The Life of Lea Elui: The Rising Star of TikTok and Instagram
Lea Elui
The French influencer and model Lea Elui Ginet was born on 4th January 2001, in Chambery, and is known for becoming the most-followed female TikTok and Instagram user in her country at just 18 years old.
Obviously, the blonde already had an impressive social media fanbase at that point, as she had uploaded her first viral video three years prior, and continued to upload content regularly, with most of her videos showcasing her belly-dancing skills.
Prior to the fame, Lea was studying a Baccalaureate of Science and Technology, which is known as STMG in France, and spent her free time filming and editing content. In an old interview, the influencer explained: ‘I’ve been less busy since I started studying my Baccalaureate degree remotely. I do my schoolwork early so I can start filming and uploading at around 2 p.m., which takes all day.’ [Translated from Spanish]
Career
According to Lea, she suffered bullying in middle and high school and turned to content creation as a way to deal with her problems. In 2016, she joined Musical.ly (now TikTok) and accumulated an astonishing fanbase thanks to her belly-dancing clips. She then turned her talents to Instagram and YouTube, onto which she uploaded comedy skits, and hair and make-up tutorials.
From September to December 2017, Lea’s Instagram fanbase grew tenfold, as she went from 100,000 followers to a million. Part of her popularity was thanks to her frequent upload rate and the fact that she took time to reply to fan comments. Less than two years later, she had over nine million followers on the platform, and had to hire an agent in order to balance her influencer career with her studies.
After becoming the most-followed woman in her home country, Lea enjoyed a host of new work opportunities, such as her collaboration with Vogue France for a morning routine video which has been seen over 700,000 times. As refreshingly honest as always, the blonde stated that the first thing she did after waking up was check her Instagram, and reply to a few comments and messages.
It was perhaps just a matter of time before Lea parlayed her influencing talents into something bigger and better. In 2018, she made a brief appearance in Sofiane Ledhem’s “Comme un signe” music video, followed by a minor role in the YouTube short “Opération: 2 millions!”.
Four years later, she crossed over to reality TV, as she joined the 12th season of the French dance show “Danse avec les Stars” alongside small-screen personality Christophe Licata. To the disappointment of many, Lea and Christophe were voted off in the tense quarter-finals.
Personal Life
Lea has been romantically linked to various social media personalities since she first broke out on the scene. In 2018, she began dating the American content creator Hunter Rowland, who was born in April 2001 in Florida. Lea and Hunter’s fans loved seeing them together, but they broke up in 2019 for unspecified reasons.
According to a small gossip blog on YouTube, Lea was annoyed when Hunter announced the split to his followers, as she would’ve preferred to keep the news private for as long as possible. Hunter then went on Instagram Live in seemingly good spirits and, as his fans inundated him with encouraging comments, described Lea’s belly-dancing videos as ‘soft porn’ and shared that she had blocked him on most social media apps.
When Lea began viewing the Live, Hunter became visibly uncomfortable and asked to FaceTime in private, but Lea preferred to join her ex-boyfriend and share her side of the story. The French model became agitated and almost cried as she spoke on the Live, asking Hunter to leave her alone and discuss things with her away from social media if he wanted to continue the conversation.
✅ Pour ceux qui ne sont toujours pas à jour sur l'histoire de Léa Elui & Hunter Rowland, et qui me demandent encore des nouvelles : tenez, xoxo gy. pic.twitter.com/dgCK3dQYHG
— GY (@gossipytbFR) September 16, 2019
Lea abruptly exited the Live and went on to share an emotional video in which she said: ‘We’re all human, we all have feelings, don’t say our stuff to other people… Have a heart.’ Both parties continued to milk the situation over the next few days, as Hunter repeatedly went on Instagram Live to say that he felt alone and cried without any visible tears.
Prior to her ill-fated relationship with Hunter, Lea was dating fellow Musical.ly star Lucas Ollinger, who made frequent appearances in her short videos. The beauty influencer was criticized for moving on so quickly after the split, and although one YouTube account uploaded a video in which Lucas apparently confirmed to having cheated on Lea, it turned out to be clickbait. Since breaking up with Lea, Lucas has faded into irrelevancy and is so private he doesn’t even have an Instagram account.
The past is in the past, however, as Lea is now in a seemingly blissful relationship with model Scott Morton, who is represented by Wilhelmina Models agency, and has also done a few acting projects. With his 6ft 1in (187cm) height and toned physique, there’s no doubt that Scott and Lea make an eye-catching couple – one of their viral pics at Coachella 2023 garnered over 600,000 likes.
Scott and Lea went Instagram public around April 2021, and in the two years since, their relationship has gone from strength to strength. At first, it took netizens time to warm to the new couple as they described them as ‘cringe’ and ‘try-hard’ after Scott posted a slow-motion video of himself and Lea walking down the street while pretending not to see the camera. However, the influencers decided to loosen up and start acting more naturally, allowing followers to see the less picture-perfect moments of their relationship.
As booked and busy as ever, Scott and Lea have recently began collaborating with brands such as Sunglass Hut by doing paid publicity posts. In September 2023, they attended a Boss fashion show together in Milan, mere months after attending their most prestigious event yet: the Cannes film festival.
Calculating Scott and Lea’s net worths is no easy feat, but they are said to have a combined $1.5 million fortune, thanks to their tireless work as influencers and models.
