chilling

SHE is one of the most recognisable women in music – but what does it take for some people to be convinced Avril Lavigne is not who she says she is?

The punk-pop icon rose to international stardom in the Noughties – but as her popularity peaked, a strange and startling rumour was also gaining traction in the shadows.

The theory is as puzzling as it is disturbing – a dead Avril, a body double named Melissa and a supposed Hollywood cover-up – and like the catchiest pop song, it refuses to leave.

Born in 1984 in Canada and raised in a strict Christian household in sleepy Napanee, Ontario, Avril grew up in a small town of roughly 5,000 where her parents closely monitored her music choices.

But the precocious teenager was already plotting her escape, writing poems, learning guitar and gravitating towards the town’s grunge scene before her singing talent caught the eye of her first manager at a 1999 bookstore performance, aged just 14

With her parents’ blessing, she quit school and headed to New York with her brother, where she worked with a professional producer before landing a two-album deal worth around $1.25million at just 16.

Avril’s 2002 album debut saw her rise to fame go stratospheric. However it also contained the germ of the conspiracy theory that would go on to haunt her for years.

The album, titled Let Go, would later be believed by theorists to be a symbolic reference to her being replaced by another lookalike young woman.

Adding fuel to the conspiracy was the star’s grief following her grandfather’s death in 2003 – which believers would later say was the final chapter in the “original Avril” story. They claim that grief was so overwhelming, tragic Avril took her own life.

The bizarre theory appears to have first appeared nine years later when in 2011, a Brazilian fan page called Avril Está Morta – meaning Avril is Dead – launched the morbid rumour into the world.

It claimed the eyeliner-clad star was no longer alive – and had been replaced by an eerily similar young woman.

For years, internet sleuths have remained convinced that the Sk8er Boi singer died by suicide shortly after achieving mainstream fame, allegedly overwhelmed by her grief and the pressures that came with becoming a global pop star.

But the story doesn’t end with her supposed death.

Her record label at the time, desperate to protect its lucrative investment, allegedly concealed the tragedy and brought in an actress named Melissa Vandella to replace Avril.

The theory claims Avril’s then-label, Arista Records, buried her death and installed Melissa in her place to keep the lucrative hitmaker churning out music. The Sun has contacted Arista Records for comment.

Melissa, believers say, looked sufficiently like the singer to fool the world – allowing the machinery of Avril’s career to keep moving while the real star was supposedly gone.

While deeply distressing, at that time the macabre theory was at least only circulating on the fringes of the internet.

That was until American journalists at BuzzFeed tweeted about the Brazilian blog and the obscure rumour was thrust into mainstream music folklore.

In 2017, a viral thread racked up hundreds of thousands of retweets, exposing millions of social media users to the supposed Avril “clone” theory.

The chilling truth behind this morbid phenomenon says more about those spreading it than its star subject.

Experts say these theories can often come from people who are seeking a purpose in life.

They will find and obsess over even the most minor changes in the life of another person – often a high-profile celeb – to feel as though they have achieved something.

Daniel Joll, an assistant Professor in Social Psychology at the University of Nottingham, tells The Sun: “Conspiracy theories are a fertile ground for people feeling uncertainty in life.

“When they find something they can be a part of and investigate, it makes them feel like they’re almost becoming a journalist and that makes them feel important.

“This is also about people wanting to be unique by saying something or being a part of something that is out of the ordinary.”

Conspiracy theorists began comparing photographs from the beginning of Avril’s career with images taken after the rumours started, searching for proof that the woman in front of the cameras was not the same person.

Online truth-seekers even saw that she once wrote “Melissa” on her hand in a photoshoot.

To believers, it was practically a confession hiding in plain sight.

But that is where the theory’s elaborate house of cards begins to wobble.

The “Melissa” photograph was later explained as part of a promotional photoshoot in which Lavigne wrote supporters’ names on her skin and on paper.

Theorists still argue this was either an intentional leak by the body double signalling her true identity, or an insidiously dropped clue by her record label.

It is catnip for the internet: just outrageous enough to be dismissed, yet just plausible enough to make you wonder whether there might be something hiding beneath the surface.

Avril is far from the first celebrity to become the subject of a completely unverified cloning conspiracy theory.

One of the most famous examples dates back to 1969, when fans became convinced Beatles legend Paul McCartney had died in a car crash and been secretly replaced by a lookalike.

The theory exploded after The Beatles released Abbey Road, with fans scouring songs and album artwork for supposed clues.

