Nicola Sturgeon’s sister has hit out at social media ‘haters’ in a rambling 14-minute-long video as she deals with the fallout of leaking Kate Middleton’s cancer news before it was officially announced.
Gillian Sturgeon posted the video in response to her critics who were upset she had revealed Kate’s personal health information 25 minutes before the princess publicly made the heartbreaking announcement.
In the video, which has been posted on her public Facebook page, Gillian said she had been receiving ‘loads’ of ‘hate comments’ but encouraged people to send her more as she ‘loved the attention’.
The younger sister to the former first minister of Scotland, she describes herself as a ‘digital marketer, spiritual reader & life coach’ on her profile and advertises products for plant based and gluten free weight control pills.
Gillian said: ‘It is actually quite good because all your commenting has really built my algorithm up and I’ve had sales because of it so there you go.
In the video, which has been posted on her public Facebook page, Gillian said she had been receiving ‘loads’ of ‘hate comments’ but encouraged people to send her more as she ‘loved the attention’
Gillian Sturgeon (left) has found herself in another social media controversy. Pictured: Gillian with her sister, former first minister for Scotland Nicola
Gillian broke the news at 5.35pm on Friday, 25 minutes before Kate broke the heartbreaking news to the world in her own words by releasing a video
‘Do I crave attention? Oh hell yeah of course I do. I am an online network marketer, I need attention!
‘I love attention because it gets me sales and makes me money. I love attention because it makes more people hear about abuse. I love attention because more people are inspired by spirituality. I love attention – I crave it.
‘Was that post to get attention? No – that post was to do something respectful because I work online. But yeah, us network marketers love attention so keep giving it to us. Keep giving it to me because I love it – even the hate.’
Elsewhere in the video Gillian also strongly defended the allegations people have been making on social media that it was her elder sister Nicola who told her Kate’s news.
Nicola became a member of Her Majesty’s Privy Council when she took over as the first minister of Scotland from Alex Salmond in 2014.
The Privy Council, which has around 735 members currently, is formally a body of advisers to the sovereign and has existed in some form since the 13th century.
Appointments to the Privy Council are made for life and it is mostly comprised of current and former senior ministers and members of the judiciary.
Gillian had already rejected claims Nicola told her the news in previous social media posts. She doubled-down in the video and said: ‘She knew nothing about it. So I am really sorry to disappoint you trolls out there.
Gillian also strongly defended the allegations people have been making on social media that it was her elder sister Nicola who told her Kate’s news
After causing controversy by revealing Kate’s information, Gillian decided to delete the post and block the ‘trolls’
Gillian hit back at critics who claimed her sister Nicola had told her of the news
Gillian (left) doubled-down in the video and said: ‘She (Nicola, pictured right) knew nothing about it. So I am really sorry to disappoint you trolls out there’
‘But at the end of the day you will believe what you want so you probably think I am talking a load of lies because I am apparently a liar, apparently I am fat, apparently I look like a duck with my lips – so I am a fat lying duck. That’s good. I’ve been called worse.
‘I did not get that information from my sister. She did not know. End of.
‘That person you think leaked it to me didn’t have a clue. I told her. Even if she had still been in the position she was in I doubt she would have been told early, but even if she had been she is professional in all she does in her work and wouldn’t have said a word.
‘But the fact that she is not in that position and the fact that she was at my mum’s helping my daughter do something that my daughter’s dad would have been doing had he been here – she had no clue at all.’
Nicola has still not released any statement wishing Princess Kate well, but did like a post on X from SNP MSP Christina McKelvie 10 minutes after the news broke which read: ‘There’s few things in life worse than being told you have cancer, I wish Kate well.’
Gillian instead said she had read the news online and posted it early to wish Catherine well.
Gillian responded to comments about her lips by posting: ‘I have lip filler & love it’
Nicola Sturgeon was first minister of Scotland from 2014 to 2023 and will be on the Privy Council for life. Pictured: Sturgeon during an audience at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh on June 29, 2022
But admitted she ‘probably should not’ have posted it and should have checked other news sources.
When asked if she will apologise for leaking the news, Gillian responded: ‘I apologise for upsetting anyone that it may have affected and the only person that would have been was the woman herself and her family.
READ MORE: Princess of Wales ‘made decision a fortnight ago to make statement’ and her priority was protecting her children ‘who were already being affected by speculation’
A photo of Kate and her three children was shared online on Mother’s Day
‘Do you really think for a minute her family are looking at my Facebook posts?’
Gillian said she had been told by her therapist that she was not a narcissist but that she was an empath who attracted narcissists.
In response to the ‘hate’ comments she has been receiving, Gillian said: ‘You will never silence me. You can threaten to kill me.
‘You can tell me that you hope I die quickly. You can tell me that I’m a whore. That is fine, you can say all of that to me. I really don’t care. I know the truth and I know I am a nice person.
‘So you can take your messages and shove them where the sun don’t shine because you don’t scare me.’
Gillian said the police were aware of ‘everything that crossed a criminal boundary’.
The row over the leaking of Kate’s health information comes after a number of controversies surrounding the youngest Sturgeon sibling’s social media conduct.
She works in spirituality, which appears to include tarot readings, and has described herself as a business owner on her TikTok profile.
By her own admission, she ‘doesn’t do politics’, but last year revealed how proud she is of Nicola in a TikTok video.
She said: ‘It’s good… I don’t look upon her as that though, really. She is my sister, she is my closest friend, probably.
‘Even though we don’t get much time together, we are in contact a lot and she’s my rock. She definitely is.’
In another video, posted a few days earlier, she revealed she had been trolled by ‘haters’ on TikTok and responded with a message for them.
She said: ‘I may be related to the most powerful women in Britain; one of the most powerful women in the world, however I am me.
‘I don’t do politics. I do make-up. I do glam. I do fun. I do survival.’
Gillian has also mimed along to songs including Meghan Trainor’s Made You Look with suggestive dance moves.
She has also made jokes about a leaked OnlyFans channel and being blackmailed over nude photos, however she does not explain further.
In 2021, Gillian was arrested and charged for spitting in her ex-boyfriend Steven Waite’s face, but the charges were later dropped.
The Scottish Sun reported she revealed in a Facebook video that she deserved to be punished for what she had done, calling her own behaviour ‘disgusting’ and ‘vulgar’.
She said: ‘It was during Covid. I agree I should have been punished.
‘There is no excuse. I’m disgusted with myself.’
However she added the incident could have been ‘worse’ and insisted she was ‘not a violent person’.
Mr Waite was also charged over the incident, but these charges were later dropped too.
Gillian and Nicola grew up in Dreghorn, in Ayrshire in a working-class family with an electrician father and a dental technician mother.
Nicola became fascinated by politics as Thatcher dominated Britain, while Gillian dreamed of an acting career in Coronation Street.
Gillian, who has two children from her marriage which ended over five years ago, told The Sunday Post in 2022: ‘I was playing with my Barbie dolls, Nicola was always studying. I always knew she would do something very special because she worked so hard’.
She told the paper her mum and dad are equally proud of their daughters despite their very different paths.