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Rachel and Tom Sullivan, the duo behind the cooking channel, Meals She Eats, on both Instagram and TikTok, have recently come under fire for their age gap of 6 years.
36-year-old Tom Sullivan and his wife, 30-year-old Rachel Sullivan, have been content creators on TikTok for quite some time and gained popularity for a variety of different content, including cooking, their life as a married couple, Rachel’s struggles with PCOS, and Tom being a supportive husband, and in recent times, their baby girl. They have also published a book together, titled Meals She Eats.
However, a lot of things about their past and how the two got to know each other started popping up online, leading to many feeling quite disturbed by the information. TikTok creator @annareportsnews made a video about the couple on August 25, where she shared a now-deleted content by Rachel.
In Rachel’s deleted video, the subtext relayed that she was debating whether or not to message a teacher on Facebook after graduation, following which, the video changed to her being married to Tom.
Furthermore, in one of her old videos on TikTok, Rachel herself revealed to viewers how she and Tom had been dating since she was 19 and he was 25. @annareportsnews revealed in her video that people found out that Tom Sullivan was a coach at Rachel’s school while she was still a student there.
Other controversies surrounding Rachel and Tom Sullivan as backlash against them intensifies
What is the age-gap controversy?
@annareportsnews pointed out that Rachel Sullivan used the hashtag "#coachsullyscored" under an Instagram post of their wedding photo, adding how the couple got called out on the fact that Tom was part of a teaching faculty at Rachel's school while she was still a student there.
However, their wedding invitation claimed that the two knew each other since they were both students at the same high school and reconnected years later.
The discrepancy in the information made fans as well as viewers doubt the couple and further convinced them that both Rachel and Tom were hiding the entire truth of how they met or when exactly they started dating.
YouTuber @greenisnotnick made an elaborate video on the couple from Meals She Eats. In the comments section, many wrote that while a 6-year age gap is not that much of a big deal if it is shared between two adults, the same age gap is problematic when it is between an adult and a teenager.
They reasoned that even though Rachel was of legal age when she and Tom reportedly started dating, she was still a teenager while Tom was a full-grown adult.
Many also pointed out that more than the age gap, the power dynamic in Rachel and Tom's situation is what appears disturbing, since Tom was in an authoritative position in Rachel's school when she was a student.
This is not the first time Rachel and Tom Sullivan are being slammed
Rachel and Tom's past is not the only thing that they have been called out on. The couple has also been criticized for sharing and liking posts on conspiracy theories online.
One of the recent theories that Rachel shared on her Instagram stories was about the Maui wildfire. After being called out by viewers, Rachel simply deleted the posts without addressing the backlash or apologizing to viewers for posting about such a sensitive topic.
Many also went through Rachel's old Instagram posts and found out that she used a racist caption in one photo. In the said photo, Tom appeared to be similng so widely that his eyes almost looked like they had closed. Rachel used the word "ch*nk" - a derogatory term for a Chinese person - to describe Tom's smile in the photo. The post was taken down after the backlash.
A lot of people were also uncomfortable with how the couple used their daughter in almost all their posts on social media. @annareportsnews opined that it is very exploitative the way their daughter is not given any privacy and is being exposed in a world where the internet can be dangerous for a child.
Rachel has also been criticized for posting photos with her daughter while both were naked and their back was facing the camera. Some argued that there was nothing wrong with posting a picture of their baby without covering her with clothes and asked people to s*xualizing a child.
Others, however, pointed out that exposing an infant on the internet, where predators lurk, is definitely not okay, especially with the huge number of followers that Rachel has. Rachel Sullivan was also called out for making another post on TikTok where she conveyed that she was curious to know if breastfeeding her daughter would arouse her.
Apart from these, the couple also came under fire for liking several problematic tweets from their Meals She Eats account. The tweets included talks of talks of discrimination, law, the COVID-19 vaccine, and the use of masks.
However, they seemed to have unliked these posts as soon as they were called out on Reddit.
The Sullivans get slammed online for their age-gap and other controversies
The comments section under @greenisnotnick's video on YouTube was filled with netizens calling out the couple, accusing them of hiding the truth about their relationship and criticizing them for the other controversies they were allegedly involved in.
The couple has not yet addressed any of these controversies online.
