‘I Genuinely Thought This Person Was Going To Kill Me’: 'The Influencer Project' Star Chiara King On Her Terrifying Stalker Experience | FPJ Exclusive

The glamorous world of social media influencing often comes with a price that isn’t immediately visible. While real-time updates, constant engagement and sharing snippets of one’s personal life may seem like an exciting part of being an influencer, the lack of privacy can sometimes come with frightening consequences. London-based influencer Chiara King recently found herself confronting this frightening reality in the most unexpected way. The influencer is currently busy promoting her film 'The Influencer Project', a fictionalised take on her life in which she plays a version of herself dealing with an internet stalker who closely monitors everything she posts online.

However, what makes the story even more unsettling is that life began mirroring fiction while the film was being shot. Despite never having experienced anything of this sort before, Chiara found herself dealing with a real-life stalker during the filming process. What followed was an extremely distressing period involving anxiety, fear, depression, therapy, police intervention and legal assistance. In an exclusive conversation with The Free Press Journal, Chiara opened up about the horrifying experience, recalling how deeply it affected her mental health and how she eventually found the strength to overcome it.

Speaking about the terrifying ordeal and its impact on her mental health, Chiara recalled how the stalking escalated into psychological abuse, leaving her constantly anxious and fearful for her safety and that of her family. She said, “It got pretty bad. I didn’t think I knew what depression was until that situation happened. I remember waking up in the middle of the night vomiting, like just water out of anxiety and fear of what this person was going to do next to me. The abuse wasn’t even physical. It was psychological abuse where they would post online, tantalise with my thoughts and haunt my thoughts. It was really the worst experience I’ve ever been through. I needed a lot of therapy and there was police involved and lawyers involved. This was like the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. I felt so scared. I felt scared to leave my house. I was worried for my family, worried for my life and I genuinely thought like this person was going to kill me. And you know, having gone through that, I realized how strong I actually am. And I don’t think I could have seen how strong I am if I hadn’t gone through that.”

While the experience left a lasting impact on her, Chiara believes that working on 'The Influencer Project' played an unexpected role in her healing journey. She credited the film with forcing her to confront her trauma rather than suppressing it, while also emphasising that ultimately, taking the first steps towards recovery was something she had to do herself. “At the end of the day, no one can save you but yourself. Like, you’re the only one that can take yourself out of depression. I had to be the one taking myself out of bed and taking myself to a breathwork classes. And I also think that doing the film forced me to kind of face the trauma that I had been through. I think today sitting here, I can say that I’ve healed much faster from it than I would have if I had just run away from the situation and just like not faced it. And I think that trauma would have followed me for many, many years. I’m actually grateful that with The Influencer Project I was able to face it head on and go there, which was challenging and really uncomfortable," she added.