IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

The woman behind viral TikTok videos about her husband's infidelity says she's not lying for clout

Rachael Buck said she stands by her words. But now she just wants the online discourse to "die down."

After TikTok user Rachael Buck posted a video showing the aftermath of her husband's apparent infidelity, it blew up — in popularity and in her face.

On Monday, Buck shared Ring video showing her husband retrieving his clothes from their front lawn. A text overlay on the TikTok warns "LADIES: don't let your man go to Vegas without you." By Wednesday afternoon, the video had received 8.7 million views.

Buck's three-part follow-up racked up millions more views, with viewers eager to hear more details about her husband's unfaithfulness. In the subsequent videos, she said her husband went to Las Vegas for a work trip, ended up at a strip club with co-workers and stayed after his colleagues went home. Buck said her husband then claimed he blacked out after he was drugged by a stripper but insisted "nothing happened." But Buck was doubtful of his account, so she took to TikTok because she “needed validation that I wasn’t crazy.”

The saga has become the latest example of someone’s personal life unexpectedly going viral. On TikTok, viewers often latch onto interpersonal dramas and turn them into outsize scandals, taking sides, showing support and even giving unsolicited advice.

Women can’t win. It doesn’t matter what we do. People are going to tell us it’s wrong.

— Rachael buck, a tiktok user who went viral for her story about her husband's infidelity

Some viewers turned on Buck after her explanation videos, raising suspicions over her dramatic style of storytelling. Many accused her of lying about the incident for views. Others left some misogynist comments calling her annoying or suggesting she deserved to be cheated on.

“Is it just me or does this seem staged?” a comment said.

“Acting like that no wonder why he cheated!!” another commenter wrote.

Buck insists her story is real, but she wishes it wasn’t.

In response to viewers’ nitpicking of how she presented her experience, Buck said: “Women can’t win. It doesn’t matter what we do. People are going to tell us it’s wrong.

“I understand the backlash, because, you know, not everything needs to be made public, but it’s public now,” she added. “And there’s no taking it back.”

When Buck posted her storytime series, many expressed their support for her — but she later posted another TikTok video sharing that she felt some people had gone too far on her behalf.

Buck has since set her TikTok profile to private in hope that the fervor will “die down.” But her videos have already been re-uploaded and circulated on other platforms like Twitter and Reddit, where people continue to analyze them.

She said she was surprised by how viral the videos became, because she had 12 followers when she posted the first video. The attention has been “very humbling" for her and her husband, she said.

While she said her husband hasn’t gotten in trouble at his job, his co-workers have reached out to him about the videos.

“I don’t want him to lose his job over this, because we have kids to support,” Buck said. “That’s our only concern right now is taking care of them.”

Buck’s husband, through Buck, declined to comment, saying they “don’t have all the facts yet” because of the alleged blackout.

“He’s not a bad person," Buck said. "He screwed up. He doesn’t want his kids to be negatively impacted by any of this, and neither do I."

Despite the backlash, Buck said she doesn't regret having posted the video — although she thinks she would have handled things differently if she were given the chance. She said she got a lot of supportive messages from women who have had similar experiences. She also said people have told her the story helped them.

As for what's next in her relationship, Buck said: "This is not something that can be figured out in a day, and it's not something that can be figured out in a week. For people to expect me to just up and leave my life because I posted a TikTok is wild to me."