Why You Don't Hear About Tila Tequila Anymore

The following article includes mentions of suicide and substance abuse.

Tila Tequila and controversy definitely go hand in hand. After all, the Vietnamese star, whose birth name is Thien-Thanh Thi Nguyen, rose to fame starring on her own dating show which featured 16 straight men and 16 lesbians competing for her attention. Since then, however, she seemed to gradually fade away from the spotlight, sliding further into the list of has-been celebrities remembered for cringeworthy reality shows and not much else.

Millennials may remember her infamous series, "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila," which ran for two seasons and — as you may have guessed — didn't actually lead to any withstanding love connection. However, it further catapulted Nguyen to fame, along with her incredible social media presence at the time (she was once dubbed 'The Queen of Myspace' by Time Magazine). 

But all good things must come to an end, and her social media reign seemed to be the very reason for her demise. The reality star has made some incredibly off-putting and divisive remarks online, from sympathizing with Hitler to chasing down illegal immigrants — and not everybody took a liking to that dose of Tila Tequila. When negative press is seemingly her only lifeline to staying relevant, it's no wonder why you don't hear about Tila Tequila anymore. We're breaking down all the reasons the reality star's journey to fame took a turn for the worse.

Tila Tequila may have found fame in the late 2000s, but the brunette beauty couldn't seem to capitalize on her celebrity status in the way she wanted. After the second season of "A Shot at Love" ended in 2008, the star had trouble maintaining the momentum her MTV platform had previously given her. While she had hoped to get her feet wet in the business world, her sexualized image as the object of affection for 32 hopeful singles didn't do her any favors.

According to The Los Angeles Times, Tequila said in 2010 that she owned and managed her record company Tila Tequila Records, signing artist Raz B. While that seemed to later flop (no records of it exist online), the reality star also tried her hand at Internet dating. She started her adults-only site Tila's Hot Spot Dating around the same time, which offered promiscuous live chats for monthly subscribers willing to pay $19.99. The Houston native was supposed to partner with Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis on the site, but their vision never panned out. "I had looked to do business with Tila, but it never materialized," Francis said. 

What did materialize, however, were computer viruses for Tila Hot Spot Dating site users. One unlikely Huff Post journalist ventured onto Tila's Hot Spot Dating site only to spend over an hour on the phone with a computer technician to rid his laptop of the malware that he acquired after watching videos on Tequila's page.

Tila Tequila's relationships following her time starring in "A Shot at Love" didn't go swimmingly, to say the least. The reality star made headlines in 2009 after she accused former NFL player Shawne Merriman of choking and restraining her. Merriman, who called Tequila his female acquaintance, was charged with battery and false imprisonment and denied any wrongdoing in the controversy.

The former San Diego Chargers player was arrested and taken to jail after deputies responded to Tequila's call claiming he had choked her and shoved her to the ground. Merriman, who claimed to have tried to prevent the star from leaving his home for fear of her intoxicated state, arrived in custody around 8:30 a.m. and was let go nearly three hours later. San Diego Sheriff's Department spokesman Jan Caldwell told the publication that officers on sight noted that Tequila was intoxicated, but didn't know if Merriman had also been drinking that night. The "A Shot at Love" star was taken to the hospital that night but left after a few hours.

A few days after the incident occurred, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis dismissed the case based on insufficient evidence. While Merriman released a statement thanking the D.A.'s office and the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, Tequila remained quiet over the decision. 

After parting ways with Shawne Merriman, Tila Tequila found love with Johnson & Johnson heiress Casey Johnson. The two started seeing each other in October 2009 after running into each other at a party in Los Angeles. The couple moved fast, with Johnson popping the question to Tequila in December with a giant 17-carat sparkler. While the reality star said yes, their romance didn't live to see a walk down the aisle, as Johnson tragically passed away in January 2010.

According to the coroner's report obtained by CNN, the socialite died from natural causes associated with untreated diabetes. Johnson had "a long history of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus that was poorly controlled," and was even hospitalized twice after not taking proper medication.

Tequila told People that her fiancée's shocking death took a serious toll on her. "My therapist put me on suicide watch. I've been getting help but I'm fine now. I know Casey wants me to be alive, and she hates seeing me like this," she said.

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Tila Tequila traded in the spotlight to focus on motherhood — or so she said. The "A Shot at Love" star told RadarOnline in February 2010: "With so much going on in my life right now and being pregnant, I'm retiring from being a star in Hollywood." Tequila had announced that she was pregnant that January, but her social media rants confused many of her fans. A month after announcing she was expecting, the star revealed she was a surrogate. "BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: I am going to become a SURROGATE MOTHER for my brother & his Wife!!!" she wrote on X at the time (per HuffPost). 

