The truth about the $18M LaBrant family... from cancer ruse to Diddy link and shocking new side hustles
They rank among America's most famous social media families - a picture-perfect clan of wholesome Christians pulling in millions of viewers with goofy pranks, dance videos and slick personal content.
Cole and Savannah LaBrant and their five children have netted $18 million on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Now the Tennessee-based couple are branching out into religious lifestyle apps and a controversial sales scheme.
But as their prominence has grown so too has the backlash.
Much of the criticism extends far beyond the standard fare about turning their offspring into revenue raisers to bag millions in advertising returns every month.
They have been panned for using cancer victims as clickbait, for their ultra-Christian views, and for posting a family dance video to a Sean 'Diddy' Combs tune days after the hip-hop mogul was arrested on sex-trafficking and other charges, which he denies.
Now, they face harsher attacks still for their Christian lifestyle app, which opponents say monetizes faith, and for recruiting fans into NeoLife, a multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme selling nutritional supplements.
Perhaps their staunchest critic, Madison Harnish, a pop culture pundit, calls the LaBrants 'phony' for preaching moral superiority on camera while trampling on Christian values in pursuit of internet fame and fortune.
'They promote themselves as a morally good and maybe even morally superior picture-perfect family,' Harnish says on her Cruel World Happy Mind show.
'MLM companies, family channels and influencer scams are at their core incredibly immoral — Cole and Savannah are huge hypocrites and one of the worst family channels out there.'
The LaBrant's are the 'picture-perfect family' for conservative America... but, wait, there's a dark side
Posts mark major family milestones, such as Sav becoming pregnant with her fifth child, Beckham, who was born in May 2024
The LaBrants did not respond to the Daily Mail's requests for comment. They've previously acknowledged some 'mistakes' but have brushed off critics as 'haters', saying that the couple 'love our kids' and are not exploiting them.
Cole, 28, and Savannah, 32, started dating in 2016 and married the next year. They both had sizable social media audiences already, and 'Sav' was mother to Everleigh, now 12, from a previous relationship.
Their 2017 wedding video - a high-production, emotional montage of vows, music, tears and fashion all wrapped in a family friendly Christian message - remains their most successful post, garnering 50 million views.
In one viral moment, Cole promises young Everleigh: 'I'll always love you, little girl.' It was genuine - and was a great money-spinner.
Since then, their feed has been a steady stream of heart-rending family milestones: pregnancies, gender reveals, and the births of Posie, now six, Zealand, four, Sunday, two, and Beckham, who turned one this month.
Last summer, after relocating from California, Cole and Sav revealed they were stopping at five children. Cole even posted about himself undergoing a vasectomy in December.
Much of the time, viewers are regaled with the LaBrants gyrating around their $5.2 million six-bedroom mansion outside Nashville, or parading in Halloween costumes and matching Christmas Day pajama sets.
The family's YouTube channel has amassed 12.8 million subscribers. On her own, Sav has 30.3 million TikTok followers. Cole, Everleigh and the other children have their own accounts, each with millions of subscribers.
Breaking family news nets more clicks — and bigger payouts. But there are only so many touching moments a family can muster, so Cole and Sav get creative to keep fans engaged.
The LaBrants post an eye-catching, themed Halloween costume display each year
The family moved from California to this $5.4 million six-bedroom mansion outside Nashville, Tennessee
The LaBrants wear their religion on their sleeves but critics say they're craven opportunists
As the energetic family's reach has grown, the missteps have begun to mount up - and some have proved especially controversial.
In August 2021, the couple posted a home-made documentary titled 'She got Diagnosed with Cancer', illustrated with a thumbnail photograph of the couple and their three daughters looking distraught. Fans braced for devastating news, with some posting about their fears as to which LaBrant might be sick.
The film opens with them expressing concerns about Posie, then aged two, as she underwent scans and blood tests.
Viewers have to endure six minutes of teasing before they're told that Posie is not dying or even ill: it was a health scare. The rest of the video follows the LaBrants meeting real childhood cancer patients and calling for research funding.
The backlash was immediate and fierce.
