Member of America's 'most inbred' family says 'sorry' for hoax after 'losing a lot'

A member of America's "most inbred family" has issued an apology to the filmmaker documenting their lives and confessed to having lost a "lot".

Mark Laita, a photographer who operates the Soft White Underbelly channel on YouTube, has been chronicling the Whittakers ' existence since 2020.

However, in June, he was left shocked and appalled when he discovered they had been "lying to me all this time".

Mark disclosed that he had given Larry's daughter, BJ, $1,000 towards funeral expenses after the family asserted they needed the money for the ceremony. But it emerged that Larry hadn't even passed away.

He also alleged that he'd handed over an additional $700 to enable Larry to relocate his daughter, BJ, to North Carolina for a new beginning. But this apparently didn't happen either.

In a recent video, BJ expressed remorse for her actions and admitted that she had been battling drug addiction.

BJ confessed: "I'm very sorry for what I done. I mean, it was because I was on drugs, and you'll do anything to get it. Yep...I was on heroin and crack cocaine."

When Mark previously questioned if she could maintain sobriety, she affirmed that she had, leading the filmmaker to inquire about what she had gleaned from the experience.

She responded: "You lose a lot of stuff...lost my family; my kids didn't want to have nothing to do with me. The relationship's getting better with my kids. I know it'll take time, but it'll get better."

BJ added poignantly: "That's what I tell myself; I gave them life. If it weren't for me, they wouldn't be here. My daughter-in-law actually invited me to come to my grandson's football game today, so I'm going to go to it.

"The methadone's helping me, but I want to get off of it too. I don't wanna be on nothing. Yup, I've wean myself...I'm weaning myself down from the methadone."

BJ shared about her ongoing struggle. She mentioned: "They had...I was only on 80 milligrams, but I'm down to about 40 now, and I still...I ain't had nothing."

Meanwhile, keen watchers were taken aback when Larry was seen alive after being featured in a video called "The Death of Larry Whittaker", where he was casually spotted talking about his own supposed passing from his front porch.

In a shocking twist, Larry also owns up to the controversy in a recent video, expressing regret over the confusion caused.

The Whittaker family chronicle takes place in Odd, West Virginia , where the pattern of inbreeding began with identical twins Henry and John, whose offspring would later intermarry and continue the family lineage.

This narrative traces back to Harry and Sally's seven offspring, among them John Isom Whittaker born in 1882. John had nine children with his first cousin, Ada Rigg, including their daughter, Gracie Irene Whittaker.

Layering the complex family ties, Gracie went on to marry her double cousin, their grandparents being the same on both sides, resulting in 15 children, one of whom is Larry.