the poorest girl in school
• Jack got her Fire Service job through nepotism. Her mother offered to help with childcare but she resigned in a huff when she wasn't granted flexible working
• Jack is a lazy parent and often leaves her son's father to pick up the slack
• She had financial difficulties but not so bad that she had to sell everything she owned
• She has never (to the poster's knowledge) been a sex worker or had an eating disorder
• Jack ditched some of her old friends when she moved to London to live with Allegra, others drifted away because she was unreliable
• Jack did lose her Sainsbury's brand deal and was upset about it, she didn't intend to be as nasty as she came across but her sudden "fame" went to her head
• She has always preferred older, richer partners. Between 2010-18, apart from Allegra and Louisa, she had at least two other engagements (one of whom was the policewoman) and 7 other relationships

The poster subsequently hinted that Jack had triangulated ( / ) her and sent her a threatening legal letter.

The GoHenry Saga (#156-#157) - 2021
GoHenry is a company that provides a bank card for under-18s. Jack posted on her social media that she used a GoHenry card when grocery shopping, and had to lie about her age in order to open the account. She said she needed the card so that she could use its spending control feature to make sure she did not go over her very strict budget. She repeated this claim on her blog and on the Insta of influencer Sarah Akwisombe. A squig reported her to GoHenry, which closed the account.

Jack claimed someone had been impersonating her in order to get the account closed; and threatened to involve police. The GoHenry squig said they were concerned about the safeguarding implications of an adult being able to register for the card, and had simply alerted GoHenry to Jack's tweets. Jack threw a tantrum, saying it was obviously her son's account and the whole thing had been intended as a joke. By which she meant blatant sympathy ploy; she'd made out she needed the card because she was so poor. Fraus noticed that shopping receipts shared by Jack had been paid with a Visa card, whereas GoHenry is MasterCard. So it looks like it was indeed her son's card, but she lied that it was hers, causing his account to get shut down.

Jack Vs School Discipline (#176-177) - 2021
Jack attacked a school on Twitter ("School X") because they had tested a new government scheme for managing behaviour. She said that the school's approach was harmful and implied they were grooming children to join the military. Squigs pointed out that Jack doesn't know anyone whose children attend School X, and she had never visited it. Jack confidently said she "knew" it was exactly like the grammar school she went to. She then publicly accused her old school of causing her lifelong mental health problems, and destroying her future, by failing to accommodate her ADHD.

When Tom Bennett pointed out she was being somewhat unfair to School X, Jack threatened to sue him - even though he'd said nothing offensive or untrue about her, and had even asked critics to leave her alone. She then got into further arguments with squigs who pointed out that Jack went to a grammar school, whereas School X is a state school that already has problems with behaviour (in some schools this can be very serious, e.g. knives and fights.) Jack denied her parents were wealthy at the time she attended grammar school, this is when she said her dad is a "Marxist-Leninist landlord."

SLOPBOT & The Sloppies

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The Sloppies are an annual awards ceremony for the best Jack chaos that year.

The Sloppies 2020
The Sloppies 2021
The Sloppies 2022