Logan Paul is hoping that the world can forgive him for his pour judgement. The YouTube star, 22, sat down with Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan on Thursday, February 1, for his first TV interview following the controversial video he posted on December 31. Said video, which he has since deleted, showed the body of an apparent suicide victim who appeared to have hung himself in Aokigahara, which many refer to as Japan’s “suicide forest.” In the video, titled “We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest,” featured Paul also laughing after saying to a friend, “What, you never stand next to a dead guy?”
Strahan, 46, asked Paul why he went there to begin with.
“The idea was do another fun vlog … go camp for a night and make an entertaining piece of content in a forest and things obviously changed pretty drastically and quickly,” he said of witnessing the victim. “So, it was 100 yards away from the parking lot. It doesn’t make a sense. And I believe it happened for a reason, and I think that reason is so I could take this experience, learn from it, spread the message the right way about suicide prevention and suicide prevention awareness.”
Paul then added that his intentions were always to start an important conversation. “The idea was to shock and show the harsh realities of suicide and get people talking about something that I don’t think people are talking about much and still that’s the goal today,” he said.
“I am a good guy who made a bad decision … I will think twice in the future about what I post,” the social media star added, also revealing that now, he’s being told to end his own life.
“Ironically I’m being told to commit suicide myself,” he told Strahan. “Millions of people literally telling me they hate me, to go die in a fire. Like, the most horrible, horrific things.”
Paul returned to YouTube with a suicide prevention video on Wednesday, January 24. His first first vlog since the controversy was titled “Suicide: Be Here tomorrow.”
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or suicidal crisis, please call the Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
