Voice Of Post

'Botox mom' claims story was a hoax. California mother says a British tabloid paid her $200 to lie about injecting her 8-year-old daughter with Botox. Is she too irresponsible to be a parent?The mom who lost custody of her 8-year-old daughter after supposedly injecting the girl with Botox for beauty pageants now says the whole story was a hoax — and that she'd even fabricated a name for herself. Sheena Upton has signed a sworn declaration, obtained by TMZ, saying that British tabloid The Sun asked her to "play the role of Kerry Campbell" and even gave her a script to follow, in exchange for $200. (The Sun "strongly denies" Upton's allegations.) The mother and daughter also did interviews on Inside Edition and ABC's Good Morning America, which, according to TMZ, offered Upton $10,000. Upton's daughter has been returned to her, according to TMZ, "with the provision that a cousin would stay with her and the child for the time being." Is the truth worse than the lies?

This marks a new low for irresponsible parenting: We've "never been so happy to have fallen for a hoax," says Verena von Pfetten at Styleite, but Upton's behavior is "still reprehensible." Injecting an 8-year-old girl with Botox "is terrible," but having her lie, and "parading her out on national television for the sake of a few dollars might just be worse."