Casey Anthony recently made a splash on social media as a self-proclaimed “legal advocate” — and one of her harshest critics, longtime TV and podcast host Nancy Grace, is having none of it.
The former prosecutor says she was more than a little “irritated” when she learned that Anthony, 39, who was famously acquitted of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, is offering legal advice on social media.
Grace, who hosts the Crime Stories with Nancy Grace podcast, tells PEOPLE that the devil “has to come up through the ice when hell freezes over before I will give her a penny.”
In early March, Anthony joined Substack and TikTok, telling viewers in a TikTok video: “I am a legal advocate, I am a researcher, I’ve been in the legal field since 2011.”
Her goal, she said, is to “give people tools and resources that they can utilize so they actually know where they can turn to,” including her Substack.
Anthony has amassed more than 80,000 TikTok followers, and her account has racked up nearly 5 million views.
Years ago, Grace said she predicted that the world hadn’t heard the last of “Tot Mom” — the moniker she famously gave Anthony on her long-running, eponymous TV show.
“I said, ‘We will hear from her again,’” says Grace, whose new book about first grade teacher Ellen Greenberg’s controversial 2011 death, What Happened to Ellen?, debuts April 22. “Now she’s making money off of her daughter’s [death].”
Grace has reported on Anthony from the moment she learned Caylee was reported missing from her Florida home in July 2008 — 31 days after the child actually vanished.
While police searched tirelessly for the wide-eyed little girl, authorities quickly learned that her mother, then 22, was out partying, had taken part in a nightclub’s “hot body” contest, and had even gotten a tattoo the day before Caylee was reported missing.
Authorities found internet searches for chloroform on her computer and traces of chloroform and human decomposition in the trunk of her car.
In October 2008, Anthony was charged with first-degree murder. Two months later, her daughter’s badly decomposed body was found wrapped in a Winnie the Pooh blanket. On her tiny lips, an expert testified, was residue from a heart sticker.
After a sensational trial, Anthony was acquitted in 2011 of first-degree murder, child abuse and manslaughter, but convicted of lying to investigators. Jailed for three years after her arrest, she was released in July 2011.
In court, Anthony’s lawyers argued that Caylee accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool and that Anthony and her father, George Anthony, covered up her death. George Anthony was never charged with a crime, and he has vehemently denied the allegations.
Given Anthony’s history, Grace laughs and says, “I truly do not believe that the public expects legal advice from Tot Mom.”
“That’s where self-control comes in,” she says. “Don’t give in to the prurient curiosity to see what Tot Mom says next.”
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