Helen Flanagan mum-shamed over birthday 'cigarette smoking' video
Some people are flooding to social media to criticise Helen Flanagan over her birthday Instagram post.
The former Coronation Street actor has leapt on a TikTok trend in a recent post to Instagram to mark her birthday.
Born on 7 August, 1990, it was Flanagan's 33rd birthday yesterday - however, some of her followers took to her post in condemnation rather than celebration of the mum-of-three. Catch a look at the post here:
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Flanagan shared a video of herself with her pink, cherry-topped birthday cake to her Instagram profile, where she can be seen lighting a candle in her mouth with a lighter, as if the candle is a cigarette.
Flanagan then removes the candle from her mouth and sticks it in the cake - iced with the words, 'Thirty-three and thriving' - before blowing it out and smiling at the camera.
Flanagan may simply be jumping on a TikTok trend, the 'birthday smoking candle trend' with over 100 million views on the social media platform, however, some of her Instagram followers are not amused.
One user commented: "I love you @hjgflanagan but a smoking action is not ok and influential in a negative way. Happy birthday though. Hope you have the best day."
"Oh god Helen stop being so desperate …." Another added as a third wrote: "Who lights a candle like that strange and weird."
However, others were quick to leap to the soap star's defence.
"Same people bashing her for lighting a ‘candle’ are the same reason there is ‘Do Not Drink’ on bleach bottles… happy birrrfffdayyyy Helen," a user argued.
A second said: "Happy birthday. If you can’t be extra on your birthday then what’s the point ?? #f**kthehaters."
And a final resolved: "Oh bore off she’s not influential to anyone, if your stupid enough to smoke a candle after watching this you have issues."
Sadly, it's not the first time Flanagan has been subject to mum-shaming, as the 33-year-old received nasty comments over a video she shared of her and her kids on holiday in Barbados, Caribbean.
Another time saw Flanagan receive shade after one of her children threw a tantrum in a restaurant, however the actor hit back at the mum-shaming.
In a post to Instagram, she said: "I’ve got two children and I know what babies can be like and the tantrums and stuff, but when I’m saying he screamed the restaurant down yesterday - he just screamed and screamed.
"There was no consoling him at all, he literally just screamed the whole restaurant down.
"It was a really, really, really busy restaurant - I could feel there was a table, just sensed it.
"This is my third child - I don’t think they were being that nice to be honest about my parenting, even though I was really trying my best to console Charlie."
Tyla has contacted Helen Flanagan's representatives for comment.
Topics: Helen Flanagan, Celebrity, Health, Instagram, Social media
Poppy Bilderbeck