A June 15 GoFundMe campaign, reportedly created by a man who identified himself as Daveigh Chase’s boyfriend, brought renewed attention to the former child actor’s alleged health crisis.

Within 24 hours, reports said the 35-year-old actress, widely recognized for her performance in the horror hit The Ring, had died.

According to those accounts, Chase had become severely emaciated and was struggling with AIDS and substance abuse after years marked by addiction and homelessness.

In the aftermath, attention quickly turned to Roy Hernandez, 38, the man described as her boyfriend, after members of Chase’s family and her former manager accused him of attempting to benefit financially from her death.

They also raised questions about why Hernandez sought donations through a crowdfunding page, arguing that Chase had access to a SAG trust account that could have paid for her medical care.

They also accused him of leading her deeper into a world of drugs.

Now, in an exclusive sit-down interview, Hernandez has hit back at those accusations, speaking for the first time on camera about his relationship with Chase, their final days together and the circumstances surrounding her death.

Sporting a cursive ‘Daveigh’ tattoo above his eye, Hernandez also revealed that he proposed to Chase before her death – and that she said yes.

He told the Daily Mail why he believes he, not her family, should inherit her $400,000 estate.

After months of communications, Hernandez finally agreed to be interviewed last week. We met in LA’s Elysian Park, a special spot he said he and Chase used to visit ‘to escape.’

Hernandez recalled meeting Chase for the first time in 2021 at a mutual friend’s house.

He said he had no idea Chase was a celebrity, noting she had short hair at the time and had not acted in a movie since 2016.

‘We hung out the whole night,’ Hernandez recalled.

Within two months they were a couple.

Their relationship began at a time when Chase’s family claim she was already deeply troubled.

They say she was addicted to drugs and homeless, living on Skid Row and moving between tents across LA.

Hernandez, however, paints a radically different picture of the life they shared.

‘She was always happy,’ he said. ‘She made me really happy.’

He insists they were never homeless, saying they lived together for five years in his RV by choice.

Hernandez described a nomadic life of road trips with their two dogs and visiting his mother in East LA when the couple needed a home cooked meal and shower.

In 2024, he proposed to Chase and said she accepted. In February 2026, he had her name tattooed above his eye.

Hernandez rejected the suggestion that he was responsible for Chase’s drug use, or that he stood by her while her health deteriorated.

He claimed he never took drugs with Chase or saw her using during their relationship.

‘Anybody who knew us out there, they would know,’ Hernandez said of the family’s accusations. ‘Especially when it came to me, they would know that I would never let that happen. It’s 100 percent not true.’

Hernandez admitted he knew Chase used to ‘smoke’ drugs, including fentanyl, before they began dating. Chase had told him she used them to cope with painful memories from her past.

‘She was trying to forget her past and what she went through. She said it made it easier for her,’ Hernandez claimed.

He was referring in part to an alleged 2021 incident in which Chase said she had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted by an unidentified man in a Los Angeles hotel. She never reported the alleged assault to police.

Hernandez said that, rather than enabling Chase’s addiction, he spent much of their relationship trying to keep her away from drugs and protect her from the things she was struggling with.

But the picture of Chase in the months before her death was starkly different.

In footage filmed in 2025, Chase appeared severely emaciated and in extremely poor health. The actress’s father, John Schwallier, says the video makes Hernandez’s account difficult to believe.

‘[Roy] had to have known how sick Daveigh was because in that video, she looked to be only 80 pounds,’ Schwallier told the Daily Mail.

Cathy Chase has also described her daughter as extremely frail in the footage, saying she was ‘nothing but skin and bones.’

Hernandez insists Chase was fed and cared for, but says she would sometimes hide food and resisted going to hospital until it was too late.

But Chase’s decline had begun years before she met Hernandez.

Her mother Cathy said her downward spiral began after a motorcycle accident around 2016 in which Daveigh injured her back.

She was prescribed powerful painkillers, which Cathy said marked the beginning of an addiction that eventually progressed to stronger drugs.

From 2018 to 2024, Chase was in and out of jail on drug possession and other charges. 

Cathy said that when she first visited her daughter behind bars in 2019, she barely recognized her, attributing the dramatic change to the hold drugs had taken over her life.

But Hernandez suggested that her relationship with her family and experiences during her childhood also played a role in her decline, as well as the pressures of growing up in Hollywood.

Hernandez said Chase rarely spoke about her father and claimed she had told him that she believed her father was dead because that was what her mother had allegedly told her.