Some even believed John Lennon could be heard saying “I buried Paul” in Strawberry Fields Forever.

John later said the line was actually “cranberry sauce”, while McCartney himself dismissed the rumours in a November 1969 interview with Life magazine.

Fans have also claimed Tupac Shakur faked his death, while a 2020 music video featuring a deepfake of the rapper reignited speculation.

What is key to giving these theories life is that they are outrageous enough to grip people while remaining vaguely believable.

Prof Jolley adds: “The reason why people are so stuck on Avril is because the theory is plausible.

“When there is the slightest chance of plausibility, people will cling onto it and keep going and keep digging.

“This one feels plausible because it could be true. The possibility of truth can tickle people’s fancy.”

Every perceived alteration became another piece of their puzzle.

Early Avril had become synonymous with the scruffy skater-punk image that helped make her famous, often appearing in baggy trousers and neckties.

Suddenly snaps of the eyeliner smeared rock queen appeared to have had been wiped off the internet.

Her trademark middle finger was tucked away, while the loose tie slung over a shirt – once part of her pop-punk armour – had been consigned to fashion history.

The woman who emerged afterwards looked markedly more polished, with skirts and dresses replacing the tomboyish uniform and pink make-up softening the rebellious image.

Some went as far as being convinced that the shady puppet masters of the Illuminati had cloned Avril and replaced her with an actual laboratory-grown clone rather than a hired lookalike. Bizarre, right?

The Illuminati, believers claim, is an elite society that frequently targets the world’s biggest pop stars and turns them into puppets of their secret cabal.

The new bubble-gum pink pop girl was allegedly spotted glitching during red-carpet interviews where she paused, blinked rapidly, and answered questions flatly.

Believers refer to these as “clone glitches” or memory-wipe side effects.

Theorists started using photo overlay tools to track subtle shifts in Avril’s facial symmetry, jawline angle, and earlobe detachment.

The theory claimed bones do not radically change shape after adolescence; therefore, differences in the bridge of her nose and her jaw structure prove a physical imposter.

Professor Jolley adds: “These theories are made up to captivate our attention.

“I believe clones are just an intriguing application.”

And then came the clue conspiracy theorists found hardest to scribble away: Avril’s handwriting.

To believers, the change was more than a few wonky letters.

They began placing samples of Lavigne’s handwriting from different periods side by and poring over the shapes, slants and flourishes as though they were forensic investigators examining a ransom note.

Every loop, every letter and every flick of the wrist became potential evidence.

Conspiracy theorists claiming that the handwriting before and after the alleged switch looked fundamentally different.

Then, Under My Skin, Avril’s second album released in 2004, became another supposed treasure trove for believers hunting for hidden messages.

Slipped Away is also repeatedly cited as evidence, with its lyrics about someone disappearing and life changing forever interpreted as a veiled admission of Avril’s supposed death.

My Happy Ending has also been dragged into the theory, with fans searching its lyrics for signs of guilt, grief or a woman struggling beneath an identity that was never hers.

Appearing on Call Her Daddy podcast with host, Alex Cooper, Avril directly addressed the long-running internet theory and laughed it off calling it “dumb”.

The host, half joking and half serious, asked her: “So, is your name Avril Lavigne or Melissa Vandella?” The singer wasn’t too bothered and replied: “Obviously I’m Avril Lavigne.” Obviously…

The 39-year-old went on: “On one end, everyone’s like, ‘You look the exact same. You haven’t aged a day.’ But then other people are like, there’s a conspiracy theory that I’m not me.

“Honestly, it’s not that bad. It could be worse, right?” Lavigne laughingly admitted. “I feel like I got a good one. I don’t feel like it’s negative. It’s nothing creepy.”

Cooper told the star: “What’s crazy is you haven’t aged. I’m staring at you. And, like, I’m picturing you with your auburn hair. And I’m like, oh my God. You literally look the same from when you were younger.”

It’s all fun and games turning freckles into “evidence” – counting spots on an arm as though a decade of sun exposure somehow comes with a cloning certificate.

But behind the bizarre conspiracy theories was a very real battle. Lavigne, who was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2013, later described that period as the “worst time of my life”.

The Sun has reached out to Avril Lavigne’s management and past and current record labels for comment.

It’s one of the most famous cold cases in British history but could the killer have finally been uncovered

It’s the most famous cold case in the world more than 100 years after the serial killer Jack the Ripper caused terror in the streets of East London.

