An influencer lick-back for the ages

Social media influencer Kristy Scott made headlines over the weekend as people are speculating that less than three months after finalizing her divorce from Desmond Scott, the man who she was married to for 12 years, she is now dating musician Bryson Tiller, who just so happens to be her ex-husband Desmond’s favourite artist. Whew.

While they’re only rumours for now, we’ve got a lot of supporting evidence. First, there was a video that surfaced of a woman assumed to be Kristy in the passenger seat of Bryson’s car in Miami. And then, earlier this month, a video of Bryson switching up the lyrics in his song “Drop the Lo” to name drop Kristy went viral. Plus, there was the video she posted of her dancing to his song. So it makes sense that people are connecting the dots.

Naturally, Kristy’s fans on social media are loving this. They’ve spent years following her hilarious antics and getting to know her, Desmond and their two sons. People did what people do and built parasocial relationships with not just her, but Desmond, too. So this divorce was a big deal because people felt like they knew them.

Sh-t hit the fan when footage of Desmond sucking the face off of another woman in a nightclub or restaurant went viral just as the couple was in the midst of a separation, which Kristy chalked up to infidelity, a claim he initially denied, but then semi-admitted to in his statement and apology to Kristy, his family, and his fans.

It was a mess. TMZ was able to track down the woman who appeared in the video, whose name is Marissa Springer. The internet was so on fire that she ended up making a video statement, wasting no time defending herself against relentless trolls who were now making fake accounts and calling her a homewrecker. In her video, she didn’t deny that she was the woman Desmond was making out with in the club that night, but she was adamant that she was not the one he cheated with – the one who sparked the split in the first place.

According to Marissa, she says she met him that night. She had no idea who Desmond was because she’s “not on that side of TikTok”. She said they made out after a few drinks and that was it. Personally, I believe her. She could’ve milked that situation for a lot more than she did, but she seemed honest and genuine in her video. Plus, she was 26. Who hasn’t made out with a stranger after a few drinks during a night out? Please don’t tell me I’m alone in this.

Since the divorce, which Kristy has remained fairly tight-lipped about, people have been very vocal about how both of them have moved on independently. Desmond, who has always been very into cooking, has continued on with content creation on Instagram and YouTube, with most of his videos focusing on cuisine and fitness.

Kristy, on the other hand, has, as most women do, has had a serious post-divorce glow up. She recently attended the Victoria Secret fashion show, she also announced that she’ll be appearing as a contestant in Squid Game: The Challenge VIP alongside stars like Mel B from The Spice Girls, a few reality stars and basketball star Tristan Thompson. Lately she’s been creating content that mixes her brand partnerships with personal reflections about the recent directional changes in her life – specifically as it pertains to dating.

In this video, for example, she’s elated to be getting ready for a dinner date again, and, without mentioning a name, she says that he makes suggestions to do things she’s always wanted to, like exchanging cards during their dates to get to know each other better, since she considers so much of the initial stages of dating to be a variation of “interviewing one another”, while, of course, she shares what she loves about the Valentino perfumes and colognes she flaunts in the video.

Considering this video was only shared over the weekend, after a lot of the buzz surrounding her and Bryson’s love affair circulated, it’s interesting that she wouldn’t confirm or deny the rumour, but continues on in stride with her content about dating. It doesn’t seem like she’s desperate to quell or fuel any rumours. She’s just…doing her thing.

And perhaps that’s what makes all of this so powerful. Desmond did what a lot of men do during the collapse of their marriage and immediately in the days and weeks following it. He was out partying, he was out indulging in escapism. And being caught in a club making out with someone before the ink has dried negatively impacted his family, hence his apology. But all throughout, Kristy stayed cool, calm and collected. Months later, she’s getting dolled up for a date in her luxury closet (which is the size of my entire apartment) to go to dinner with her ex-husband’s favourite artist, who is into the corny couple activities that she seems to imply her ex-husband wasn’t? That’s a lick-back if I’ve ever seen one.

In recent years, we’ve seen so many famous women getting their lick-back. In 2023, I wrote about Gabrielle Union getting her lick-back on the man she was married to in the early 2000s. In that piece, I wrote that when women get their lick-back, it’s typically done in private, whereas men’s infidelity tends to be loud and public.

This is exactly what we see in Kristy and Desmond’s situation. He’s got what a lot of people want at home. A beautiful wife, two kids, and a very lucrative content creation business that allows the pair to live comfortably without having to report to a typical 9 to 5. But whatever it was that was lacking or missing for him drove him right back into the streets – and the lips – of other women.

So Kristy stays quiet and lays low. She clearly put a lot of work into preparing herself to date again, which she reflects on in some of her videos that she’s published over the last several months. And now she’s really flourishing, with an entirely new content pillar to talk about – being a single mom in your 30s and dating. Not only does this open her up to a new audience, but it opens her up to new brands who may be looking for that very specific type of person to help connect them to more targeted audiences.

The dissolution of this marriage, despite them being incredibly rich content creators, has so many of the characteristics of your average divorce. And one thing that is consistent throughout so many of these stories and splits is that the woman really does come out on top in the end. Not saying Desmond can’t be or isn’t happy right now, but his actions immediately following the split were an indication of the type of behavior we see in these situations.

People have been sharing their thoughts in comment sections everywhere, debating whether Desmond cares or not. And personally, I think each of them cares about one another. You’d have to be really disassociated from your emotions to not care about the person you spent over a decade with, building a family and a business. But I think that care looks completely different now.

I don’t actually think that Kristy was trying to be vindictive in dating Bryson Tiller. I think Bryson saw the video of Kristy dancing to his music and decided to shoot his shot. And I think that’s a very powerful reminder to women, especially ones with children who are frequently told by the fathers of those children and other men in society that we will be unwanted and that we’re ‘damaged goods’, that men do want you. And sometimes those men are even the favourite artists of their exes.