Chase’s relationship with her parents is now at the heart of the bitter legal dispute over who should access her estate.

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Hernandez said that while Chase was in jail, her mother once suggested that she give her money to her younger brother because she was ‘over here doing nothing with it.’

‘I would just tell her, “Don’t listen to your mom,”‘ Hernandez recalled. 

Chase died with an estate worth around $400,000, including residuals from commercials, films and television shows that she had apparently never collected.

At a hearing on Wednesday in a Downtown LA courtroom, Chase’s parents and their attorneys told a judge that they planned to move forward with competing petitions over control of her estate.

Her former manager, John Ryan, is also involved in the legal battle. Last week, Ryan filed a declaration to the court supporting a fiduciary to take over as administrator of Chase’s estate. 

Ryan and his company is also seeking money he claims is owed to him while he served as Chase’s manager. 

During our interview, Hernandez also laid his claim to her estate, presenting himself as the person who was closest to Chase during the final years of her life.

He claims Chase told him she wanted her money to go to him or to animal charities, and that she did not believe either of her parents deserved it.

‘She and I never really cared about the money,’ Hernandez claimed.

‘I know she probably would’ve wanted me to have it, but that’s what we had talked about previously. She wanted to take the money and go on trips, to take us away from here.’

Hernandez has yet to file any documents to the court seeking to obtain any funds from Chase’s estate.

He claimed Chase was afraid to collect money she was owed from film and television residuals because she feared her mother would find out about it.

‘I told her I would go help her [get the checks], but she would say her mom would “go crazy,”‘ Hernandez said.

‘If anyone knew she had it, she thought her mom would probably go looking for it and try to take it from her.’

Hernandez insists the ugly fight over money shows the broken home life that Chase dealt with.

‘That just made me realize more what Daveigh was going through when she was young,’ said Hernandez.

He said that whenever he suggested calling her mother, Chase would refuse.

‘Now I kind of know why.’

The Daily Mail has contacted Cathy Chase for comment.  

Chase’s parents have told the Daily Mail that Hernandez’s account of their daughter should be scrutinized. He also has had his own run-ins with the law.  

Hernandez pleaded no contest to a 2024 firearms possession charge and was sentenced in March 2026 to three days in jail. 

When asked about his criminal past, Hernandez refused to comment.

Hernandez said Chase was ‘up and down’ during the last two weeks of her life in June, which she spent in hospital.

He recalled watching her struggle to communicate, with dried blood and sores filling her mouth.

It was during her final days, Hernandez says, that they came up with the idea for the GoFundMe.

The day before Chase died, Hernandez claims she was coherent enough to discuss what would happen when she left hospital.

He said they discussed setting up a GoFundMe to raise money that would allow her to live comfortably after she was discharged.

Hernandez claims he has not received any of the $4,500 money that they raised.

The next morning, however, Chase’s condition suddenly worsened.

Doctors told Hernandez that she had only hours to live.

‘The next day is when they called me and they told me in the morning that she had like only hours,’ Hernandez said, fighting back tears.

‘I was like, “What do you mean? She was perfectly fine when I left!”‘

Her full autopsy report remains pending, including toxicology results.

It is also unclear when Chase contracted HIV or when her diagnosis progressed to AIDS.

When asked about his health, Hernandez replied: ‘I’m OK.’

Questions also remain over how long Chase had been seriously ill before she was admitted to hospital and whether more could have been done to intervene as her weight and health declined.

Hernandez claimed Chase refused to get treatment even when he and his mother encouraged her to go. 

‘I could only tell her so much. You can’t force somebody to go if they don’t want to go,’ he said.

Sitting in the park where he and Chase had spent so much time together, Hernandez recalled the last words she said to him before she died.

‘She told me, “I’m not afraid,”‘ he said.

‘She said, “You’re not afraid either, right?”‘

‘I told her, “No, you’re right. I’m not afraid.”‘

At least 15 people were taken to hospitals Wednesday after authorities reported a “potential chemical exposure incident” at an Iowa prison.

Crews from the Newton Fire Department and the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office were called to the Newton Correctional Facility at about 12:30 p.m. following reports of a possible chemical exposure, according to WHO13.

“Emergency protocols were activated today at Newton Correctional Facility following a potential chemical exposure incident on-site,” Iowa Department of Corrections Chief of Staff Paul Cornelius said in a statement provided to the outlet.

Up to 15 people were transported to four hospitals in central Iowa, a Newton fire official told KCCI. The exact number of people affected, however, had not been confirmed as of Wednesday evening.

