Influencer Remi Bader has hit back at online trolls’ claims that her boyfriend is “being paid” to date her.
The fashion influencer, 28, spoke candidly about her partner, and how she hasn’t publicly revealed his name, during an episode of Emily Ratajkowski’s High Low with EmRata podcast, which aired on 26 September. Speaking to the model, Bader recalled some of the unkind comments online about her relationship, and how they have “really hurt” her.
“We post funny things together and then people are just like, ‘Clearly he’s being paid to be with her, there’s no way such a good-looking guy could be with a girl like that. He has to be using her,’” she explained. “Whatever it is. That can’t not get to someone.”
She emphasised that these comments have “been hard” for both her and her boyfriend to deal with. However, Bader also noted that amidst all the criticism, her partner has continued to be there for her.
“He’s been the one that’s told me, ‘I don’t want you to lose weight in ways that are making you feel bad about yourself,’ like, ‘I love you the way you are,’” she said. “He’s been the most supportive.”
She noted that despite all the support she’s been getting from her partner, it’s hard for her to avoid the ongoing hate she’s faced online.
“[When people] make me feel like there’s no way he could love me, and see these things…when people say ‘just don’t read it,’ I’m like, ‘you don’t get it,’” she explained.
Bader also noted that while her boyfriend “kind of knew” what he was getting into, as they started dating in the midst of her career as an influencer, it’s still “hurting him” to see the comments made about him.
Shen then explained that she and her partner are trying to avoid online hate. “I’m trying to just focus on us and we do have a really great relationship,” she added. “We just have fun and we’re funny together.”
Bader also pointed out that she never expected to have a boyfriend while in the midst of overcoming challenges throughout her mental health, including an eating disorder. However, she said she then realised that she didn’t want to wait for a “perfect” point in her life to get into a relationship.
“To have a boyfriend while dealing with all this is hard, but I realised, how long was I gonna wait? Was I gonna wait forever to get to a point where I felt perfect? That’s never gonna happen,” she said, before recalling how she met her boyfriend on a dating app, Lox Club.
She also confessed that she was worried about her physical appearance, before going on her first date with her now-boyfriend.
“We literally started talking. I was like, ‘Oh this will never be a real thing,’” she recalled. “And I think that was an insecurity of my own, too. Like, there’s this good-looking guy and there’s just no way. And that was sad on my part thinking that.”
Bader went on to recall that after her first date with her boyfriend, she thought it was just going to be “a casual thing,” since she’d “only had flings” with people in the past. However, she said that after he pushed for them to go on a second date, they “never stopped talking for a day” ever since.
Bader first debuted her relationship in November 2022 on Instagram, where she shared a black and white photo of her and her boyfriend kissing. At the time, she spoke to E! News about why she waited a few months to reveal that she was dating someone.
“I was waiting until I felt that it was a real and secure relationship,” she said. “It’s exciting to share with my followers and they see through the screen that I’m very happy.”
Earlier this year, she also opened up about keeping her relationship out of the spotlight. While appearing on an episode of Amanda Hirsch’s Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast in January, she said she was keeping his name hidden and wouldn’t be tagging him in her Instagram photos, since she didn’t want her followers to contact him.
“Already just seeing what people comment on things, or you’ll see his ex-girlfriend in the photos, clearly,” Bader said about the posts of him on Instagram. “Just the things that people already were messaging me, or find him and message him [like]: ‘Oh lucky, don’t mess this up.’ I don’t need that.”
During her recent interview with Ratajkowski, Bader expressed that it’s important for her to “protect” her relationship since she’s “so open” about other parts of her life. However, she also said that she’s not against the idea of one day sharing her partner’s name.
“I’m not saying that’s a forever thing, but I think it’s because I share so much that I was like, I need to protect something,” she explained, before noting that her boyfriend is “fine” with his name being hidden on her social media accounts.
“He always says, ‘I don’t care.’ He also is not in this world,” she explained “Like, people try saying, ‘Oh he’s using her,’ but like, he literally does finance… At this point, it’s been over a year, I think if he wanted out and was just trying to get something from it, he would’ve already.”
