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Russian socialite Julia Stakhiva is a rising social media star who recently appeared on British reality TV show "The Rich Kids of Instagram."
But she just made her Instagram account private after a wave of online abuse, following a column by The Guardian's Marina Hyde which punctured her image by revealing that she was renting a bedroom in London through flatshare website SpareRoom.
The flat itself is owned by Hyde's mother-in-law, and Hyde claims Stakhiva used the flat for a number of photoshoots while her landlady was away.
Hyde essentially accuses Stakhiva of fabricating her lifestyle in order to achieve fame. Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson piled on, saying on Twitter, "Woops! If you're going to lie about being a spoilt ultra-brat, don't do it as the lodger of @MarinaHyde's mum-in-law."
But Stakhiva tells Business Insider she was shocked by the article and strongly denies that her life is fake.
The story started on Thursday when Hyde's Lost In Showbiz column featured a piece headlined "The Rich Kid of Instagram who isn't quite what she seems."
In it, Hyde claimed that Stakhiva is "given to dispensing unpleasant aphorisms for attention," highlighting her regular boasts about being a billionaire's daughter. "I'm not suitable for an office job because of how well I dress and how educated I am," is one of them
Hyde then revealed that -- until recently -- Stakhiva had rented...