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Right here in our little slice of Paradise is the home for fun, sun, fitness, beach, boating, swimming, surfing, dining on seafood...nothing could be more beautiful and wholesome. 

It's the perfect backdrop for an enviable highlight reel for any Social Media Content Creator! So how would one know if this was Real or just an Illusion...

Well Tik Tok has never been a platform known for people holding their tongue and creators and audiences alike serve up the tea, hot, cold, sweet, or bitter. 

No one knows that better now than the almost famous "Gulf Coast Stapletons,"  a wanna be influencer couple on Tik Tok who split their time between Pensacola, Florida and Birmingham, Alabama, showcasing their easy breezy, childless lifestyle.

The couple drew the outrage of online followers and others when Josh Stapleton, one half of the "Gulf Coast Stapletons," was sentenced to 5 years in prison and 15 years of probation after pleading guilty to 20 counts of sexual exploitation of children.  

The arrest made headlines in Josh's home state of Georgia and across the country where investigators say he dowloaded some 40 images of CSAM or Child Sexual Abuse Material which according to the indictment included pictures of pre-pubescent children in various of types of bondage, even on playground equipment. 

The investigation was launched five years ago and Josh Stapleton was just sentenced June 24 and started serving his time.

Many of the couple's more than 80,000 followers called the Stapletons out for pretending to be something they weren't - normal and wholesome - because it turns out the second half of the couple, Brittani Stapleton, said, "Absolutely, I knew about this," when he was first investigated five years ago and yet they were married and she was okay with it. 

She even said their friends who had children were okay with it because they told them about it and a lot of those friends had their back. 

The situation has highlighted that social media highlight reels aren't always what they seem and folks feel betrayed that these two were posing in the most beautiful place with some of the ugliest behavior just beneath the surface. 

Join us for the latest episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast, ’Absolutely I knew’: Gulf Coast Stapleton’s Brittani standing by her man Josh on CSAM charges.

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