From finstas to close friends stories, there are plenty of ways to create boundaries between your personal and public-facing life on social media. So, it's no surprise that celebrities — who spend a lot of time in the public eye — sometimes decide to create secret social media accounts.
Here are 14 times celebs' secret social media accounts were accidentally or readily exposed:
1. During a 2017 concert in Brisbane, Adele reportedly said, "I was looking on Twitter last night. They don't know I have a secret account — well, obviously, they do now because I said that. By 'they,' I mean my management."
She continued, "I'm not allowed access to my own Twitter because I'm quite mouthy, and I say the wrong thing a lot of the time. So they took that privilege away from me."
2. At the 2024 Golden Globes, Julianne Moore posted an Instagram story picture with Andrew Scott — and seemingly tagged his finsta account on accident.
3. In 2020, Margot Robbie told Variety that, to help her better understand the Fox News employee she played in Bombshell, she made a fake Twitter account and followed "young millennial conservative girls."
She also told Entertainment Weekly, "I didn't grow up watching Fox News, and I didn't grow up in the same place as [my character Kayla]… I was struggling to understand that point of view for a while, and Twitter ended up being the most useful tool. Because people are extremely vocal on Twitter."
4. On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Olivia Rodrigo revealed that she made a private Instagram account after she "had this very embarrassing encounter once where [she] was stalking [her] ex, as one does...and [she] accidentally followed him." At the time, she was following zero people, so it was obvious to her millions of followers that she'd been stalking him.
"I have a finsta now, so I'm safe," she said.
Here's the full clip, with this part starting at the one-minute mark:
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5. In 2023, Jungkook mistakenly exposed his private TikTok profile on his public Weverse account when he shared a dance cover video that two members of BoyNextDoor had made to his song "Seven."
On Weverse, he said (translated into English), "Ah, everyone knows my TikTok account now because I shared the TikTok link kekekekekekekeke (ah I made the nickname Ian… I'm embarrassed…) That's right, That's me. But I'm not going to use it. It's for monitoring use. I quickly changed it to JK… but now that it's known, I'll just leave it as is kekekekeke. It's better this way...Ah… I'm embarrassed…heh ah… don't make fun of me the next time we see each other."
6. In 2018, Karlie Kloss accidentally revealed Princess Beatrice's private Instagram by tagging the account in an Instagram story post showing Beatrice's reaction to Karlie's engagement news.
7. In 2019, Sabrina Carpenter mistakenly added her Girl Meets World costar Corey Fogelmanis's finsta to her Instagram Live instead of his public account.
In a Facebook post she made for his birthday, Sabrina said, "I’m sorry I leaked your finsta and crammed eleven cookies into the VCR, but I love you more and more every day."
8. In 2017, Lorde's fans discovered an onion ring review account on Instagram that was mainly followed by people from the singer's tour. On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, she confirmed that she'd indeed been the person behind @onionringsworldwide.
Lorde said, "I feel like it reads like something a pop star would do to be relatable. It was just a joke with my friends on the tour, and I thought, like, it would be a good pastime. It's just, now everyone knows about it. People are gonna be throwing onion rings at me on tour."
Watch her talk about the account below, starting at the 3:17 mark:
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9. In a joint Wired Autocomplete interview, Kristen Stewart's Charlie's Angels costar Ella Balinska read a question asking if Kristen had social media. She replied, "I mean, I have, like, a private one for you guys. I wanna play with you guys. I can't be, like, completely left out of the game."
Fellow costar Naomi Scott added, "She's actually funny on social media. You guys are missing out!"
Kristen joked, "Sorry, y'all. It's just for my exclusive friends."
Watch them talk about Kristen's secret social media below, starting at the 1:27 mark:
View this video on YouTube
10. In 2020, Summer Walker told Billboard, "I have a work page and a spam page. I like to use my spam page because it’s fun to debate social issues. It’s a hobby of mine."
"I learn hella shit about documentaries and all types of things from debating with people," she said.
11. In 2017, Jon Hamm told People, "I get why people like Instagram. I have an Instagram account that I use to follow beautiful places and baby animals and things that make me feel joy."
He also said, "I don't read about myself on the internet. Not having a Twitter account is nice. I don't have to deal with Facebook. I don't have to deal with any of that stuff, and honestly, not engaging with it means, for me, it doesn't really exist."
12. In 2016, Drake's fans discovered he had a secret Snapchat account through random clips and snapshots of him using the app.
DJ Khaled confirmed the account's existence, telling BigBoyTV, "[On Snapchat] I follow everybody that's in my phonebook...I follow Drake..."
13. In 2019, Khloé Kardashian tweeted, "Kourtney [Kardashian Barker] made me a finsta when we were drunk, and I've only used it [once]. To me, it's pointless."
14. And finally, in the 2022 Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, Prince Harry revealed that he had a private Instagram account while he was a working royal — and it led him to his wife, Meghan Markle. He said, "Meghan and I met over Instagram. I was scrolling through my feed, and someone who was a friend had this video of the two of them — it was like a Snapchat."
It was a picture of Meghan with a dog filter. He got their mutual friend to reach out to Meghan on his behalf, and the then-future couple scheduled their first date.