Debby Ryan has long left her days as a Disney star, but many of her fans still identify her as the lovable and idealistic babysitter from the show Jessie. The show ended after four seasons, and even if it was short-lived, it still remains a fan-favorite among it’s viewers. For Ryan, shaking the image of a Disney star wasn’t hard. The actress successfully transitioned into more mature roles, but like most celebrities, Ryan is now the target of outlandish rumors. There was speculation that the actress suffered from an alleged heart attack.
Did Debby Ryan have a heart scare?
The news of Ryan having a heart attack began circling the internet during the summer of 2019. There were videos with titles such as “Debby Ryan Heart attack? CONFIRMED” with tens of thousands of views on YouTube. Fans even took to social media to ask for prayers for the actress.
The story was so shocking and pervasive that even internet fact-checker Snopes had to step in and address these allegations. The story seemed to stem from the tragic passing of Cameron Boyce, Ryan’s former co-star. Boyce died unexpectedly at the age of 20 from complications due to epilepsy.
Somewhere along the way, fans began to believe and spread the rumor that the actress was so overwhelmed by the news that she had a heart attack after learning of Boyce’s death. Of course, this rumor was proven to be blatantly untrue, as there were no verified sources that even vaguely supported the claim. It seems as though some panicked fans or malicious trolls questioned Debby Ryan’s health due to the fact that the actress didn’t come out immediately to respond to Boyce’s passing.
The actress is familiar with hoaxes
Nonetheless, this was a distasteful way to show support for Ryan during her time of grief. We can’t figure out why someone would start such a horrendous rumor, but it unfortunately wasn’t the first time the actress dealt with such a negative rumor.
Debby Ryan was the subject of another hoax in 2016. This time, it was due to simple confusion after another star passing away. In 2016, after the news of 84-year-old actress Debbie Reynolds’ death broke on Twitter, Ryan’s fans confused the two actors (despite the fact that both their first and last names are spelled differently) and assumed it was Ryan that actually passed away. The incident caused a frenzy on Twitter, and it wasn’t until Ryan responded to the matter that everything was cleared up.
“No…guys, that’s very thoughtful but it’s Reynolds. Debbie Reynolds…”, the actress tweeted.
It’s unfortunate when celebrities have to be subjected to this kind of scrutiny. Gossip Cop is all too familiar with fake and malicious stories about stars’ health. Hopefully, fans can learn to always check their sources (or at least their spelling) before jumping to ridiculous conclusions!