Youtubers Myka & James Stauffer have faced serious backlash after giving up their adopted son from China, Huxley, saying he had been placed with another family.
Critics have accused Myka Stauffer and her husband, James, of exploiting Huxley to build their YouTube career after they received sponsorship deals and video revenue since 2017.
The couple produced videos about Huxley’s adoption and his challenges.
On Tuesday they revealed that Huxley is living permanently with another family after followers noticed he had not been seen in a video for some time.
The couple said unspecified behavioural issues from Huxley had made life too difficult for the family, which includes four other children.
In the video titled ‘An Update on our Family’ uploaded to their nearly 720,000 subscribers, the couple explained that they learned their son Huxley had “a lot more special needs that they weren’t aware of” once they brought him home.
“With international adoption, sometimes there’s unknowns and things that are not transparent on files and things like that,” James said.
“There’s not an ounce of our body that doesn’t love Huxley with all of our beings. There wasn’t a minute that we didn’t try our hardest,” Myka added though tears.
The couple said that after “multiple assessments and evaluations,” they had been told by “medical professionals” that their child’s medical needs required a “different fit” in terms of living situation.
“It’s been really upsetting for us because it’s not what we’ve ever wanted to hear,” James said.
In a blog written by Myka last year, she revealed Huxley had a brain cyst, a brain tumor and autism.
Despite the pair’s assertion their son was now “happy and thriving” in his “new forever home”, many online commentators rejected their reasons for giving up the child, taking to social media to express their outrage.
A Petition to remove their monetized videos of Huxley from YouTube has been created on change.org with over 40,000 signed at the time of this publication.