But just a month later, Tequila raised cause for concern when she started insinuating she might have experienced a miscarriage. "I just woke up in the middle of the night cuz I'm having these intense sharp pains in my belly. it hurts so much that I'm crying wtf," she tweeted that April (via Huff Post). The reality star revealed she refused to get admitted to the hospital due to the paparazzi, and instead ranted about adopting a baby from a Russian orphanage. 

A representative for the reality star later confirmed that she had lost the baby in a miscarriage. "She's not pregnant," the spokesperson told WENN (per Digital Spy). "There were medical complications."

Reality television certainly didn't give Tila Tequila an abundance to live on after "A Shot at Love" wrapped in 2008. The star was left much poorer than some of her fans may have thought, as she admitted as much on The Howard Stern Show in 2011.

Revealing that she recently moved to New York City, the reality star told Stern she wasn't racking in the dough after losing her shot at love. "I'm actually very broke. I'm broke as a joke right now. You mind sparing me a couple bucks for a cheeseburger?" she joked. 

Tequila also confirmed she struggles with a multiple personality disorder, the reason behind a fake suicide attempt the previous year. She caused alarm at the time after posting a photo to X of a bloody arm that caused fans to call the police. Officers later confirmed the incident was a hoax. "Look at my arm! [It was] Jane, my other personality ... she just popped up when I was 11," she claimed to Stern. 

While Tila Tequila may have been faking her suicide attempt in 2010, things unfortunately took a more serious turn two years later. 

E! News reported in 2012 that the social media celebrity had gone to rehab to try and get sober following a medical scare during which she reportedly had a brain aneurysm. That incident occurred after paramedics answered a 911 call from her then-roommate, who claimed that the star had overdosed on pills in an alleged suicide attempt.

Tequila was checked into an undisclosed location for a month-long stay and reportedly felt much better after her rehab stint and treatment. "She is the healthiest she has ever been and is ready to get back to work," her manager confirmed at the time. "She is thankful for all the support she received from her fans and for the privacy the media gave her during her difficult time."

Tila Tequila caused an internet firestorm in 2013 when she empathized with Adolf Hitler. While viewers were already used to the star's wild social media rants about everything under the sun, she may have taken it a bit too far when she posted of herself doing a Nazi salute.

The star was suspended from X after sharing a photo of herself alongside two men performing a Nazi salute. She also referred to him as "a brilliant artist" who was "ahead of his time" (per BBC) in an essay on the subject titled "Why I Sympathize With Hitler Part 1: True History Unveiled." She later backtracked her opinions, writing, "Just because I [feel] sympathy, compassion, and forgiveness for others such as Hitler means I am now a monster?" per The Washington Post.

Tequila also took aim at Jewish people, writing in a bizarre blog post that they should get over the Holocaust because other people had been victims of atrocities, using off-the-wall logic to say "If the rest of us can forgive and forget maybe it's time you do also!!!" (via E! News). Her support of Hitler is among many of her conspiracy theories, including that she is a descendant of an alien race, she can time-travel, her beliefs that World War II and 9/11 were cover-ups, and many other outlandish opinions she has posted on her former blog titled "Anonymous Truth."

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Tila Tequila welcomed her first child, a daughter named Isabella Monroe Nguyen, in November 2014. "I am so in love with her," she told Us Weekly at the time, adding, "She's so perfect and beautiful." Isabella's father was later revealed to be musician Thomas Whitaker, whom she split with before their child was born. According to his statements to RadarOnline, Whitaker said he filed for bankruptcy, causing the reality star to jump ship on their relationship. "I was trying to remain cordial without adding to her already notorious past ... I am now experiencing the fallout from my generosity," he said.

According to documents obtained by TMZ, Whitaker later sought full legal custody over their daughter in 2016. He requested that his former girlfriend has no alcohol in her system 24 hours before visitation and won't be able to talk badly about him in front of their daughter. Their custody agreement was settled eventually in 2019, with the former partners sharing legal custody and Tequila being granted primary physical custody.

The "Celebrity Big Brother" drop-out announced her second pregnancy in March 2018, but little is known about the baby daddy. She reportedly welcomed her second daughter, Annabelle, that year.

Tila Tequila's time on the reality TV show "Celebrity Big Brother" was swift, to say the least. The Vietnamese socialite didn't last long in the competition house after word of her previous Hitler- and Nazi-supporting comments made the rounds online and sparked an outcry. After just one night of starring in Season 16 of the show, which premiered in 2015, production was made aware of her previous comments and she was given the boot. 