Carrying out his heinous crimes over the space of just four months, the brutal murderer, who targeted sex workers and killed them in a truly horrifying way.

Not content with merely slitting their throats, the cold blooded murderer horrifying mutilated them, removing several organs in his twisted killing spree.

Operating in and around Whitechapel between August and November 1888 – one of the poorest London areas where crime, depravation and starvation were common and law enforcement often turned a blind eye, the killings came to an abrupt end with the death of Mary Jane Kelly.

The case continues to fascinate and with that in mind – as someone who has lived in the east end of London for the past decade – I decided to learn more about this most infamous of killers.

One rainy Saturday I joined the Empire Tours Jack the Ripper tour, which takes in the sites of the killings and examines the fascinating, and often tragic, stories these streets still have to tell.

Led by our expert tour guide, Rebecca, we started off at the site of the first murder, Mary Ann Nichols, who was discovered in the early hours of the morning with her throat slit so badly she was basically decapitated, and some of her sex organs removed. She was found by a butcher on his way to the nearby Spitalfields Market to begin his working day – and he was promptly arrested.

Starring at what is now a fairly modern street, the benefit of looking at this on a tour immediately becomes apparent. Not only are parts of the pub where Mary Ann was last seen still there (but if you blinked, you’d miss them) the tragic story of her life were painted in all its haunting glory.

Divorced and forced into sex work to survive, Mary Ann was one of the many people living in Whitechapel forced to call a doss house home. With no street lights and pitch black alleyways where violent crimes were often committed, it’s easy to see how a killing could take place – although not one as violent and surgically skilled as hers.

As we made our way to the site of the second killing – Annie Chapman – the guide painted a vivid picture of how the streets will have looked and the conditions people were forced to live in. Found in very similar circumstances to Mary Ann, Annie was another sex worker forced into a life on the streets and was brutally killed on September 8, 1888.

Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were Jack the Ripper’s next two victims, both killed on September 30, 1888. Elizabeth wasn’t mutilated in the same way as the other four victims are is a theory the killer was interrupted and forced to flee the scene.

His thirst for a brutal murder unquenched, he passed just into the neighbouring city of London to kill Catherine. Horrifyingly, a witnesses claimed to have seen the victim entering Mitre Square with a man in the hours leading up to her death. Again, she had had her throat slit all the way round and several of her organs removed.

Jack the Ripper’s third and final victim was Mary Jane Kelly and it was his most sick and brutal killing yet. Her horribly mutilated and disembowelled body was found in the single room she rented in Whitechapel on November 9, 1888.

Her faced had been “hacked beyond recognition” and her throat “severed down to her spine”. Her abdomen had almost completely been emptied of its organs with her uterus, kidneys and one breast placed beneath her head. Mary Jane’s heart was missing from the crime scene.

At the time, many theories were published by the press – including the ritualistic nature of the killings as several of the victims had had their intestines placed on their left shoulder. The surgical expertise of whoever had carried out the murders was also apparent, showing they were unlikely to have been carried out in a rage or crime of passion. Each of the murders was also efficiently done, with one taking just 15 minutes, including removing organs.

However, despite no one charged for the murders, the police at the time closed the investigation just one week after Mary Jane’s death. Officers had even been sent two letters, both with different handwriting, claiming to be from the killer himself. One signed it, Jack the Ripper, and so the legend was born.

Now, more than 100 years later, one suspect has been named as the possible killer – Mary Jane’s former boyfriend, Joseph Barnett. He was said to be deeply in love with her and was desperate for her to leave her life as a sex worker behind.

There is a theory that he began his killing spree in the hope it would terrify her away from her work, however Mary Jane was not to be deterred and eventually the couple split up in October 1888.

If this theory is to be believed, Barnett tried to win Mary Jane back but was unsuccessful until finally, he accepted they would never be together and in a rage turned up at the single room she called home. This becomes all the more compelling because she was the only victim killed indoors and Barnett would have had a key.

Several eye witness accounts of those who saw the women before they were killed described a man who could have been Barnett, and he also lived in the heart of Whitechapel. He also worked as a fish monger and so would have had some skill with a knife, which he could have used to carry out the surgical dismemberment of his victims.

This theory is explored in the book, Jack the Ripper: The Simple Truth by Bruce Paley.

However, you’ll have to head on one of Empire Tours Jack the Ripper tours to find out.

Empire Tours also offers a Buckingham Palace and Changing of the Guard experience, a Churchill’s War Rooms and World War Two tour, and a London’s gangster history tour.