Hollywood Unlocked Blog Apologizes For Falsely Claiming Queen Elizabeth Had Died

Celebrity news blog Hollywood Unlocked and its founder Jason Lee have apologized for falsely reporting the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

After previously doubling down on the claim that the Queen had died, Lee backtracked on the blog's false report and issued an apology to the royal family. The original report, which had the headline "HU Exclusive: Queen Elizabeth Dead," has since been deleted.

"Although I've never been wrong when breaking a story, because this involves The Queen, this is one time I would want to be," Lee wrote Thursday afternoon. "And based on Wednesday's report from the Palace, I can say my sources got this wrong and I sincerely apologise to The Queen and the Royal Family."

On Tuesday, Hollywood Unlocked published an "exclusive" story claiming that the 95-year-old monarch, who has been battling a mild case of COVID-19, had died. The report cited unnamed sources from the "Royal Kingdom," according to Variety.

"She was scheduled to attend the wedding of British Vogue editor Edward Enninful, but was found dead," the piece claimed.

Hollywood Unlocked was widely criticized for the report, but Lee initially doubled down on the claims. "We don't post lies and I always stand by my sources. Waiting for an official statement from the palace," he wrote in one tweet.

In a subsequent tweet, Lee said a "fake account" had posted a retraction via Twitter. He stressed that Hollywood Unlocked had no connection to that account and that they "have not retracted our story." He also urged social media users to wait for an official statement from the palace.

However, Hollywood Unlocked then published an article with the headline, "Fact Check: 10 Reasons We Believed Queen Elizabeth Was Dead," which detailed why the blog and Lee had incorrectly believed the rumors to be true.

The report cited the Queen's last public sighting on Feb. 16, her COVID-19 diagnosis on Sunday and the decision to cancel two virtual appearances on Thursday afternoon. It also cited its source confirming that the palace had been locked down and that top generals had been summoned to Windsor Castle, where the Queen is staying, "for an undisclosed reason" just four hours before they broke the news.

The report claimed that the blog's sources delivered accurate accounts that were substantiated by larger publications and stressed that Hollywood Unlocked had not "intentionally" meant to "cause unnecessary pain or grief to the monarchy simply for clickbait." The article ended with Lee's apology.

The apology was met with some criticism and skepticism on Twitter, with some users claiming that the apology appeared insincere as it was buried down in the new report. Some also felt that Hollywood Unlocked's update appeared to be defending the inaccurate claims of the story that had been taken down.

"A suggestion - just delete the entire article except for the last line? 'My sources got this wrong and I sincerely apologize to The Queen and the Royal Family,'" Tom Houghton, senior news and content manager at No Brainer Agency, commented.

"Just checked timeline. Spent days arguing the toss over how good he is, how he’s the nuts, and then casually throws in an 'I was completely wrong” message without even saying so on his own tweet,'" Duncan Wright wrote.

Some Twitter users defended Lee, with one person commenting that it was "an honest mistake" on the blog founder's part. "Being at the cutting edge of journalism means sometimes getting things wrong. Don't let anyone get to you about this," the netizen added.

"Jason, just let it go. We can't be right ALL the time. It happens," another suggested.

Buckingham Palace announced Sunday that Queen Elizabeth was "experiencing mild cold-like symptoms but expects to continue light duties at Windsor over the coming week" — such as going through her daily red box and signing off on official papers.

The monarch attended her weekly conversation with U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson virtually Wednesday.