A single social media post was all it took. It claimed that Kourtney Kardashian Michele Morrone had been spotted kissing in Miami, just days after Kourtney had supposedly split from her husband, Travis Barker. The post spread fast, racking up shocked reactions, thousands of shares, and a wave of gossip headlines asking whether Hollywood had a brand-new couple.
It sounded dramatic, it sounded scandalous, and it sounded exactly like the kind of celebrity story that stops your scroll. There was just one problem: almost none of it was true. The photographs were real, but they were not recent, they were not taken in Miami, and the woman in them was not Kourtney Kardashian at all.
This is the story of how an old photo got a false new caption, travelled around the world in a matter of hours, and fooled even seasoned celebrity watchers. It is also a useful reminder of why a viral post is not the same thing as a verified fact, and why a few seconds of checking can save a lot of embarrassment.
How the Kourtney Kardashian Michele Morrone Rumour Started
The rumour began circulating on October 31, 2026, when posts on social media claimed that Kourtney and Michele Morrone, the Italian actor best known for the Netflix film 365 Days, had been seen sharing kisses during a night out in Miami. Some versions of the story went further, claiming that Kourtney had recently split from Travis Barker, the Blink-182 drummer she married in 2022.
Neither claim came with a reliable source. There was no statement from either celebrity, no report from a major entertainment outlet confirming a sighting, and no fresh paparazzi agency credit placing the pair together in Florida. What the posts did have was a set of photographs that looked convincing at first glance: a man who certainly resembled Morrone, kissing a woman beside a car at night, her face partly hidden beneath a hood.
That partial concealment turned out to be the key to the whole hoax. Because the woman’s face was not clearly visible, it was easy for someone scrolling quickly to accept the caption’s claim about who she was. The image did the persuading, and the caption did the rest. Within hours, gossip blogs and content farms had picked up the story and repeated it, often with careful wording like “allegedly” and “reportedly” that made the rumour look reported without actually verifying it.
As the story spread, it also mutated. Some posts dropped the cautious language entirely and stated the Miami date as fact. Others added invented details about where the pair had been seen and who else was there. None of those details were backed by evidence, but each retelling made the story feel a little more solid to the next reader. This is how a rumour gains weight online: not through proof, but through repetition.
The Truth About the Kourtney Kardashian Michele Morrone Photos
Here is what the photographs actually show. They date back to January 16, 2025, when Morrone was photographed kissing Italian television presenter and sports journalist Marialuisa Jacobelli in Milan, Italy. The pictures were published by Just Jared on January 17, 2025, clearly identifying Jacobelli as the woman with the actor, and reporting that the pair had been seen leaving the Palazzo Parigi after spending an evening together.
In other words, the viral “Miami” photos were taken almost two years earlier, on a different continent, and they show a different woman. The man in the photos is indeed Michele Morrone, which is part of why the hoax worked so well. A genuine photograph of a real celebrity, stripped of its original date, location, and caption, can be dressed up to support almost any new story.
Fact-checkers and sharp-eyed social media users were quick to spot the trick. Some readers recognised the images from their original publication and called out the repost directly. One user summed up the debunk in a single line: “That’s Maria Luisa Jacobelli lol. Fake story.” Once the original coverage was resurfaced, the timeline collapsed: there was no Miami night out, no recent kiss, and no new couple.
Reporting on the viral claim confirmed the same conclusion, noting that there is no credible evidence that Kourtney Kardashian and Michele Morrone are dating or that they were recently spotted together in Miami, and that the viral post appears to have reused an old set of paparazzi photographs with a misleading caption attached. You can read that fact-check in full here: India Times: the truth behind the viral Miami kissing photos.
Who Is Marialuisa Jacobelli?
So who is the woman actually pictured in the photographs? Marialuisa Jacobelli is an Italian television presenter and sports journalist. She was photographed with Morrone during a night out in Milan in January 2025, and the images were widely published at the time as evidence of a budding romance between the two.
The confusion is understandable only up to a point. In the photographs, Jacobelli’s face is partly covered by a hood, and the pictures were taken at night beside a car, which makes fine details hard to make out. But the original reporting from January 2025 was unambiguous about her identity, and the photographs had been in the public domain for well over a year before they were recycled with a new caption.
This is not the first time Morrone has been at the centre of a Kardashian-related mix-up either. Back in September 2022, his sister-in-the-headlines moment involved a different Kardashian: Khloe Kardashian was photographed posing with Morrone backstage at a Dolce and Gabbana show during Milan Fashion Week. That friendly photograph also sparked dating rumours at the time, until Morrone’s representative shut them down, explaining that the pair had simply been asked to pose together at the show. You can read that earlier story here: Extra TV on Khloe Kardashian and Michele Morrone.
The pattern is worth noticing. A photograph of Morrone with a woman, plus an excited caption, plus a famous surname, has repeatedly been enough to launch a full-blown dating rumour. The Kardashian connection makes the story travel further, and the photograph makes it feel proven. Neither ingredient is a substitute for actual evidence.
Is There Any Evidence of a Split From Travis Barker?
The second half of the viral story, the claim that Kourtney had split from Travis Barker, is just as unsupported as the first. There is no credible reporting of a split, no statement from either party, and no reliable outlet confirming a separation. The split claim appears to have been invented, or at least assumed, to make the supposed new romance seem plausible. If she were newly single, the logic goes, a new relationship would make sense.
But that logic runs backwards. A rumour about a split cannot be used as evidence for a rumour about a new relationship, and a rumour about a new relationship cannot be used as evidence for a split. Each claim needs its own proof, and in this case neither claim has any. Kourtney and Travis Barker, who married in 2022 and share a young son together, have continued to appear as a couple in their public lives, and nothing verified has suggested otherwise.
