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Chuck Norris' family is pushing back against a wave of viral misinformation, calling out false AI-generated posts that spread misleading claims about his death and personal life across social media platforms.

Chuck Norris' family denounces misleading AI-generated posts regarding his death

In a public statement shared online, Norris' family made it clear that several circulating posts about the actor's death are completely inaccurate. They said they are aware of AI-generated videos and messages discussing "the circumstances of his passing, his health history, and who was present," and stressed that "these claims are entirely untrue."

The statement also addressed how some of these posts go beyond basic misinformation. According to the family, the content includes made-up medical details and incorrect stories about relationships within the family.

They urged fans to rely only on official updates, adding, "We kindly ask that you do not believe or share any information unless it comes directly from the Norris family or an official family representative (viaComplex)."

Whileconfirming his passing earlier, the family chose to keep specific details private. They shared that Norris was surrounded by loved ones and at peace but avoided going into further explanation. It was also confirmed that he had been hospitalized before hisdeath, though no additional information was provided about that period.

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Norris built a long and successful career that made him a global name. He rose to fame through martial arts and action films, including his appearance alongside Bruce Lee in The Way of the Dragon. Later, he became a household name on television with Walker, Texas Ranger, where he played a tough, no-nonsense lawman.

In addition, social media is filled with hilarious and over-the-top memes featuring Norris. In the 2000s, the martial arts icon also saw a surprising resurgence in popularity thanks to viral "Chuck Norris facts," which turned him into an internet legend. The jokes exaggerated his strength and toughness, introducing him to a younger audience.

Now, as tributes continue, his family is focused on setting the record straight. They ask to ignore the noise online and respect verified information.

Originally reported by Rishabh Shandilya onMandatory.

The postChuck Norris' Family Slams 'Untrue' AI Misinformation Regarding His Deathappeared first onReality Tea.

US Epstein Building Names

At issue — for union nurses at OSU's Wexner Medical Center, for former athletes at the Les Wexner Football Complex, and for some student leaders who may walk past the Wexner Center for the Arts near the campus oval — is Wexner'swell-documented associationwith the late sexual predatorJeffrey Epstein.

Similar cries are arising over a Wexner-named building at Harvard University and others around the country named for different Epstein associates, includingSteve Tisch,Casey Wasserman,Glenn DubinandHoward Lutnick.

It's all part of thebacklash across higher educationagainst figures with ties to Epstein, who cultivated an extensive network including powerful people in the arts, business and academia. Scrutiny has landed on university donors as well as several academics whose emails with Epstein surfaced in the latest files, including some whohave resigned.

Wexner complaints cite Epstein association

Wexner hasn't been charged with any crime in connection with Epstein, the one-time financial adviser by whom he sayshe was "duped."

But a group of former Ohio State athletes who surviveda sweeping sexual abuse scandal at the schoolargues that theretired L Brands founder's generosity to his alma mater is now tainted by the knowledge that Epstein was entangled in many of his family's spending decisions, including around the football complex's naming.

"Ohio State University cannot credibly separate itself from these facts, nor can it justify continuing to honor Les Wexner with an athletic facility," their naming removal request read. It went on, "To do so is to ignore the voices of survivors, former athletes, and the broader community who expect accountability, transparency, and moral leadership."

At Harvard, a group of students and faculty at the prestigious Kennedy School has targeted the Leslie H. Wexner Building and the Wexner-Sunshine Lobby. The renaming request submitted in March cites Wexner's "strong ties to Epstein" and argues Epstein profited off Wexner, "which enabled Epstein to use his wealth and power to traffic and abuse children and women."

Some Harvard students and alumni also want the Farkas name removed from Farkas Hall, which hosts the Hasty Pudding TheatricalsMan and Woman of the Year. The building was renamed in 2011 following a significant donation from Andrew Farkas, graduate chairman of the Hasty Pudding Institute, in honor of his father.

Farkas had a longtime personal and business relationship with Epstein, including co-owning a marina with him in the Caribbean. He also repeatedly asked Epstein to donate to Hasty Pudding. Between roughly 2013 and 2019, Epstein regularly donating $50,000 annually to secure top-tier donor status, for a total of more than $300,000.

"As I've said repeatedly, I deeply regret ever having met this individual, but at no time have I conducted myself inappropriately," Farkas said in a statement.

Pressure building on campuses

Pushback against buildings named for Epstein associates is growing on some U.S. campuses.