"When they were brought to our attention, she was called to the Diary Room for a discussion with producers and was subsequently removed from the house," said a Celebrity Big Brother spokesperson to BBC. "The views Tila had expressed, and permitted to remain uncorrected, are totally unacceptable and, accordingly, her continued involvement in the program was untenable." A campaign for Tequila's removal had already been underway, and show producers said they were reportedly unaware of her anti-semitism commentary when she was admitted as a participant. 

After getting the axe on Celebrity Big Brother, Tila Tequila was on a serious apology tour. After all, her career was pretty much canceled in a matter of seconds by order of public opinion.

The "A Shot at Love" star took to X to repent regarding her opinions about alt-right leader Adolf Hitler. "[I} immediately realized soon after that I had made a terrible mistake that would ultimately come back to haunt me," she wrote in 2015 (per E! News). Tequila said her depression and drug addiction at the time contributed to her state of mind when making the statements. Seemingly taking back her empathetic approach to one of the deadliest world leaders on the globe, she wrote, "I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible, reckless, and selfish actions and I hope that everyone can forgive me for the pain that I may have caused." Asking for a second chance, the reality star promised to be a better role model for her daughter.

Those promises seemed empty at best, as just a few months later Tequila was back to her old ways. The disgraced celebrity posted a photo of her daughter Isabella dressed up as Hitler. (per Irish Mirror), "One day when you grow up, you're going to have to apologize for this picture, young lady!!!", she wrote, referring to her past controversies. "It will come back to haunt you! This way you'll know all the struggles your Mama has been through, but I remained strong!"

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 Being the self-proclaimed bisexual star of a dating show that hosted 32 men and women vying for her attention was all a publicity stunt, according to Tila Tequila. A decade after "A Shot at Love" wrapped, the star claimed she identified as straight while filming and the entire premise was "gay for pay." 

In a YouTube video, the reality star — who proudly flaunted her bisexual status for years — set the record straight. "I was never bisexual, I was never a lesbian, I was never gay ... when I was filming that reality show, I had a boyfriend," she said, spouting more conspiracy theories and denigrating the LBGTQ+ community. "I was only acting gay for pay because in Hollywood, they require you to defile yourself with gay rituals, homosexual rituals, pornography."

It isn't the first time reports have surfaced questioning her actual sexuality. In 2007, an insider told PageSix the same story — claiming she had a boyfriend when filming Season 1 of the show. Tequila denied those accusations at the time, however, keeping in tune with her storyline.

Fans may have thought they had seen the last of Tila Tequila after her controversies. The mother of two returned, however, in 2018 under a new name — Tornado Thien — to explain why she left Hollywood. As you may have guessed, it's full of crazy conspiracy theories that seem to have no clear link to one another.

In a since-removed YouTube video, the reality star claimed she was chosen by higher powers, comparing herself to Jesus Christ. In addition to sharing her testimony, she claimed weird events occurred in her daily life. "That's why all these mysterious, supernatural things keep happening around me," she claimed (per inTouch Weekly). "And that's why my whole life, the enemy has tried to kill me. Just like before Jesus was born ... they were trying to hunt him down his whole life. So the same has happened to me, but then I realized that it's not because of anything other than I have been chosen before the other foundations of the world."

Tequila went on to compare herself to the "female version" of Christ and also admitted she suffers from various demons and experiences visions. The "A Shot at Love" star also claimed that she was drugged by the Hilton family and alleged that her ex-girlfriend Courtenay Semel was responsible for the death of her ex-fiancee Casey Johnson.

Tila Tequila may not be in the spotlight as much these days, but fans can still get a piece of the controversial star's interesting selection of artwork. The reality star joined Etsy to offer customers different types of paintings done from her residence in Houston, Texas. 

"I first started painting in 2012 and realized how much I loved it! Unfortunately, a series of events took place in my life that had me put my dreams of becoming a professional painter on hold for a few years!" she wrote on her page. Tequila also claimed that her work contained special powers, referring to them as "actual relics or MAGIC!!" She claimed the paintings were "live" and, in 2019, even offered to give them away for free "TO BRING GLORY TO GOD FOR HIS GOODNESS" — as long as customers help pay for shipping and handling costs.

As of this writing, the controversial star has sold around 70 pieces and made some customers happy. "This painting is lovely and 'alive,'" wrote one user who bout a piece called "The spirit of God" and gave her a five-star rating. "Tila shipped it out quickly and it arrived in perfect condition."