Influencer faces brutal backlash after posting provocative dancing videos in hospital next to sick father

An influencer has been slammed online after she posted provocative dancing videos to TikTok from her sick father’s hospital room.

Athena Paris, who boasts over one million followers combined on TikTok and Instagram, revealed that her dad had been hospitalized last week after coming down with tuberculosis.

But when she posted a clip of herself showing off her moves while he laid next to her in his hospital bed, it did not go over well with some of her followers.

‘My dad has been in the hospital for five days and this was the biggest scare for me and my family,’ she wrote in the caption of the controversial TikTok video.

‘Thankfully he will be OK, but man! I’m just glad God gave me time to come and nurse my father back to health

‘I HATE HOSPITALS… they are so depressing so I bring all the energy every time I come,’ she added.

‘No sadness only dancing, I strongly believe you can love someone back to health.’

In the accompanying video, Paris – who donned brown yoga pants and matching zip-up, as well as medical gloves and a mask – moved to the beat next to her sick father.

She performed all different kinds of dance moves, including one where she shook her butt to the camera, and then broke it down at the foot of her dad’s hospital bed.

‘Kicking tuberculosis’ a**,’ she added in a text overlay.

In another videoshe bent over her father’s wheelchair, and began busting a move.

She then moved around his wheelchair, as he looked up from his phone and began to laugh at her.

‘Day four in the hospital and so far we have identified my dad has heart failure and liver failure,’ she wrote in the caption of the second video.

‘He is going in for a procedure today, and we are being optimistic! It’s better to be pro active then reactive when it comes to heart problems.

‘He is nervous, but I am being strong for him, trying to occupy his mind and make him laugh even though the hospital can be so depressing.

‘On the positive my family has stepped up so much and this is the closest we have been in a long time. God is good, and my father has got a lot of life left to live. Just a little bump in the road.’

Some followers weren’t fans of her hospital dance moves, and accused her of putting the attention on herself.

‘How do I use my father’s hospital stay/emergency about me,’ one person commented on her first TikTok video from the hospital.

Someone else typed, ‘Way to make your dad’s health scare about you and your leggings.’

‘Dad looks thrilled,’ another sarcastically wrote, followed by a string of laughing-crying emojis.

The video also made its way over to Reddit, where it was posted on the I’m The Main Character subreddit.

‘We’re doomed,’ one Redditor wrote.

Another seconded, ‘She is using his illness for clout lol.’

‘It’s top-tier weird,’ someone else wrote.

However, others defended the influencer, as they typed that not everyone deals with traumatic situations in the same way.

‘He needed it more than you will ever know!’ a user wrote on TikTok. Another agreed, ‘Keep up the positive vibes.’

Thankfully, Paris’ dad is now seemingly feeling better, as she posted on TikTok that he had been discharged from the hospital with yet another dancing video.

‘We celebrate the little wins over here.. or at least his daughter does,’ Paris wrote in the caption.

The Daily Mail reached out to Paris’ representative for comment.

Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time an influencer has taken to TikTok to dance things out while a family member is sick in the hospital.

In 2021, Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Whitney Leavitt made headlines after she posted a video of herself dancing next to her sick baby who was in the hospital battling a lung infection at the time.

In a viral video – which has now been taken down – she explained his diagnosis while moving her body to the song If You Love Me by Nessa Barrett.

‘Li’l Lee was taken in ’cause of low oxygen. He tested positive for RSV. Waiting for him to breathe better on his own,’ she wrote, while excitedly shaking her hips to the tune and jumping around to the beat.

After the severe rebuke, Leavitt responded in another video, and she claimed she only did the dance in an attempt to stay ‘positive.’

‘I understand that people are upset with the video that I made. I just want to be clear and communicate that that was just me trying to be positive,’ she said as she broke down in tears.

‘I think it’s important to not just assume what someone’s going through. I took it down because I can see how someone might get the wrong idea.

‘That was honestly just me trying to be positive in this situation. I do want to say thank you to the people who have reached out to me and my family, and I really appreciate it.’