This matters because split rumours are not harmless gossip. They involve real families, including children, and they can cause genuine distress even when they are completely false. Responsible reporting draws a clear line between “fans are speculating” and “this has happened,” and in this case the honest statement is simple: the split is unverified, and the photographs do not support it.
Why Old Photos Go Viral With New Captions
So why does this keep happening? The answer lies in how social media rewards content. A shocking claim with a dramatic photograph earns likes, shares, and comments within seconds. A careful correction, posted hours later, rarely travels as far as the original falsehood. By the time the fact-check arrives, millions of people have already seen the rumour, and many will never see the correction at all.
Old paparazzi photographs are perfect fuel for this machine. They are genuine images, which makes them harder for automated systems and casual viewers to flag as fake. They are often stripped of their original context when they are screenshotted, cropped, or re-uploaded. And they feature celebrities whose lives are already the subject of constant speculation, so a new claim does not feel out of place.
There is also a psychological factor at work. When we see a photograph, our brains tend to treat it as evidence, even when the caption is the only thing telling us what the photograph shows. Psychologists call this kind of shortcut visual persuasion: the image feels like proof, so we lower our guard about the words around it. Add a famous name and a dramatic storyline, and most of us will share before we stop to ask where the photo came from.
Content farms make the problem worse. Some low-quality gossip sites exist mainly to rewrite viral posts as quickly as possible, adding just enough cautious wording to avoid outright lying while still cashing in on the traffic. Their articles then get shared as if they were independent confirmation, when in reality they are all repeating the same single unverified post. One rumour, copied ten times, can look like ten sources.
How to Spot a Fake Celebrity Story
The good news is that this kind of hoax is usually easy to spot once you know what to look for. Here are five checks that take less than a minute and would have caught this story straight away:
- Reverse image search: Save the photo and run it through a reverse image search. If the same picture appears in articles from months or years ago, the “breaking” story is almost certainly recycled.
- Look for a named source: Real celebrity news names its source: a statement, an interview, a reputable outlet, or a photo agency. A post that only says “sources say” or “reportedly” without naming anyone is a warning sign.
- Check the big outlets: If a story about one of the most famous families on earth were true, major entertainment outlets would be reporting it. Silence from the outlets that normally cover the Kardashians closely is telling.
- Watch for the bundled claim: Hoaxes often bundle two claims together, like a split plus a new romance, so that each one makes the other feel plausible. Treat each claim separately and ask for evidence for both.
- Read the comments: In this case, ordinary users spotted the truth before many blogs did. Comments pointing to the original January 2025 coverage were the first crack in the story.
These checks do not require special tools or expertise, just a habit of pausing before sharing. And that habit protects not only you from embarrassment, but also the real people at the centre of the story.
What Kourtney Kardashian and Michele Morrone Are Actually Doing
Stripped of the false caption, what do we actually know about the two celebrities in this story? Kourtney Kardashian remains married to Travis Barker, and continues to star in the family’s reality series and run her lifestyle brand. Morrone, meanwhile, continues to work as an actor: he recently filmed scenes for The Housemaid sequel alongside Sydney Sweeney, as reported by Just Jared in October 2026, which you can read here: Just Jared on Morrone filming The Housemaid sequel.
There is no verified link between the two beyond the viral post itself. The Kourtney Kardashian Michele Morrone rumour, in short, is a case study in how a recycled image can invent a celebrity couple out of thin air. No joint sighting, no shared project, no mutual statement, and no credible report of any meeting in Miami or anywhere else. The entire story rests on a mislabelled photograph from Milan in January 2025.
If you enjoy stories about how the internet turns ordinary moments into viral sensations, you will love our piece on the raccoon that took over Seattle’s timeline, and our roundup of Reddit facts that went viral for all the right reasons. And if celebrity costumes are more your thing, check out our story on Matt Damon’s Halloween costume that broke the internet.
Takeaways
- The viral “Miami kissing photos” are not from Miami and are not recent: they were taken in Milan in January 2025.
- The woman in the photos is Marialuisa Jacobelli, not Kourtney Kardashian.
- There is no credible evidence for a Kourtney Kardashian Michele Morrone relationship.
- There is no credible evidence of a split between Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker.
- Always reverse image search a viral celebrity photo before believing or sharing its caption.
The bottom line is refreshingly simple. A real photograph, given a false caption, created a fake celebrity romance that travelled around the world in a day. The truth was available all along, sitting in the original January 2025 coverage, waiting for someone to check. Next time a shocking celebrity photo lands on your feed, give it thirty seconds: search the image, check the date, and ask who actually took it. The truth is usually far less dramatic than the rumour, but it is always worth more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Kourtney Kardashian and Michele Morrone dating?
No, there is no credible evidence for a Kourtney Kardashian Michele Morrone relationship. The viral claim rests entirely on old photographs that do not show Kourtney Kardashian, and neither celebrity has confirmed any relationship.
Where were the viral kissing photos actually taken?
The photos were taken in Milan, Italy, on January 16, 2025, not in Miami in 2026. They show Michele Morrone kissing Italian presenter Marialuisa Jacobelli after an evening at the Palazzo Parigi.
Who is the woman in the viral photos?
The woman in the photos is Marialuisa Jacobelli, an Italian television presenter and sports journalist. Her face is partly covered by a hood in the pictures, which made the misidentification easier for people who had not seen the original coverage.
Have Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker split?
There is no credible evidence of a split. No reliable outlet has reported a separation and neither party has made any such announcement. The split claim appears to be an unverified addition to the viral post.
How can I check whether a viral celebrity photo is real?
Run a reverse image search to find the earliest publication of the photo, check whether major entertainment outlets are reporting the story, and look for a named source rather than vague “reports.” If the only source is a single social media post, treat the claim as unverified.