# #HurtBae On Valentine's Day 2017, Condé Nast's video platform The Scene uploaded a seven-minute confrontation between Kourtney Jorge and her ex-boyfriend Leonard Long III about his repeated infidelity, and Twitter users christened Kourtney with the moniker #HurtBae overnight. Within a week the clip drew more than 221,000 retweets, launched image macros about cheating partners, and set up a second viral meeting a year later on the Iris channel in February 2018. ## Origin The video was published by The Scene, Condé Nast's short-form video storytelling platform, on February 14, 2017, under the title "Why Did You Cheat On Me?"[4]. In the almost seven-minute conversation, Kourtney Jorge and Leonard Long III, a couple who had dated for three years, walk through how they met, how the relationship fell apart, and the specific nights Leonard brought other women home[5]. One passage that drew particular attention has Leonard describing an occasion when he told Kourtney to leave his room because another woman was there, after which Kourtney went back to her own room and cried through the night[4]. The Scene's Twitter account pushed the clip the same day, Valentine's Day, and the hashtag #HurtBae appeared on Twitter within hours as users built the moniker around Kourtney's on-camera reaction[1]. Internet reporters at Inverse and The Fader identified the pair the next day as @RealCreoleKourt and @leonardlongiii, and reported that strangers tried to send Kourtney money on PayPal, which she declined[4][3]. - **Platform:** The Scene / Twitter (viral spread) - **Creator:** The Scene (Condé Nast) - **Date:** 2017 ## Overview #HurtBae is the Twitter nickname given to Kourtney Jorge, a young woman who sat across from her ex-boyfriend Leonard Long III in a sparse gray studio and asked him why he cheated on her during their three-year relationship[1]. The format of the clip resembles a daytime talk show stripped of theatrics, with soft piano in the background and no studio audience, which left viewers focused on Leonard's blunt admissions and Kourtney's quiet tears[2]. Two lines in particular got screenshotted and quoted all week: Kourtney asking how many other girls there were and Leonard answering "I can't say," and her explanation that she forgave him "because you're my best friend"[3]. On Twitter the clip ran as a cultural Rorschach test about cheating. Users posted reaction images matched to specific timestamps, wrote threads about women staying too long in bad relationships, and quote-tweeted lines from the video as captions for their own breakup stories[3]. The Fader rounded up tweets that read like a mutual support group, with women identifying with the "best friend" line and men joking that they hoped everyone had a good day "except the dude from #hurtbae"[3]. Beyond the sympathy posts, the clip spawned image macros that paired Kourtney's crying face with captions about any disappointment, from food orders to sports losses[4]. The reaction-image use eventually outlived the original news cycle, with Kourtney's face standing in as internet shorthand for being blindsided by someone you trusted[1]. ## How It Spread Within the first week on Twitter, The Scene's post drew close to 221,900 retweets and 478,799 likes, and the YouTube upload crossed 3.4 million views in the same window[1]. Coverage followed quickly from The Fader, which collected representative tweets on February 16, 2017, and from Inverse, Bustle, BuzzFeed, BET, People and Cosmopolitan over the next few days[3][4]. Writers framed the clip as a conversation Twitter wanted to have about why women stay with cheaters, with The Fader noting that "many of us" recognized the exact dynamic in Kourtney's story[3]. One year later, on February 22, 2018, the online video channel Iris, also under Condé Nast, published "#HurtBae 2: One Year Later, Kourtney and Leonard Meet Again"[6]. The sequel pulled 953,000 YouTube views in five days and, on Facebook, 4.4 million views alongside 53,000 reactions and 82,000 shares[1]. The second conversation was testier than the first: Leonard claimed they were never exclusive, said the pair had cooked up the first video for "exposure as entertainers," and Kourtney rejected the "damsel in distress" reading of the viral clip[7][8]. Vibe, The Root and the Daily Mail covered the reunion, with the Daily Mail quoting Jorge saying her "life did like a 180" after the first video[8]. Reaction videos on YouTube extended the second wave. On February 22, 2018, the channel Dwayne N Jazz uploaded a reaction that cleared 46,000 views in five days[1][9]. Four days later, Desus and Mero aired a segment reacting to the reunion on their late-night show, and the YouTube clip of that bit later passed 58,000 views[1]. ## How to Use On Twitter in 2017 the typical #HurtBae post paired a still of Kourtney's teary face with a one-line caption applying her reaction to a trivial letdown, or quoted one of Leonard's lines ("I can't say," "If you didn't count, then it don't count") as a punchline about any evasive excuse[3]. Threaded commentary posts were common too, with users retelling their own cheating stories and tagging #HurtBae to signal the parallel[3]. A less common convention paired a screenshot of Leonard's face with captions mocking men who shift blame onto their partners for not leaving sooner[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is #HurtBae? #HurtBae is the Twitter nickname given to Kourtney Jorge after a seven-minute Valentine's Day 2017 video in which her ex Leonard Long III admitted to cheating on her repeatedly during their three-year relationship[1]. ### Where did #HurtBae come from? Condé Nast's video platform The Scene published the clip "Why Did You Cheat On Me?" on February 14, 2017, and Twitter users coined the hashtag the same day[4]. ### What does #HurtBae mean? Twitter users used "HurtBae" to describe Kourtney specifically, and then the term got applied more broadly as a reaction-image shorthand for being emotionally gutted by someone you trusted[1]. ### How do you use #HurtBae? Common posts paired a still of Kourtney's teary face with a caption applying her reaction to any letdown, or quoted Leonard's deflecting lines like "I can't say" as punchlines[3]. ### Is #HurtBae still popular? The original 2017 wave was the peak, with a second burst in February 2018 around the Iris sequel video; it is now a classic reference rather than an active trend[6]. ### Who is HurtBae in real life? Kourtney Jorge, a model whose Twitter handle was @RealCreoleKourt, was identified by Inverse and others shortly after the video went viral[4]. ### Who is the guy in the #HurtBae video? Leonard Long III, Jorge's ex-boyfriend, who went by @leonardlongiii on Twitter at the time of the video's release[4]. ### How many views did the original #HurtBae video get? The Scene's Twitter post drew around 221,900 retweets and 478,799 likes in the first week, while the YouTube cut passed 3.4 million views in that same window[1]. ### Was there a sequel to the #HurtBae video? Yes, Iris published "#HurtBae 2: One Year Later" on February 22, 2018, which reached 953,000 YouTube views in five days and 4.4 million Facebook views[6][1]. ### What did Kourtney and Leonard say about the first video a year later? In the Iris reunion, Jorge said her career "did like a 180," while Long claimed they were never exclusive and said they did the original clip for exposure as entertainers[8][7]. ## References 1. [https://www.inverse.com/article/27946-hurt-bae-hurtbae-twitter-who-is]() 2. [https://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/a8941147/hurt-bae-cheater-the-scene-video/]() 3. [https://www.thefader.com/2017/02/16/cheating-hurt-bae-video-kourtney-jorge-leonard]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/hurtbae]() 5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjLR8293jnY]() 6. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmp6AGFPhzY]() 7. [https://www.vibe.com/2018/02/hurt-bae-returns-hey-iris-video/]() 8. [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5428817/Hurtbae-model-sits-ex-lover-year-later.html]() 9. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqPDP2-A-wM]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/hurtbae Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library