The Saccone(Not-So)Jolys: Red Flags

Written October 2024

I’ve seen enough in recent times to be certain of my conviction that TikTok is a plague on humanity. It takes self-centredness to new levels of depravity, and makes the mundane and mediocre famous. It has propelled many to dizzying heights of internet fame for bizarre activities such as throwing cheese slices at babies’ heads, and licking aeroplane toilet seats. Yes, believe it or not, you did in fact read that right. Just this week I saw a video being shared by a young woman who uses TikTok to promote upcoming content on her Only Fans account, in which she advertised that she would in her latest output be ‘run through by’ (her words), meaning shagged by, 100 guys in 24 hours. My heart died a little, and I wondered what her parents must feel. Disturbing as these ‘trends’ are, a huge amount of the content on TikTok is unbelievably inane. Even the dullest of content is mind numbingly addictive, and is killing creativity within the human population. Hours of time spent watching self-appointed beautiful people dancing while miming lyrics, or sharing their skincare routines and workouts. Riveting stuff.

You might be forgiven for thinking that such a platform would attract only young, impressionable people, teenagers whose frontal cortex is yet to mature. Sadly, this is not so. Disturbingly, TikTok has spawned a growing number of parents who are casting themselves as stars of their own show, using their children as subject matter. Parents exploiting their children for fame is not a new phenomenon. There is a long history of child film and television actors, and musical prodigies. That these young stars rarely grow into well-adjusted adults is a lesson lost, however, to the glut of diabolical parents literally seeking any niche they can find, and slotting their child into it, for likes and follows, and they hope, fame.

One of the worst in this catalogue of parental failures is an Irish father – I use the term loosely – called Jonathan Joly. Sinister, creepy, and most definitely predatory, Joly is married to Anna Saccone, and they are, mortifyingly, collectively known as the Sacconejolys. The pair started the channel back when Anna was pregnant with their first child. Fast forward a few years and three more children, the family of six now live their entire lives online, and have amassed a YouTube following of 1.63million. In addition to the YouTube channel, the couple each have a TikTok account, Jonathan’s boasting 3.8million followers, which he uses to share videos of his children and himself, dancing, singing, spending obscene amounts of money on stuff, applying makeup, and generally being incredibly annoying. They are a Poundshop version of the supremely irritating Kardashians, and just as shallow.  

Before they reached the heady numbers of followers they now have, there was presumably a dip in new recruits and revenue sometime around 2018, because it was then that the Sacconejoly’s son, Eduardo, then just six years old, began to be paraded in front of the camera rebranded as ‘Edie’ – you guessed it, a mermaid child. Following the lead of glitzy celebs like Angelina Jolie, and Charlize Theron, the Sacconejolys seemed suspiciously over-the-moon to ‘discover’ that they had their very own trans child. Well, they already had the beautiful house, the cars, the latest clothes, shoes and tech. The trans child was just about the only accessory they had yet to obtain. And so, taking one for Team Sacconejoly, Eduardo appears to have been convinced to take on the role of ‘Edie’. The enthusiasm with which delighted dad, Jonathan, has embraced his new ‘daughter’ is quite alarming. His enormous TikTok following are treated to endless clips of ‘Edie’, with dad always lurking somewhere not far behind, like a camp, flamboyant spectre, as ‘Edie’ prances about in girls clothing, flicking ‘her’ hair, pouting at the camera, and generally trying desperately to convince anyone watching that ‘she’ is a girl. As well as being unbelievably cringe, Jonathan Joly’s publicity of his ‘daughter’ is prolific, and makes deeply uncomfortable viewing. Not to be completely outdone by his own child, in 2021, Jonathan also ‘came out’. Of course he did. His big reveal, however, was as a ‘non-binary’ person, that ridiculous, meaningless label that in truth translates as ‘attention-seeking twat’.

The Sacconejolys have been hungry for fame for a long time. Before they hit on the magic formula of having a trans child, back when ‘Edie’ was still boring old Eduardo, the couple agreed (or perhaps offered themselves up?) to appear on the BBC documentary, Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over. Of course, this meant that the children also appeared in the programme, as they now do in the voluminous numbers of online videos, whether they had any way of giving true and informed consent or not. Greedy, vain, fame-seeking Mummy and Daddy know best, apparently. The documentary was very revealing, and not, as the couple may have hoped, particularly flattering. Speaking to Dooley, the couple justified the use of their children to build their brand by simply boasting about the wealth they had so far accumulated by doing so. Anna even admitted that if any of the kids raise objections to being filmed at any given time, she simply asks them if they like attending their private school, and the privileged lifestyle they have. Nothing like a good guilt trip to keep the little blighters in line.

The truth, then, is that the children are the brand, and therefore, the business. The YouTube / TikTok power couple need the children because without them, Jonthan Joly and Anna Saccone are merely a dull and shallow couple, obsessed with fame, money and luxury. And, horrifyingly, like many others who have stumbled across the lucrative business model of the ‘trans child’, the Sacconejolys have sacrificed one of their own for the holy grail of internet success. It is almost as if, after binge watching I Am Jazz, and high on the fumes of Jeanette Jennings’ hairspray (so strong they travel through the airwaves), Jonathan’s vision was born, and poor Eduardo did not stand a chance.

