Instagram bully Katherine Asplundh has shut down her Instagram account after users joined forces to secure all possible versions of her preferred username. The influencer, formerly known as Katherine Driscoll, tied the knot with Cabot Asplundh, 27, a member of the wealthy Asplundh family from Pennsylvania, at a reception in Palm Beach, Florida, just two weeks ago.
She gained widespread attention after sending aggressive messages to a stranger who shares her married name, demanding that she hand over her Instagram handle --@katherineasplundh. The exchange has led internet users to rally behind the other Katherine, generating numerous fake accounts with different spellings of the billionaire's wife's name.
Disappearing after Facing Backlash
As a result, all available username options incorporating either her maiden or married name have been claimed. Following the leak of her threatening direct message exchange, Katherine deactivated her Instagram account amid the backlash. She had amassed 14,600 followers.
Despite the social media backlash, Katherine has continued posting on her TikTok account @lostetiquette—a username unrelated to her maiden or married name but suggestive of her sense of entitlement.
Her latest video featured a throwback to her final wedding dress fitting before her April ceremony.
Coincidentally, internet users dug up an older TikTok video posted by Katherine, in which she mocked newlywed women eager to update their names on social media.
"Something that low key bothers me is when girls get married and it's not even like 10 minutes after they do their vows and they're like 'Oh! going on my Instagram! Let me change my last name already,'" Katherine said in a now-deleted TikTok.
Katherine then says she's "probably going to wait a couple of months" before he changes her name.
'I just think it's a little bit a lot when I see girls change it before I even knew they were f***ing married, like chill,' Katherine ironically explained.
Despite her previous video mocking new wives, Katherine reached out to the owner of her desired Instagram handle, a woman known as Kate, to ask about purchasing it—a practice that violates the platform's terms of service.
Kate declined and expressed concern that selling the username could lead to her being banned from Instagram. Katherine responded with a series of seemingly entitled messages.
Wild Fight Over Username
Kate, who initially considered changing her username but changed her mind after finding Katherine's approach off-putting, eventually shared the exchange online.
The viral exchange shows Katherine messaging an anonymous user, believed to be Kate, asking if she could buy her Instagram handle.
"Hi just wondering if I could purchase your username from you. Just got married and this is my new name," the newly read wrote, according to screenshots of the conversation posted to the NYCInfluencesnark sub Reddit.
"Hi congrats! That's my name too. I just googled and it said selling my username would get me banned from Instagram," she replied.
This led Katherine to unleash a barrage of messages that appeared to convey a sense of entitlement. She fired back by stating that purchasing accounts was a common practice among high-profile people and that she had acquired Instagram usernames in the past.
"I purchased my username in the past actually that's not true. Celebrities do it all the time that's how they all have their handles as their full names," the newlywed responded.
"So weird I didn't know there was another Asplundh's family out there. There no Katherine asplundh in our family."
Kate clarified to the suitor that the account in question was a "finsta," a private Instagram used for personal stories and photo archiving, while her main account retained her maiden name.
Despite being refused initially, an annoyed Driscoll Asplundh insisted that Kate's name wasn't Katherine Asplundh and threatened to report her.
The influencer claimed that her then-fiancé had also lodged a report against Kate. Her most recent post on the account dated April 30 featured her wedding dress, shared with her 14,600 followers.
In a third attempt to get the username, Asplundh researched on Facebook using the name "Katherine Asplundh." After finding no results, she concluded that she must be the only person in America with that name.
"The family I just married into is the only Asplundh in America."
"I'm not American," Kate responded.
The influencer then requested "proof" from the woman to verify her identity. "Do you have proof that this is your name? Would love to see that."
The request for proof seemed to be the final straw for Kate, who sharply criticized the influencer's attitude.
"I was open to giving her my username," Kate told the outlet. "I just didn't want to sell it because that would get me banned. After I replied to her, her messages came off snarky so I told myself, 'OK, this isn't worth it.'"
Kate lodged two reports with Instagram concerning Asplundh, one for soliciting the sale of the account and another for harassing her. "Have a good day," the original Asplundh concluded.
Several Reddit users rallied to Kate's defense. "Legitimately INSANE behavior "I don't believe that's your name" HUH?!?!"
"The pivot from hey girly to LET ME SEE YOUR BIRTH CERTIFICATE gave me whiplash."
According to her social media profiles, Katherine hails from New Vernon, New Jersey, and went to the College of Charleston.
On TikTok, her page under the name Lost Etiquette has garnered over 80,000 followers and accumulated more than 5.5 million likes.
She married into the family that established Asplundh Tree Expert, a company that reported revenue exceeding $5.4 billion in 2021.
Asplundh Tree Expert was founded by three Swedish brothers—Lester, Griffith, and Carl Asplundh, who is Cabot's great-grandfather.
