{"id":186,"date":"2026-06-04T20:04:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T20:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/?p=186"},"modified":"2026-06-04T20:04:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T20:04:38","slug":"scottsdale-based-maga-influencer-admits-hair-pulling-u-k-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/?p=186","title":{"rendered":"Scottsdale-based MAGA influencer admits hair-pulling U.K. assault"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Scottsdale-based MAGA influencer Melissa Rein Lively paid a woman \u00a3910 \u2014 around $1,222 in U.S. dollars \u2014 in compensation for a hair-pulling assault outside of a London Underground station in early October 2025, according to the BBC.<\/p>\n

Read more Meet the pesky activist determined to hold Tempe leaders to account<\/a><\/p>\n

Lively accepted a \u201cconditional caution\u201d and her charge of assault by beating was dropped in Westminster Magistrates\u2019 Court on Tuesday over an alleged assault that she and her fianc\u00e9, venture capitalist Philipp Ostermann, engaged in in early October. She was not present at court. As an alternative to prosecution in England and Wales courts, a conditional caution is an \u201cout-of-court resolution\u201d that is offered to a person who \u201cadmitted to the offense\u201d and \u201cagrees to accept\u201d the caution, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an interview with Phoenix New Times, Lively denied any wrongdoing or the acceptance of any guilt, comparing her fine to a \u201cwarning\u201d and adding that the prosecution\u2019s story is a \u201ccomplete fallacy\u201d and a \u201ccomplete lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was an on-the-street altercation that lasted less than two minutes, and I was not even made aware of this until a month later,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s how minor it was.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old public relations executive initially made international headlines during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 for destroying a face mask display at a Target store in Scottsdale. Since the incident, Lively has transformed into something of a MAGA darling.<\/p>\n

Prior to President Donald Trump\u2019s second term, she heavily campaigned for the White House press secretary job, which she ultimately lost to Karoline Leavitt. According to a profile of Lively in the May edition of Phoenix Magazine, she runs three PR companies \u2014 including America First and Europe First PR \u2014 although she declined to name any clients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lively made international headlines again last November for the London Underground incident. On Nov. 10, British Transport Police published a release seeking information related to Lively and Ostermann, an associate director at the Munich-based private equity firm Aequita, for a potentially racially charged assault at a London train station a month earlier. Lively said that when she saw her photo on the police website, she was \u201cso shocked\u201d and \u201cthought it was a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six months later, Lively paid the price. According to the BBC, the court heard that the victim was walking with her sister toward Bond Street station with two children, one of whom was in a stroller. Lively and Ostermann were ahead of them, kissing and seeming to be intoxicated. According to the prosecution, Lively appeared to stumble into the stroller, and the woman pushed it back.<\/p>\n

Read more GOP lawmaker sees photo of colleague\u2019s baby, brings up her abortion<\/a><\/p>\n

The prosecution alleged that Ostermann said, \u201cYou bloody Indians, watch where you\u2019re going; you shouldn\u2019t be here.\u201d The prosecution also alleged that Lively had fallen over the stroller while the women told Ostermann that they weren\u2019t Indian and to stop being racist, according to the BBC. Then, Lively grabbed one of the sisters by the hair and tugged it \u201cin a forceful manner,\u201d according to the prosecution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking to New Times, Lively noted that there isn\u2019t any video or audio of the run-in and claimed that the prosecution\u2019s account omits some key details. She claims that she was \u201cattacked from behind by two women who were running down the street with a stroller,\u201d and that there were six men behind them who the couple thought \u201cwere part of a distraction crime ring\u201d to steal her purse, which she said is a \u201cvery common threat in Europe and in the UK.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lively denied being intoxicated and said the \u201cracism accusation\u201d was \u201ccompletely false.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a split second, this is what I thought happened,\u201d Lively said, citing her concern about a distraction robbery. \u201cMy handbag was grabbed and pulled to the ground, and instinctively I responded by grabbing this woman\u2019s hair, which caused her to drop the bag, and then she retaliated by grabbing my hair.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his court proceedings, Ostermann denied two racially aggravated public order offenses and a further public order offense against him, according to the BBC. He was released on conditional bail and is set to appear at City of London Magistrates\u2019 Court in mid-November for trial. Lively said that her fianc\u00e9 was just protecting her from \u201cwhat we thought was a distraction robbery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThere was a lot of dishonesty in this incident, which was a very minor street altercation that lasted less than two minutes,\u201d she said. \u201cThe international media spectacle that this has turned into is beyond absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the phone call with New Times, Lively said she recorded the interview and will \u201chold you personally accountable in addition to your publisher\u201d for any \u201cdiscrepancies in the facts that I told you on this call.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Sinema wants therapy records for the woman whose husband she seduced<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melissa Rein Lively, who infamously topped a Scottsdale Target display during the COVID-19 pandemic, paid \u00a3910 in restitution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nScottsdale-based MAGA influencer admits hair-pulling U.K. assault - Phoenix Relocation News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/?p=186\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scottsdale-based MAGA influencer admits hair-pulling U.K. assault - Phoenix Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Melissa Rein Lively, who infamously topped a Scottsdale Target display during the COVID-19 pandemic, paid \u00a3910 in restitution.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/?p=186\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Phoenix Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-04T20:04:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=186#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=186\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b18a6d477e57bdeec7b4b61a70eace7b\"},\"headline\":\"Scottsdale-based MAGA influencer admits hair-pulling U.K. assault\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-04T20:04:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=186\"},\"wordCount\":830,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=186#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/b5609510f65c481b810b85b66ac1f85d.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=186#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=186\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=186\",\"name\":\"Scottsdale-based MAGA influencer admits hair-pulling U.K. assault - 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