Like those unhappy adults who began their lives as child stars, all the Sacconejoly children are suffering a fairly extreme form of abuse, that they are yet to identify as such. The psychological harm that they are experiencing, as their entire lives are broadcast to an audience of millions, cannot be understated. But Eduardo is surely the one who will suffer the most. When the other three children are old enough, they can simply walk away, and get on with their adult lives, albeit with some unresolved trauma and resentment towards their narcissistic parents. Eduardo, meanwhile, has been ‘socially transitioned’ (a term I hate) in front of millions of followers. Like Jazz Jennings before him, he has very publicly had one of the fundamental aspects of his being undermined by the two people who should have loved and nurtured him. He has been convinced that he is the opposite of himself, that his body is wrong, and he has had his entire boyhood inverted and used for clicks and likes, and the immense wealth that it has brought to his parents. They have even gone so far as to take him to a gender clinic, the visit shared online, obviously. There is an awful inevitability about what comes next. Just look across the Atlantic at poor Jazz Jennings. The butchers who pose as doctors at gender clinics will be only too happy to poke poor Eduardo with puberty blockers, and fill his head with nonsensical shit about changing sex, something that is categorically impossible. They will talk of barbaric surgical procedures that he can look forward to, but they will cloak it in friendly, fashionable language, so it seems easy and painless.

There are some very telling moments in the video of this poor little boy being taken to the clinic in London by his shameless parents. First off, when mummy Anna says to camera that this is the first of many appointments, little Eduardo’s face falls, in what is clearly a ‘what-the-fuck’ moment for him. He questions mum, with something like “wait, there’s going to be more than one?”, proving just how little he understands about the role he has taken on to earn his way through private school, and to keep his parents in luxury cars. The entire excruciating train journey to the gender clinic in London is plagued with mum and dad asking Eduardo how he is feeling, to which he responds, every time, “scared”. There is no footage of the appointment itself, presumably not because of any restraint or discretion on the parents’ behalf, more likely the clinic does not allow it. But the camera is rolling again immediately afterwards, as ‘Edie’, presumably having played his part well inside the clinic, is taken on a shopping spree, to be thoroughly spoiled as a thank you for his compliance. “This is your day”, says Anna, as she giggles, unable to keep the delight from her irritating voice, and the dollar signs from her eyes.  

One cannot help but wonder about the horrors that go on behind the scenes of the TikTok videos so eagerly shared by both Anna Saccone and Jonathan Joly. Eduardo, in his persona as ‘Edie’, appears, on the surface at least, to be a precocious child, embracing his starring role. But therein lies the trickery that is inherent in the ‘transing’ of children. They do, of course, enjoy the attention that the role attracts, and they enjoy the pleasure that their parents clearly derive from watching the performance. Young children by nature want to please their parents, a fact that these nauseating people are taking full advantage of. But a small amount of thought should leave anyone viewing these videos in no doubt. Eduardo as ‘Edie’ is a performance, and one not of his own creation. It is the brainchild of his disgusting parents, who are using him for fame and fortune. It is why Jonathan Joly appears in the background of almost every video, like a pervert at a kids’ party, all showbiz smiles and self-congratulatory tropes about his ‘beautiful daughter’. He is the writer and director of the entire show.    

In a very recent video, several years on from the poor child’s ‘coming out’, we find Eduardo, now ten years old, even more immersed in his roleplay as ‘Edie’, and creepy dad, Jonathan, even further down the weirdo rabbit hole. ‘Edie’ is, apparently, going on ‘her’ first date, something dad seems suspiciously elated about. A ten-year-old, on a date. Sounds not too wholesome to me. But dad grins to camera, with all the charm of gonorrhoea, and announces, “welcome to Dating With Dad”, before feigning sudden clarity, and continuing “wait, is that kinda sounding weird?”. Yes, Jonathan. That is sounding very weird. And you know it. He replaces the title with “Dating Advice With Dad”, which does not remove the creepy-as-fuck vibes he is giving off in spades. What follows is truly disturbing. Jonathan drives Eduardo and his sister, 12-year-old Amelia, to a shopping centre, where the two ‘sisters’ proceed to make a bizarre video, Amelia taking on the role of stylist for her ‘sister, waxing lyrical about makeup and clothing as if she were Victoria Beckham. Even if they were sisters, instead of brother and sister, the set up is sinister. They are young children, being encouraged by their parents to act sassy, and considerably older than they really are, for broadcast to an unknown and faceless online audience that more than likely consists of no shortage of perverts. They are even selecting clothing from the adult ranges, deliberately choosing shops that stock XXS sizes, rather than shops who cater for the 10- and 12-year-olds that they are. After seemingly unlimited spending on clothes and makeup, ‘Edie’ then proceeds to hoover up gifts for the boy ‘she’ is allegedly going on a date with, including an iPad from the Apple Store, presumably the best part of a thousand quid. Yeah, just a normal, average family, then.

The Sacconejolys are exploiting their children, especially Eduardo, to make a sizeable income, a fact that should shock the world, and should put the family on the radar of the authorities. And yet, the social media platforms they are using to do this, who should be held accountable for the content they allow, are instead actively promoting creators like the Sacconejolys. And child protection authorities turn a blind eye to what is blatant child abuse. Pure and simple.

In years to come, the children of this family will no doubt realise they have been used, and abused, by the parents who purported to love them. They have been taught that money and possessions are everything, reflected in their craving of expensive items, and at the expense of any other interests if the videos are anything to go by. And they have been taught to share every part of their lives on camera, undoubtably feeding an unhealthy self-obsession that will likely last a lifetime. Already it is obvious that ‘Edie’, overconfident on camera, is in reality self-conscious and has a noticeable habit of pulling at the front of ‘her’ hair, just by the parting. It is hard to imagine an unhealthier environment for children to grow up in. Shame on all of those who support this abuse. Shame on all those who turn a blind eye. Shame on Anna Saccone and Jonathan Joly, two viler humans you would be hard pushed to find. And shame on modern society, who have allowed humanity to stoop to such a vacuous, empty, soulless existence.

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