Officials also had not released the patients’ conditions, and it was not immediately clear whether those sickened were incarcerated people, prison staff members or a combination of both.

“The cause and nature of the exposure are actively being investigated,” Cornelius said.

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“Out of an abundance of caution, the area has been secured, and relevant safety and emergency response procedures were implemented immediately.”

Officials from UnityPoint Health said four people were transported to a hospital in Grinnell and four others were taken to Iowa Methodist in Des Moines with non-life-threatening injuries, according to KCCI.

Meanwhile, nine additional patients were transported to medical facilities between Des Moines and Newtown, a MercyOne spokesperson told the outlet. 

Cornelius added that any further updates would be provided “as verified information becomes available.”

Newtown Correctional Facility, composed of a maximum-security and medium-security facility, sits on around 1,500 acres of land several miles south of Newtown. 

The facility holds roughly 1,000 inmates.

The Iowa DOC did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Iran and Russia are drawing closer because both governments “need each other desperately,” an expert told News Media on Wednesday, shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly signaled support for Tehran’s leadership.

Putin was seen shaking hands Tuesday with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during talks held on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Kyrgyzstan. According to a Kremlin readout of the meeting, Putin said, “Russia is standing in full solidarity with the people of Iran.”

“We admire your courage and resilience in your fight for your national interests,” Putin said, adding, “Please convey my regards and words of sincere support to Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei.”

Retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, who previously served as NATO’s top commander, told News Media that “this relationship between Iran and Russia is growing” because “they both need each other desperately.”

“In the grand scheme of things, they are both ‘broke.’ I’m using others language here, but the bottom line is they are hurting economically,” Breedlove said. He added that Russia urgently needs Iran to help produce missiles after Ukrainian attacks damaged Moscow’s missile-making capacity, while Iran “desperately needs Russian targeting and intelligence to continue to attack Americans in the Middle East.”

“Russia is transferring capability, transferring, in larger terms, technologies that enable Iran, and frankly, they’re sort of helping to prop up the religious leaders of Iran,” Breedlove added.

Jason Brodsky, the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told News Media that “Iran and Russia have had a long-time partnership that is strategically important for both countries.”

“Russia views Iran as a cudgel to use against America, and Iran has in recent years especially viewed Russia as a lifeline with respect to advancing its military, providing economic support, providing political support, most importantly at the U.N. Security Council as Russia is a permanent member. So that’s how the partnership serves both countries’ interests,” he said.

Breedlove also said the U.S. war with Iran has now “turned into almost more a test of will than it is a military test.” Both the U.S. military and Iran have been trading aerial strikes in recent days.

“The U.S. has established basically air and sea dominance, but because of the U.S.’ decision early in the war that they were not going to put boots on the ground, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps knows that they’re going to survive. And Iran’s IRGC, in their mind, understand clearly that they don’t have to win this war,” Breedlove told News Media.

“All they have to do is survive and continue to threaten” the Strait of Hormuz, which will drive up maritime insurance rates and cause “all kinds of problems with carriers,” he continued.

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“So we have a test of wills, a nation that can militarily end the war, should it make some more drastic decisions about how to get after the IRGC and a nation that understands it doesn’t have to win, it just has to survive, because its harassment of the strait will cause prices to go so high on transit that it’s going to be a problem for the world economy,” Breedlove said.

Brodsky told News Media that he believes there is “no diplomatic happy ending” for the U.S.-Iran war “as long as the Iranian regime is in power.”

“It is fundamentally anti-American to its core and that imperils any kind of diplomatic arrangement or negotiating process that the United States and Iran undertake,” he said. “I think we’ve seen in President Trump’s comments that he has grown exasperated with diplomacy with the Islamic Republic, and rightfully so.”

During their meeting Tuesday, Pezeshkian told Putin, “We are grateful to you for the stance you have adopted during the war, the conflicts, the U.S. sanctions and all the rest,” according to the Kremlin.

“Our relations are of a strategic nature. This is more than just ‘normal’ relations,” Pezeshkian reportedly added. “We believe – no, we are certain that thanks to this we can stand up against U.S. bias and the rightless sanctions they are imposing on us.”

Breedlove said to News Media following the Putin-Pezeshkian meeting that “the world has a problem with Russia, and for almost 25 or 30 years we tried to make a friend or at least a cooperative entity out of Russia.”

