What is the Trisha Paytas Baby Theory and what has it got to do with Ozzy Osbourne?
The Trisha Paytas Baby Theory has taken over the internet. (Getty)
The Trisha Paytas Baby Theory has taken over the internet. (Getty)
So, YouTube star Trisha Paytas has given birth to her third baby, a boy named Aquaman (yes, really). The internet has decided his birth is inextricably linked to the death of the Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne.
This is what terminally online internet users have started referring to as “The Trisha Paytas Baby Theory”.
So what is the Trisha Paytas Baby Theory? Let’s unpack it how it started, and how it ended up here.
The death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022
The Trisha Paytas Baby Theory began back in September 2022, with the birth of her first child, a girl named Malibu Barbie, who she had with her husband Moses Hacmon.
On 8 September that year, Paytas – of YouTube and meme fame – inadvertently created another meme, by announcing that she was in labour with her child.
you’re laughing. queen elizabeth is about to be reincarnated as trisha paytas’ baby and you’re laughing.
— angie 🫧🐬 (@ih8petewentz) September 8, 2022
Mere hours later, Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth II, who was the queen of England for 70 years, had died aged 96.
While the world, and particularly the UK, entered a period of mourning, the internet entered a period of pushing a truly bizarre conspiracy theory: that Queen Elizabeth had been re-encarnated as Paytas’s first child.
“You’re laughing. Queen Elizabeth is about to be reincarnated as Trisha Paytas’ baby and you’re laughing,” came one tweet, which received more than half a million “likes” and secured itself in the Twitter meme hall of fame.
Paytas didn’t actually give birth to Malibu Barbie until almost a week later, on 14 September, but what’s a bit of timing inaccuracy between rabid social media conspiracy theorists?
King Charles II’s cancer diagnosis
In November 2023, Trisha Paytas announced that she was pregnant with her second child, and the macabre theories kickstarted once again: which monarch would enter the soul of baby number two?
A few months later, and with Paytas’s due date looming, Queen Elizabeth’s son, King Charles III, announced that he had been diagnosed with and was undergoing treatment for cancer.
The internet was inundated with two very different things: sweet messages of support for the Royal Family, and grim, morbid suggestions that the King could succumb to his illness as Paytas birthed baby number two.
Now, the timing for baby number two has far less synchronicity than baby number one. Paytas’s second child, a girl named Elvis, was born on 24 May 2024. King Charles thankfully remained with us, and no major celebrities died to mark the occasion.
OJ Simpson did pass away about a month before though, and some tried to tie the two events together. It didn’t quite catch on.
The death of Pope Francis
By the time Trisha Paytas announced baby number three in March this year, the Trisha Paytas Baby Theory had cemented itself as part of pop culture lore.
Just a few weeks prior to her announcement, on 14 February, 88-year-old Pope Francis had been admitted to hospital with a respiratory infection. The Pope never managed to fully recover from his illness, and he died from a stroke and subsequent heart failure on Easter Monday, 21 April.
Hungry for the theory to continue, fans linked the Pope’s death with Paytas’s unborn child, timing inconsistency be damned. Then, as her due date loomed, the internet went in search of another high-profile world leader who may inhibit the soul of her third child. When the White House revealed that president Donald Trump had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency last week, the internet thought they may have found their man (despite the condition being fairly common for a man hurtling towards 80).
The death of Ozzy Osbourne
Which brings us to yesterday, 22 July, when Trisha Paytas announced the birth of her third child, a boy named Aquaman.
Little over an hour later, the Osbourne family shared with “more sadness than mere words can convey” that pioneering heavy metal star Ozzy Osbourne had died, aged 76.
While the entertainment industry fittingly erupted with tributes, the internet erupted with the latest twist in the Trisha Paytas Baby Theory: Aquaman is Ozzy Osbourne re-encarnated.
Paytas had actually given birth to Aquaman on 12 July, but the timing of the name drop is admittedly a little spooky. But that’s not all. Just a few weeks before his death, Ozzy Osbourne played his final gig with his Black Sabbath bandmates in his hometown of Birmingham. The show was hosted by none other than Jason Momoa, who is perhaps best known for playing… Aquaman.
trisha paytas has officially reincarnated 3 people: queen elizabeth, pope francis, & ozzy osbourne, it's getting scary😭 pic.twitter.com/aQjXdJxpnn
— 𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗻𝘆🫧💚 (@beyoncegarden) July 22, 2025
What has Trisha Paytas said about the Trisha Paytas Baby Theory?
Trisha Paytas is the queen of the internet meme, so you best believe that she’s heard of the Trisha Paytas Baby Theory. She’s referenced it quite a few times on her podcast Just Trish, and seems completely flummoxed by the whole thing.
After fans made the initial link between her first child and the death of the Queen, Paytas said: “The internet is a weird place. I don’t know how any of those rumours started or why? Sorry to the royal family and my baby. Felt weird to say anything at all.”
She also revealed that during this period, people searched her name more than at any other point in her career.
Then, when people started to (offensively, might we add) link her second child with King Charles’s cancer diagnosis, she said: “I get the timing is crazy, I get it… I get the meme of it all. I was able to lean into the Queen Elizabeth one a little bit, but it also terrifies me that people believe in it enough.”
She commented on the theory again when Pope Francis died, stating: “I just don’t get it…. He’s not in the British monarchy. Is it just any influential person that dies get to come reincarnated as my baby?”
Finally, she referenced the theory during her most recent Just Trish episode, where she revealed Aquaman as the name of her third child. This, we must add, was before Ozzy Osbourne was known to have died.
“A lot of people have passed since I gave birth, or gotten ill… Connie Francis, Pope Francis… Anyway, let’s relax, a baby is here. We don’t have to reincarnate everybody really, ok?”
Really then, Trisha Paytas has never actually given birth on the same day that a beloved rock legend or historic monarch has died. Internet, stay weird.
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