FILE - Lynnette Hardaway, left, and Rochelle Richardson, a.k.a. Diamond and Silk, arrive at the LA Premiere of "Death of a Nation" at the Regal Cinemas at L.A. Live on July 31, 2018, in Los Angeles. Hardaway, known by the moniker “Diamond†of the conservative political commentary duo "Diamond and Silk", has died, former President Donald Trump and the pair's official Twitter account announced Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. She was 51. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – Lynette Hardaway, known by the moniker “Diamond” of the conservative political commentary duo Diamond and Silk, has died, former President Donald Trump and the pair’s official Twitter account announced. She was 51.
Hardaway and her sister, Rochelle “Silk” Richardson, rose to prominence during the 2016 presidential campaign cycle when they appeared on stage in support of Trump, who embraced the two Black women amid widespread accusations of racism and sexism.
Hardaway’s cause of death hasn’t been released. Trump, who called her death “really bad news for Republicans” in a Monday night post on his Truth Social platform, said it was “totally unexpected.”
“Our beautiful Diamond of Diamond and Silk has just passed away at her home in the State she loved so much, North Carolina,” Trump wrote. “There was no better TEAM anywhere, at any time!”
The pair’s verified Twitter account had asked people to “please pray for Diamond” in a November tweet but did not elaborate on the circumstances.
“The World just lost a True Angel and Warrior Patriot for Freedom, Love, and Humanity,” the account wrote Monday night, linking to a memorial fundraising page.
A memorial ceremony will be announced.
The sisters, who called themselves Trump’s “most outspoken and loyal supporters,” have said they switched political parties to support his first presidential bid, in which he carried only about 8% of Black voters in the 2016 general election.
Raised in the Tar Heel state, the two amassed a following of 347,000 subscribers on YouTube and leveraged their internet stardom to land many network television appearances and regular roles at Fox News.
The network removed them from its list of contributors in 2020 after they came under fire for spreading false information about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines.
Landing at Newsmax, a right-wing cable news and digital media company, they hosted three seasons of the show “Diamond and Silk: Crystal Clear” and published the co-written autobiography “Uprising” in 2020.
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Hannah Schoenbaum is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