“We wanted to embrace them and bring them into the Western fold and so forth. And now we are clearly understanding based on what they’re doing for Iran and what they are doing in their illegal and immoral war in Ukraine, we now understand that Russia does not want to be a part of the Western world,” he said.

“Mr. Putin has this vision of three spheres of influence. Mr. Xi [of China] takes care of Eastern Asia. Russia takes care of Western Asia and Europe, and the United States should remain in the Western Hemisphere. And that’s what he’s pushing us to,” Breedlove continued. “And the bottom line is, in respect to Iran and in respect to Ukraine, Mr. Putin is going to do nothing until someone shows him steel. He understands power. Rhetoric doesn’t do anything with Mr. Putin.”

“Sanctions have never changed Mr. Putin’s battlefield actions,” he said, “so the West is going to have to figure out exactly what they’re going to do to Mr. Putin.”

For Perez Hilton, the difficult recovery from his harrowing livestream ordeal appears likely to extend well beyond the healing of his physical injuries.

Nearly a month after he was hospitalized in Florida, friends have told the Daily Mail that the 48-year-old celebrity gossip blogger remains deeply disoriented — reportedly unaware of what state he is in and, even more troubling, what year it is.

A source close to Hilton said he seems to have “lost a decade,” believing that it is currently 2016.

The source also claimed Hilton has been pleading with friends to bring Katy Perry to his bedside, saying the singer is his “best friend” and insisting he “made her into a star” and that she “would be nowhere without him.”

Hilton and Perry, 41, were once publicly close as he promoted her during the early stages of her career. But the source claimed the pair have had little contact in years, making his request all the more poignant.

‘He is not all there,’ the source added. 

Those closest to Hilton – whose memory of his livestream last month was already said to be spotty – are now fearing the worst. A family friend of more than 20 years told the Daily Mail that even a short phone call shows Hilton is ‘still not well at all.’

On August 4, Hilton (real name is Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr) took to TikTok to record a truly shocking live video. Horrified fans watched him, naked and covered in blood, repeatedly harm himself with a large butcher’s knife. The footage was live for about 15 minutes before the social media site stopped the feed. Police arrived soon after.

Hilton was hospitalized under Florida’s Baker Act, which allows for the temporary and involuntary detention of individuals in mental crisis. He has not since had access to his mobile phone or the Internet. Any calls with the outside world have been made on the hospital’s landline.

The family friend described the gossip blogger as prone to ‘rambling’ and drifting off mid-conversation. While Hilton is said to have moments of clarity, he is also described as ‘all over the place.’

‘One minute he’s thinking about moving forward and making plans for when he’s back at work,’ the friend said. ‘The next minute he’s talking about walking away altogether.’

Even from his hospital bed, Hilton is said to be fixated on the future of the eponymous celebrity news site that shot him to internet infamy in the mid-2000s and still pays the bills, despite having markedly fallen off in terms of popularity.

‘He asked how the site is doing. He asked how people are talking about him – what they’re saying,’ the friend said. ‘His family has assured him that everything is OK, but he’s not believing it.’

Before this crisis, Hilton was said to be scrambling for work beyond his blog, with reality TV pitches reportedly fizzling out before getting off the ground. 

While his site traffic surged after his shocking livestream, such grisly curiosity was fleeting, with a source saying visitors quickly tailed off. 

His small team have since resumed posting celebrity news to the site, but it remains unclear whether readers will return in force, or if Hilton will ever be well enough to reclaim the reins.

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For now, the man who built a successful career online is now unable to work and cut off from both his phone and the internet while under medical supervision, the family friend said.

‘He can’t do any work at the moment. His family is handling all of his affairs,’ a source explained. ‘His mother and sister are making sure he is getting the best care. They are hopeful.’

Hilton is also covered in medical gauze after doctors stitched up dozens of cuts from the incident, sources said, and he also has limited mobility due to broken bones said to be caused by falling on the night of the livestream.

His three children – Mario, 13, Mia, 11, and Mayte, eight – were at the home when the incident began. It’s unclear what the children may have seen before they were rushed outside by his sister Barbara, who was also home, but they have not visited their father since. A source close to the family said Hilton’s injuries are still too distressing for young children to see.

A Miami judge granted Hilton supervised visitation from hospital while his mother, Teresita, has temporary custody. But he must first obtain psychiatric clearance, and any contact must be supervised by an approved family member or therapist.

‘He’s not mentally in a place where he can really see the kids, and he is feeling pretty alone right now,’ a source said.

