Christmas 2023 marked a huge change for the UK Singles Chart.
The iconic Wham! festive anthem ‘Last Christmas’ hit the top spot, after social media duo LadBaby nabbed the coveted Christmas number one position with five consecutive songs.
But now, husband and wife Mark and Roxanne Hoyle, the duo who perform as LadBaby, revealed they won’t be releasing a 2024 Christmas single. They’re taking a step back from the music industry for a heartbreaking reason.
The YouTube stars released their first single six years ago in the hope of raising some funds for charity. The Hoyles had made a pretty big name for themselves by sharing the ins and outs of first-time parenting life after welcoming their first child, Phoenix Forrest, who is now aged eight.
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In 2018, they pledged to donate all the funds from their first single - a parody of Starships’ 80s hit ‘We Built This City’ which replaced the line ‘on rock and roll’ with ‘on sausage rolls’ - to the Trussell Trust food bank.
Having decided on a food-based USP, the next five years saw Mark and Roxanne release pastry parodies, several of which reached the top spot in the singles charts - including 2019's 'I Love Sausage Rolls' (a parody cover of 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll'), and 2020's 'Don't Stop Me Eating' (a joke version of Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing').
Unusually, however, last year saw the pair turn down the opportunity to release another charity single.
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And while many expected their decision to be a one-off, they have since lifted the lid on the reason why, revealing they were subjected to online trolling and death threats on a daily basis.
Speaking to The Guardian, the pair touched on the allegations they faced in 2019, after being accused of pocketing the money themselves that had been raised by the release of their songs.
Mark and Roxanne shut down the nasty rumours. Trussell also stepped in to say the claims weren’t true, but criticism carried on anyway.
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"When there was this narrative going around that we stole the money and profited from it, it was really difficult to take," Mark said, claiming it resulted in violent threats.
Not only did he begin fearing for his family's safety, but he began suffering mental health issues as a result, including panic attacks.
"I think I always will [suffer the attacks] but I’m better at dealing with them now," he admitted. "I can see them coming, I understand how they are."
Mark also told The Guardian that he wishes he and Roxanne fought the accusations they faced more intensely, but added they were 'scared' of further upsetting the wrong people.
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Recalling an incident which saw him threatened in a local pub before being rushed out by bouncers, he confessed: "We didn’t know how to [handle] it. And quite often, you don’t want to make the situation worse, and so you don’t do anything."
Another incident saw the pair blackmailed for £10,000 with a video of a man groping a woman in a Nottingham nightclub, which they claimed to be Mark.
Though the couple have continued to insist it wasn't him, the video was released online, subjecting Mark and Roxanne to further hate.
"We were lucky we had each other – that’s what we’ve always said about LadBaby, the good and the bad," he has now said.
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Roxanne also told the publication: "We’ve been accused of things before, and we’re just like, we’ll get through this one. That’s how we are now – we’re quite resilient people."
She added, however: "I’m devastated we’re not doing another song, because those songs shouldn’t have been about trolling and controversy."
Gregory Robinson