Katherine Asplundh, influencer and newlywed to billionaire Cabot Asplundh, found herself at the center of a social media firestorm for trolling a woman over an Instagram handle, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Katherine dropped her maiden name, Driscoll, after tying the knot with the Pennsylvania tree servicing company heir on April 27. She wanted to make her new name Instagram official, but those hopes were dashed when she learned that someone else had already snatched up the username @KatherineAsplundh.
The influencer sent a message to the person from her account, @katherinedrisc — which appeared to have been taken down on Wednesday — and offered to buy the handle.
“Hi just wondering if I could purchase your username from you. Just got married and this is my new name,” she wrote, per screen shots posted to the Subreddit NYCInfluencesnark.
The owner of the coveted account, who goes by Kate, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that she became nervous after looking into the logistics of selling an Instagram handle.
"I use this account to post and archive photos I don't want to post on my main account," she explained in her Subreddit post. "I thought this was a scam at first."
Kate wrote in a reply to Katherine, "Hi congrats! That’s my name too. I just googled and it said selling my username would get me banned from Instagram."
The new bride said this was "not true," claiming, “I purchased my username in the past."
"Celebrities do it all the time," she added, "that’s how they all have their handles as their full names.”
The influencer followed up with another message stating, "So weird I didn't know there was another Asplundh's family out there," adding that there was no one named Katherine Asplundh "in our family."
"I see that you're not that active on here but started Instagram in 2018 but changed your username three times?" Katherine wrote before receiving a response. "Is there anyway I can get you to change your username one more time?"
Kate wrote back, explaining that she used the account for "private stories."
"I don't want to get banned," she said. "Sorry!"
Katherine's tone then turned accusatory, as the newlywed responded, "I actually don't believe that your name is Katherine Asplundh," questioning, "who would make their finsta their actual name?"
"I reported you to Instagram and they're actually able to tell me your real name," she claimed, adding, "I really hope I don't know you because that's gonna be really embarrassing for you."
"You can report me," Kate answered, to which Katherine claimed that she and her fiancée had both done so already.
The account holder then wrote, "You're asking me to do something to get my account banned. I doubt Instagram would take that lightly."
Katherine's accusations continued as she replied, "I'm asking you to change your username because you were pretending to be someone you're not." She called the user's actions "illegal."
"My name is Katherine," Kate said, before informing the influencer that she, too, had been reported, because "you asked to purchase my username. Which goes against Instagram rules."
The influencer refused to give up, sending another stream of messages after apparently searching Facebook for the name and concluding, "The family I just married into is the only Asplundh in America."
In her own defense, Kate said, "I'm not American." But the interrogation continued, as Katherine demanded "proof" of Kate's legal name.
The account-holder said in her Subreddit post that while she was initially "open to giving her my username," Katherine's "messages came off snarky so I told myself, 'OK, this isn't worth it.'"
She concluded the exchange with "Have a good day."
Katherine drew backlash from Reddit users in Kate's defense, with one commenter writing, "Legitimately INSANE behavior," and another saying that the influencer's tone-change "gave me whiplash."
“From now on you live on that Instagram account. Do not sell it to this ridiculous woman. I would actually make that public but that’s just me being petty,” another person wrote.
Katherine's posed in her wedding dress in her most recent Instagram post on April 30, according to the New York Post.