Meanwhile, sources previously told the Daily Mail that Hilton had not received a single card, bouquet of flowers or even a text from any celebrities in his circle.

‘All the ones he wanted to reach out, all the celebrities who he has mended fences with, all the ones who said he’s their friend. None of them are doing anything,’ an insider said.

Now, in the moments when Hilton’s confusion lifts, the family friend said, the full scale of his new reality is beginning to hit home. 

‘He feels very isolated at the moment, very alone,’ the friend said. ‘He’s being really hard on himself, regretting all these things that he has done and where life is now. He’s despondent. He’s nowhere near ready to get out. He’s got a very, very long way to go.’

But Hilton needs something to look forward to once he has recovered – and being a father could give him a reason to keep going.

‘He can move forward by being a dad, but let’s be real…it will be a co-parenting thing with his family from here,’ the friend said.

He also must focus on his health, while returning to work remains ‘a distant thing.’

‘He says he wants people to learn from him,’ the friend said. ‘He can do that best by recovering mentally and physically. He understands that.’

Jessica Pegula’s answer said plenty. It reflected a growing tension in the opening week of the U.S. Open, a Grand Slam long known for its polished, high-end New York energy — and now seeing its cultural footprint expand as influencers, content creators and celebrity spectacle increasingly blend with the tennis at Flushing Meadows.

The $23 Honey Deuces. The TikTok clips. The blue carpet arrivals. The entire scene around the tournament. Madison Keys summed it up neatly when she called it the “big-show Grand Slam.”

Pegula is hardly new to that kind of stage. The No. 3 seed in the women’s draw, she has been one of the tournament’s central figures in recent years, reaching the 2024 U.S. Open final and the 2025 semifinals. After defeating unseeded Sofia Kenin in straight sets Wednesday, Pegula was asked about crowd behavior — a subject that drew fresh scrutiny this week after a chair umpire told spectators in a suite to sit down during Naomi Osaka’s match Monday, while viral videos showed ring lights being used to film influencers during play.

“I do think that it’s tough when you see videos like that when they’re taking pictures and using the selfie lights,” Pegula said. “People are down there trying to perform, and it’s their career and their job. It seems like a bit disrespectful. I think it’s gotten a little, maybe, too much, it feels like, this year. I don’t know.

“I think, again, I can appreciate one side of it, but I think when you have the other side literally interrupting matches, it gets a little tough.”

The video — and brief delay — in Osaka’s match captured some growing tension. It quickly evolved into a discussion point during the first official week of the tournament. 

But there’s a give and a take with it all. No. 7 Daniil Medvedev, who also cruised into the third round via straight sets Wednesday, said that “the more we try to raise awareness about tennis, the better it is, the more popular the sport is.”

But, he added, it can be challenging sometimes if a light disturbs the flow during the point. 

“Still, in general, the more the sport grows, the better it is,” Medvedev said. “So I would say this way: I trust USTA with what they are doing. … I think more, a lot of more upside than downside.” 

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The U.S. Open’s credentials for content creators nearly doubled from 54 to 100 this year, according to Sportico. In a statement to The Post on Wednesday, the USTA said it wants “our fans and guests to have an incredible time when they attend the US Open, but we also need to ensure that does not interfere with the action and competition on the court.

These instances happen infrequently, and similar to when crowd noise reaches a certain level, our chair umpires have the ability to address the crowd when they occur.” 

The presence of the U.S. Open on social media has shaped its modern identity.

Pegula has carved out a space in the media world, too, as one of four co-hosts — alongside Madison Keys, Jennifer Brady and Desirae Krawczyk — on “The Player’s Box” podcast.

An article on the U.S. Open website earlier this month cited $1.2 billion in economic impact from the tournament annually. Around 1.14 million fans, a record number, attended last year. Fan Week has continued to soar. 

“I think I can appreciate, you know, the influencers coming and kind of showcasing, like, the U.S. Open experience,” Pegula said. “I think that’s something that the U.S. Open has utilized a lot as far as food and drinks and things to do and the shops. That part is part of a fan experience and something that people might not know and make them want to go.” 

The rise of the influencer space has directly contributed to that. It’ll only continue to do so over the next 10 days, too, as Pegula attempts to finally win an elusive Grand Slam title and Medvedev tries to emerge from the men’s draw as champion for the first time since 2021.

But the opening days of the tournament have also served as a reminder of the limits, of when the videos go too far and infringe on the sport itself. 

The flip side of the benefit has started to appear, too. And Pegula and Medvedev captured both sides of the emerging debate.