Woman hits back after being criticised for making a TikTok dance video about her husband's 'murder'

A woman has been criticised after telling the heartbreaking story of how her husband was murdered while dancing as part of a TikTok trend.

TikTok and dancing go hand-in-hand but one of the popular trends on the video-sharing platform is to post a "storytime" where the person recalls what happened by either narrating or typing out the events in on-screen text.

At the same time, the person bops to their own choreography while the story is being told, usually to a viral song.

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That's exactly what Jess (@thesingingwidow) did when she explained how her first husband was tragically murdered eight years ago, as she danced to Meghan Trainor's song Made You Look.

She detailed how her husband was shot and killed by a man who ended up being arrested for manslaughter, with her husband's death occurring just days after the birth of their son.

Jess added how she gave a speech at the man's sentencing where she told his killer her and her husband's love story and to remember her face if he ever feels sorry for himself.

The video quickly went viral and while the original TikTok has since been deleted, it began to circulate on other social media platforms, as a Twitter repost received over 5.1m views, and 201,000 likes.

"My husband was brutally murdered," @ycsm1n tweeted along with TikTok, adding dancing emojis in between each word.

There were thousands of comments from people who criticised the TikToker over the video.

One person wrote: "We live in very dark times."

"It's time to shut down Tik Tok until we can figure out what the hell is going on," another person said.

Someone else added: "We have very little data as to what trauma dumping on TikTok does to the brain but I would guess it is not good."

"Hey guys I think everyone having to be a content creator was a bad idea," a fourth person commented.

The viral response prompted Jess to post a follow-up video to hit back at the criticism she was receiving over her viral TikTok.

“Why? Let me think... because eight years ago, my entire life went up in flames,” she said in a reply to a commenter who asked why she was dancing to a traumatic event.

“Everything I knew, everything I loved, right when I became a mom — literally my whole life blew up."

She added how she "went through the most unimaginable tragedy and pain" that she didn't know existed.

“But I made a decision, maybe a year and a half in, that I wasn’t going to let the grief take me down and turn me into a shell of the person that I used to be,” she continued. “…yeah, I’m f*cking dancing, because why not? I’m happy again, and I’m proud of how far I’ve come.”

“How many people that are one here being negative about me dancing because I’m happy again, can say that I made you look, right?”

There was a mixture of reactions in the comments as some supported Jess, and some shared their own experiences with grief, while others still felt that dance wasn't appropriate.

One person said: "Dance girl. I lost my husband July 2021 and yes it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever been through in my life."

"You went through hell and survived. You deserve to dance. I'm glad you found happiness again," another person said.

Meanwhile, someone else added: "So you’re using your trauma as content I really hope you seek therapy."

"I hope you heal through this situation. At the same time dancing to it was tasteless," a fourth person commented.

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