Fact Check: Real Story Behind Viral Video of 12-Year-Old Mother Married to 60-Year-Old Man

A video circulating on social media platform X showed a young girl lying on a hospital bed with a baby beside her. Several users falsely claimed that the girl was a 12-year-old Pakistani child who had given birth after being married to a 60-year-old man.

The misleading posts were amplified by Islamophobic accounts and certain Indian handles. One account with a history of anti-Islam commentary shared the video with the caption: “In Pakistan, an 11-year-old girl was married to a 60-year-old man, and at 12, she gave birth.” That post alone amassed over 16 million views. Another Indian propaganda account repeated the claim, reaching more than 100,000 views. Additional users further circulated the video, collectively drawing an audience of over 110,000 viewers.

None of these posts provided verifiable details such as the date or location of the alleged incident. A fact-check was initiated after the video gained significant traction, given the potentially harmful nature of the allegations. A keyword search revealed no credible reports from Pakistani national or local media confirming any such case.

Closer scrutiny of the clip showed that the spoken language did not match any commonly used in Pakistan. A reverse image search led back to TikTok, where the video was originally uploaded on August 9, 2024, by a user named “baongoc._.93.” The Vietnamese caption translated to: “The elder sister weighed 700 grams and the younger 900 grams. My mother’s two angels. Now they have grown up and understand their mother well.”

Further posts from the same account confirmed the context. On August 11, 2024, another video featured a woman with a baby, responding to online speculation about her children. On October 15, 2024, the account uploaded another clip of the same girl and child, captioned: “Two sisters love each other.” Multiple other videos on the profile depicted the girl with her younger sibling, often referencing birthdays and family moments.

The investigation concluded that the viral claim was fabricated. The video, first posted in August 2024, shows a Vietnamese girl with her younger sibling—not a Pakistani child married to an older man.

Read More: Chinese Company Launches ‘Unhappy Leave’ Policy: ‘IF You’Re Not Happy, Don’t Come To Work