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Reality star Draya Michele is facing backlash for promoting an air purifier on her Instagram as wildfires rip through Los Angeles County.
On Saturday (January 11) the Basketball Wives LA star, whose real name is Andraya Michele Howard, showed a video of her setting up the Sereniby air purifier. “While the unimaginable is happening with the fires in LA… air quality is so poor, toxic even,” her caption began.
“I’m using the @sereniby_official air purifier to ensure that my kids and pets are breathing in fresh, double filtered air. The brand is now offering $200 off when you use my link in bio. There’s no price on peace of mind but having it is more valuable than most worldly things.”
People quickly turned to the comments section to criticize the 39-year-old — who welcomed a baby with basketball star Jalen Green in May 2024 — over the “tone deaf” post.
The comments on her post have since been limited.
“Draya using the LA fires to promote an air purifier on her Instagram. Like she never does anything right. Tone deaf,” wrote one person on X.
Another agreed, writing, “Soooo ain’t nothing wrong with Draya promoting an air purifier that [costs] at least 400, while ppl homes are on fire?? Tha [sic] purifier isn’t the problem, it’s the price that is.”
“At the least she could be giving them away. But selling a product at a time like this is sure proof of creamed corn for brains,” a third person wrote.
The Independent has contacted Michele’s representatives for comment.
Sereniby told People in a statement that Michele was “not compensated for her post.”
“She and her team contacted us because she genuinely uses the product and believed it could help others dealing with the severe air quality in Los Angeles,” the statement said. “Together, we explored ways to make our purifier as affordable as possible during this difficult time. We’re a small, family-run startup that only launched a few months ago, and we’re incredibly grateful for her genuine support.”
Sereniby’s statement continued: “Like so many others, we feel powerless against the devastation caused by the L.A. fires, but we want to help in whatever small way we can. We’re donating 10% of our January profits to the American Red Cross, and we recognize there are countless urgent needs in this crisis. If financial assistance affording an air purifier can help lighten someone’s burden, we encourage those in L.A. to reach out to us directly — we’ll continue doing everything we can to support the community during this difficult time.”
Michele is not the only celebrity to have been accused of being insensitive in the wake of the fires. Last week, Jamie Lee Curtis received backlash when she compared the natural disaster to the ongoing war in Gaza.
“I am born and raised in the City of Angels. And the entire City of Angels is on fire, everywhere. The entire city of the Pacific Palisades is gone,” she said during a Q&A with her The Last Showgirl co-star Pamela Anderson.
“And there are now fires breaking out everywhere. So it feels totally bizarre to be talking about a movie, and yet it’s a piece of art, and art will save us no matter what,” she concluded.
“I mean literally my neighborhood — gone. My house tonight is still there but I live in a different canyon. But the entire Pacific Palisades looks like, unfortunately, Gaza, or one of these war-torn countries where awful things have happened.”
As of Monday (January 13) morning, the fires have scorched more than 40,000 acres, including more than 23,000 acres across the Pacific Palisades and along the Pacific Coast Highway. Only 13 percent of the Palisades fire has been contained. The Eaton fire has burned more than 14,000 acres in Altadena and Pasadena and is 27 percent contained.
California Governor Gavin Newsom described the Los Angeles wildfires as the worst disaster in U.S. history during Sunday’s appearance on NBC’s meet the press.
