By: Rajini KG
August 14 2023
Indian actor Sonali Bendre’s image falsely shared as fashion blogger who died of cancer
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
The viral image is of Indian actor Sonali Bendre, not Dominican fashion blogger Kyrzayda Rodriguez.
Claim ID 00c39e4f
Context
A post claiming to show a Dominican Republic fashion blogger who succumbed to stomach cancer is circulating on Facebook (archive can be found here, here, and here) with the caption that Kyrzayda Rodriguez, a world-renowned designer, and author, died at age 40. The post adds that before dying, she wrote a message about the importance of health. Along with the post, two images said to be of Rodriguez have been shared — one is of a woman in a saree, and the second is of a bald woman lying in bed.
However, the claim is false. The images added in the post are of Indian actor Sonali Bendre, not the designer.
In fact
A reverse image search on the first image led us to a Hindustan Times report published on September 10, 2022. The same viral image of Bendre has been posted along with six other images from a photoshoot.
The saree image was also found on Bendre's Instagram account (iamsonalibendre) on September 10, 2022. She captioned it, "This नारी deeply loves her सारी (This woman deeply loves her saree)."
The second image used in the post was found in an NDTV report published on June 7, 2021. The viral image was collaged with one other image of the actor. According to NDTV, in July 2018, the 46-year-old actor was diagnosed with metastatic cancer. She traveled to New York for medical treatment. After her treatment, she returned to Mumbai in December 2018. On Cancer Survivors Day in 2021, she shared a recent photo of herself and one from undergoing chemotherapy. The image was captioned, "How time flies... today when I look back, I see strength, I see weakness but most importantly I see the will to not let the C word define how my life will be after it." NDTV has given credit for the image to the actors Instagram account. We found the same image posted on Bendre's Instagram account in June 6, 2021.
the viral post (Source: iamsonalibendre, Facebook screengrab)
Who is Kyrzayda Rodriguez?
Rodriguez died on September 9, 2018, due to stomach cancer. In November 2017, she announced she was suffering from cancer and did chemotherapy. But in August 2018, she stopped the treatment, the People website reports, and passed away around a month later.
Logically Facts also checked her Instagram and Facebook accounts for the last message she posted on the importance of health, as claimed in the viral posts, but we couldn't find such a message on her social media accounts.
The verdict
The images shared on Facebook claiming to be Dominican Republican fashion blogger Kyrzayda Rodriguez, who succumbed to stomach cancer in 2018, are of Indian actor Sonali Bendre. Therefore, we rate this claim as false.
