Binky Felstead reveals she received ‘frightening’ death threats over freebie cake scandal

Binky Felstead has finally spoken out on the cake scandal that rocked her social media.

She’s revealed that, in the aftermath, she received ‘death threats’ and, despite being in the public eye for 15 years and not being ‘new to scrutiny’, she has ‘never experienced anything on this scale before’.

Earlier this month, the former Made in Chelsea star, 35, was put on blast by bakers who claimed she reached out asking for free birthday and wedding cakes before ‘ghosting’ them.

Reshmi Bennett, who owns the London-based luxury cake business Anges de Sucre, said Binky’s assistant reached out to request a ‘yellow train cake’ for 10 people, which the baker was happy to provide in return for payment.

However, Binky’s team asked that it be ‘gifted’, as seen in screenshots of messages, with Reshmi saying in her Instagram post that ‘influencers would rather pay a “team” to get free stuff rather than just paying for the stuff’.

Her original exposé prompted others to come forward, with the owner of Funfetti London saying Binky requested a wedding cake in 2021, plus one for her daughter’s birthday.

At the time, the cake business was merely a side hustle, so she was ‘flattered’ by the offer, which she hoped could help her business to grow, as Binky allegedly promised full Instagram coverage and a feature in Hello! Magazine.

Therefore, she ‘wanted everything inclusive’, leading to the baker taking ‘an unpaid day off work’ to travel to Binky’s house and build her full wedding cake. She went on to claim that the influencer did not tag her in her posts as promised, nor did she pay when an invoice was sent months later.

Now, Binky has addressed the backlash, telling The Sun that ‘cakegate’ has ‘been a lot’.

Binky, who has daughter India, eight, with ex Josh Patterson, and sons Wolfie, four, and Wilder, three, with husband Max Darnton, said the ordeal has impacted her whole family, with her youngest asking his dad: ‘Why does Mummy keep crying?’

‘That’s when it really hit home,’ she said.

‘What’s been hardest is the level of personal abuse. Death threats in my DMs, people calling me a bad mum, tagging brands I work with and asking for me to be dropped – it’s been relentless.’

Binky went on to say that the private messages felt especially ‘intense’ and ‘targeted’, admitting she’s been ‘shaken’ by ‘just how quickly things can spiral’.

‘Five days of that level of noise and it really takes its toll.’

In some moments, Binky felt ‘completely overwhelmed by it all, struggling to switch off, not sleeping, and just feeling a constant sense of anxiety sitting in [her] chest’.

‘It’s been genuinely frightening at times. I’ve seen a very dark side of social media as a whole, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.’

As for the cake saga itself, Binky’s side of the story states that her PA was ‘helping to oversee the organisation of [her] son’s birthday’ while she was on holiday.

‘She reached out to a cake designer to see if they’d be interested in a gifting collaboration, which is a fairly standard approach in this industry.

‘It was intended to be a simple enquiry. If it’s not right for the business, they politely decline, and that’s that. What then happened was the email exchange was shared publicly.

‘It felt like the conversation was encouraged to continue in a way that could later be taken out of context. Emails were then posted online, and it quickly escalated into something much bigger.’

She added that she ‘completely respects that gifting isn’t for everyone, especially for small businesses where margins are tight, or maybe it’s not necessarily the right timing for them’. However, she believes ‘those conversations should stay private and professional, regardless of the outcome’.

Binky proceeded to say she doesn’t ‘regret’ what happened with Reshmi, because ‘it was an offer, not an expectation’.

‘What I do regret, and where I am completely at fault, is the situation with Funfetti. [The owner] Jeyda created the most incredible cake for my wedding, and we had agreed coverage in return for her masterpiece,’ she then said.

‘Although I got her included in Hello!, I didn’t fully deliver on the social media agreement, and there’s no excuse for it.’

While the baker said that, when she followed up for a payment, it was not sent, Binky claims that ‘as soon as she was made aware of the situation, she got her team to contact Funfetti and arrange payment for her wedding cake’.

She concluded her interview by insisting she will be ‘reaching out’ to the bakers personally in the near future, still adamant that ‘exposure can be incredibly valuable’ for smaller businesses; hence, she doesn’t believe gifting is a bad idea.

‘That said, I do understand why people were frustrated. While gifting is common in my industry, that doesn’t automatically make it fair, especially for small businesses where costs really matter,’ she countered, acknowledging that the practice must be ‘handled thoughtfully’.

Now, Binky is waiting for the noise to quieten, with her husband recently cutting his work trip short because she ‘was mentally not in a great place’ due to the online drama.

She’s also seemingly keen to continue with her influencing and has no intention of stopping with her ‘gifted’ approach, quipping that, ‘since all of this happened, [she’s] actually had more messages than ever from businesses wanting to collaborate’.

‘I think what this experience has shown us is just how exposed things can become very quickly, and that’s something I need to be more conscious of as a parent, especially with some of the threatening private messages I was receiving.’

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