The unidentified woman at the center of #PlaneBae viral Twitter thread is breaking her silence.
The woman told Business Insider in a statement from her lawyer that the encounter aboard a flight that was recounted surreptitiously by another passenger is "not a romance" but a "cautionary tale."
OK let's recap.
Alaska Airlines passenger Rosey Blair shared on Twitter that she had switched seats with an anonymous woman so that Blair could sit with her boyfriend on a flight to Dallas on July 3.
Blair wrote that she and her boyfriend then "made a joke that [the woman's] new seat partner would be the love of her life."
"It felt like honestly, being in a movie," Blair told "Good Morning America" this week.
Enter #PlaneBae.
Blair posted a live play-by-play on her Instagram and Twitter feeds of the interaction between the woman and her seatmate, who was later identified as Euan Holden, a former professional soccer player, and who became known as Plane Bae. Her posts included details of their conversations on food, fitness and family as well as multiple photos of the two passengers.
The social media saga might have ended in baggage claim, except that Blair and Holden got in touch through Instagram.
Two days after the flight, Holden spoke to "Good Morning America" and said himself "there's still hope" for him and his plane buddy.
Blair's account, which was initially praised by many on social media as a heartwarming story of a potential romance, later sparked a fierce backlash as an invasion of privacy. She issued an apology Tuesday to everyone involved.
"The last thing I want to do is remove agency and autonomy from another woman," she wrote on Twitter. "I wish I could communicate the shame I feel in having done this, but I truly feel that at this point my feelings are irrelevant. This may be coming too little too late."
— Rosey Blair (@roseybeeme) July 10, 2018RE
In the statement to Business Insider, the unidentified woman said she did not want this sort of attention.
"I did not ask for and do not seek attention. #PlaneBae is not a romance - it is a digital-age cautionary tale about privacy, identity, ethics and consent," she said.
Her name was withheld by Business Insider.
Holden told "GMA" on Friday that he has been in "close communication" with the woman and helped support her.
"She is a sweet, intelligent girl who's privacy should [have] absolutely been respected. We were in close communication as the story unfolded and I am glad I was able to support her. I'm fortunate for our friendship," he said.
Here is the full statement published by Business Insider.
"I am a young professional woman. On July 2, I took a commercial flight from New York to Dallas. Without my knowledge or consent, other passengers photographed me and recorded my conversation with a seatmate. They posted images and recordings to social media, and speculated unfairly about my private conduct.
Since then, my personal information has been widely distributed online. Strangers publicly discussed my private life based on patently false information. I have been doxxed, shamed, insulted and harassed. Voyeurs have come looking for me online and in the real world.
I did not ask for and do not seek attention. #PlaneBae is not a romance - it is a digital-age cautionary tale about privacy, identity, ethics and consent.
Please continue to respect my privacy, and my desire to remain anonymous."