Even loyal fans said that Cole and Sav had 'crossed a line' by creating suspense around a child's potential life-threatening illness, and 'talking like one of their kids has cancer'. It was widely criticized for being a cheap ruse and 'disgusting clickbait'.
They're 'nothing but lying, manipulative emotional terrorists and child exploiters,' posted one follower.
It wasn't the first time that LaBrant fans have complained about being manipulated for clicks. In 2019, they posted an April Fools' Day prank in which they told a sobbing six-year-old Everleigh they were giving away the family dog, Carl, because they were all too busy making family dance videos to care for the Pomeranian.
The video was uploaded despite her distress. After angry viewers cried foul, Cole and Sav apologized and took it down.
Last year, Cole again drew criticism for posting a video of himself and Everleigh, then 11, dancing to a Diddy song days after the hip-hop artist was arrested in New York City on racketeering and sex trafficking charges, which he denies.
The family feed escorts viewers through milestones, such as the birth of baby Beckham in May 2024
Cole and Savannah already each had sizable social media followings when they started dating in 2016
After Beckham was born, Cole and Sav revealed that they were stopping at five children
Viewers said the post of father and daughter grooving to the 1997 hit I'll Be Missing You, by Diddy and Faith Evans, was in poor taste. 'Why this song during the Diddy scandal!' one shocked user posted.
At other times, it's their conservative values that spark fury. In 2022, their pro-life documentary Abortion compared the 'death toll' from pregnancy terminations to the Holocaust.
Though common among some pro-life activists, the comparison alienated many fans and prompted a furious push-back from pro-choice viewers for being too blunt a message and ignoring the tough choices many women face.
Now, their newest ventures - both religious and financial - are drawing fresh fire.
In recent months, the LaBrants launched Bear Fruit, a subscription-based Christian lifestyle app offering tips on parenting, homeschooling, and marriage, along with twice-monthly livestreams from Cole and Sav.
Some users say courses on potty training and how to 'spice up your marriage' are 'transformative' and an 'incredible resource for intentional living'. Critics say it's glitchy, full of 'misinformation' and a 'scam app from terrible people'.
The latter focus on the app's $6.99 monthly subscription fee, saying the Gospel should be free and pointing to Jesus's views on greedy profit seekers. Supporters say that the church and its messengers need cash to stay afloat.
The most controversial move yet came in January when Cole invited followers to join him in a business opportunity.
An invitation-only Zoom call of his pitch was secretly recorded by a whistle-blower participant, who later shared it online. In it, Cole reached out to fans offering an 'opportunity' to join his venture, enticing them with potential returns of more than $50,000 per year from selling health supplements for NeoLife, an MLM firm.
Cole and Sav have recently celebrated the launch of their Christian family advice app, Bear Fruit
A picture-perfect Christmas in the LaBrant household, with matching festive pajamas
For years, the LaBrants have been entertaining followers with their goofy pranks and latest dance moves
'I already make millions of dollars on social media posting my kids online, and I live in a mansion. I don't need your money,' Cole told his followers.
'I'm doing this for you, for your benefit.'
MLMs are controversial. They often face criticism for operating like pyramid schemes, and some are illegal. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the vast majority of participants earn little to nothing.
Profits typically flow to recruiters at the top, and can leave masses of self-employed sellers at the bottom making a few hundred dollars per year, says the Federal Trade Commission. On its website, NeoLife acknowledges that only 0.1 percent of promoters are in its top tier for profits, while more than two thirds make less than $5,000 per year.
Hannah Alonzo, a popular YouTuber who debunks cults, scams and pyramid schemes, dubbed it the 'perfect insane crossover' to have one of the 'biggest influencer families on the internet' embrace network marketing.
Alonzo said that she pitied the LaBrants for being duped by their own recruiter but insisted that Cole's hires will have it worse.
Sav and Cole were 'preying on their followers' and would 'recruit a ton of people, sit back and enjoy the recurring passive monthly income that comes from all their recruits working themselves into the ground', she added.
NeoLife and the LaBrants did not respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment.
However, Alonzo said that people were becoming more wise to MLMs nowadays and Cole's new venture would 'fade into the background' behind the latest family dance video.
The LaBrant's millions of followers, of course, have ring-side seats to watch how this all plays out.
