Kevin Samuels. | Source: Kevin Samuels/Facebook
UPDATED: 12:25 a.m. ET, May 7, 2022, with Kevin Samuels’ autopsy.
Originally published: May 5
Kevin Samuels, a controversial YouTube personality, self-proclaimed relationship guru and image consultant who became widely known for his divisive, misogynistic commentary about Black women, in particular, died Thursday in Atlanta.
His mother confirmed the death with NBC News.
There were no immediate reports of the official cause of Samuels’ death, but a police report indicated he was suffering from chest pain before collapsing. Reports of his age varied from 53 to 57 years old.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office said Friday morning that it could neither confirm nor deny Samuels’ death and referred NewsOne to its official press release on the matter. By Friday night, Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office issued a new press release announcing an autopsy had been performed on Samuels that same day. The cause and manner of death are pending until the autopsy results are made public. The medical examiner’s office listed Samuels’ age as 53.
Unverified reports of Samuels’ death went viral on Thursday afternoon. Multiple news outlets cited Samuels’ close friends and reliable sources, but uncertainty about the death report lingered into the early morning hours of Friday.
Samuels’ mother, Beverly Samuels-Burch, told NBC News she, too, found out about her son’s death through social media, underscoring the power and validity of such breaking news reports online that often don’t have immediate verification but turn out to be true.
Samuels-Burch took umbrage at the rumors on social media.
“That was a terrible thing for social media to put that out. I didn’t even know. I hadn’t even been notified,” Samuels-Burch told NBC News on Friday. “All I’m doing is requesting that people pray for us.”
Philip Lewis of HuffPost on Friday morning tweeted details from the police report that sheds more light on how Samuels died.
According to the police report, officers responded to a 911 call placed by a woman who was with Samuels at his apartment in Atlanta. The woman, identified in the police report as “Ms. Ortencia Alcantara,” told officers that the person in distress was “Mr. Kelvin Samuels,” apparently misspelling his first name. After the two spent the night together, Alcantara said Samuels complained of chest pain before “he fell on top of her.”
Samuels was ultimately transferred to Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, the police report said. An operator at the hospital told NewsOne during a brief conversation Friday morning that there was no record of a person named Kevin Samuels being admitted as a patient there.
Previously, Melanie King, a reported close friend of Samuels who has been described as his female counterpart, said Thursday she got “family confirmation” that he had died that same day. “This is 100%,” King said.
https://twitter.com/Danielrachel124/status/1522376173518573569?s=20&t=di-I8uZsA8Um1tPqQR4kfg
The reports of Samuels’ death flooded social media timelines everywhere on Thursday afternoon but initially offered no immediate verification of the claims that he died.
His faithful followers demanded proof. As a result, Samuels’ name became a top trending topic on Twitter on Thursday afternoon as people tried to sort out the facts.
The Instagram account for Plug Talk claimed Samuels died from “cardiac arrest,” but the post offered no verification. Other Instagram accounts also latched on to that same narrative without offering any confirmation.
It appears that the reports of Samuels’ death originated from a single social media post in which there are claims he died Thursday morning.
The reactions to Samuels’ alleged death have teetered between gleeful exuberance from women who have taken offense to his slanderous misogynoir and caution from those who wanted to know more.
https://twitter.com/HoodWiitch/status/1522307747198480384?s=20&t=erpLv3qihyiSI6QVcuC-2w
Samuels’ most recent activity on social media included an Instagram video he posted on Wednesday afternoon in which he is discussing “Modern Women” and mused whether they are “A Party of 1.”
His Facebook hadn’t been updated since at least Tuesday. His final tweet was posted in April, but that post linked back to his Instagram. And the last video he posted to his YouTube channel was about the aforementioned “Modern Women” and it went live at the same time as the Instagram post on Wednesday.
Samuels built quite the following through the way he addressed all women, but he seemed to save his sharpest criticism for Black women.
He was recently in the news for describing women who are at least 35-years-old and unmarried as “leftover” women.
“If you have made it to 35 and you are unmarried, you are a leftover woman,” Samuels said on his podcast last month. “You are what is left. Men know that there is likely something wrong with you. Whether you want to hear it or not, I’m going to go there with you. I’m telling you the truth that you don’t want to hear. Men know that there is likely something wrong with you—that you can not be an adjustable six or higher—something is wrong with you. That’s where men automatically come with it. And here’s the thing—when you were between the ages of 22 and 25 and you didn’t want to settle—you were trying to get the CEO, the pilot, the investment banker, you were trying to get flewed out…”
He continued: “Here’s what’s going to happen. If you are a woman 35 plus and you want a man that’s on the same lifestyle level, you’re going to have to share him.”
Samuels then asked a woman, “What do you think about sharing a man?” to which she responded, “I’m OK with that, because, if they’re going to mess around with other females, I’m going to do what I want to do too.”
Samuels responded: “No, no, that’s not how that works—you share your man and sit your ass down.”
This is a developing story that will be updated as additional information becomes available.
SEE ALSO:
Misogynistic ‘Guru’ Kevin Samuels Says Women Who Are 35 And Unmarried Are ‘Leftover’
‘Little Brown Girl’: Misogynoir Attacks Against Kamala Harris, Explained