Just last weekend, the student body at Haverford College in Pennsylvania voted to urge President Wendy Raymond to forge ahead with the renaming process for the Allison &Howard LutnickLibrary. The building is named for the U.S. commerce secretary who has facedresignation callsover his relationship with Epstein.

Raymond had said ina February open letterthat she wasn't ready to do that. In a statement to The Associated Press following Sunday's vote, Raymond said she respected the process and would respond to the resolution within the customary 30-day period.

At Ohio State, pleas against the Wexner name are making their way through a five-stepreview procedure, most of which takes place outside public view and with no set timeline. The university's new president, Ravi Bellamkonda said, "I think the process is thorough, fair, and open, and I will promise you that we will give each request a full consideration."

A spokesman for Harvard confirmed the school has received the Wexner-related name removal request but would not comment further. It would be the university's second name change, after the John Winthrop House, which bore the name of a Harvard professor and a like-named ancestor, was changed to Winthrop House in July over their connections to slavery.

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Tufts University, home to the Tisch Library and theSteve TischSports and Fitness Center, said it continues to look at the matter. The library has moved to clarify that it was not named for Steve, but, in 1992, for his father Preston Tisch, an honored alum. The sports center removed a set of Steve Tisch's handprints during spring break. The university said that was part of a planned renovation.

UCLA'sWassermanFootball Center and Stony Brook University'sDubinFamily Athletic Performance Center also are named for Epstein associates.

Namings often tied to philanthropic giving

The current clamor bears some resemblance to the controversy that surrounded the wealthySackler family's culpabilityin the deadly opioid crisis, because in both cases the institutions involved hadreceived vast sumsfrom the family.

Some major institutions — including museums in New York and Paris, Tufts and the University of Oxford in England — did remove the Sackler name, but Harvard chose not to. In a 15-page report explaining its 2024 decision, the university said the legacy of Arthur M. Sackler, whose company Purdue Pharma made the potent opioid OxyContin, was "complex, ambiguous and debatable."

The Epstein associates whose names are on campus buildings also are typically generous donors, as well as alumni.

Wexner, his wife Abigail and their charities have given Ohio State well over $200 million over the years, for example. That included $100 million to benefit the Wexner Medical Center; at least $15 million for the Wexner Center, a contemporary art museum named for Wexner's father, Harry; and $5 million split with an Epstein-run foundation toward construction of the football complex. The Wexners have given another $42 million to the Harvard Kennedy School.

A moral and financial bind for universities

Anne Bergeron, a museum consultant and author who specializes in the ethics of building naming rights in the cultural sector, said universities are serious about their gift acceptance standards while also recognizing that the conduct of individual donors may be judged differently over time.

"It's no surprise that a lot of these situations arise within the university sphere, because with students — especially the younger generation — there is virtually no tolerance for being associated with anyone who doesn't represent the best of humanity," she said

She called this "a moment of reckoning" for universities and said they have to guard against the appearance of a quid pro quo in their building namings.

Michael Oser, a Columbus-area resident, articulated the frustration of some defenders of retaining the Wexner name in a recent letter-to-the-editor of The Columbus Dispatch.

"OSU took the money. Built the buildings. Cut the ribbons. Smiled for the photos There were no formal 'morality clauses' attached back then, just gratitude and applause," he wrote. "Now, years later, some want to play moral referee while the university keeps the cash and the concrete. That's not accountability. That's convenience."

Supporters of name removal see opportunity for healing

Lauren Barnes, a student in the Kennedy School's master's program leading the effort to remove Wexner's name, said she struggles most days as a survivor of sexual abuse and the mother of a 14-year-old to walk into a building with a name linked to Epstein.

"Thinking about all the children in this world that deserve safety and also all the survivors on campus that have to walk under the Wexner name, I know what that's like to have my heart race and my hands get sweaty," she said. "I hate that anyone else has to have that feeling walking under that name and just dealing with it kind of everywhere on campus."

One protester at Ohio State, Audrey Brill, told a local ABC affiliate that it now "feels gross" thinking of women delivering babies at OSU's Wexner Medical Center "given everything that we're learning about where this money went" — and she feels removing Wexner's name could help.

Some protesters also want the name of Dr. Mark Landon, a prominent Ohio State gynecologist who received five-figure quarterly payments from Epstein between 2001 and 2005, removed from a visitor's lounge in the hospital's new $2 billion, 26-story tower. Landon have said the money was for biotech investment consulting for Wexner, not health care for Epstein or any of his victims.

Casey contributed from Boston.

The man, identified by authorities as 36-year-old Leland Adams, was taken into custody on Wednesday, April 1, after he allegedly entered Minaj's Calabasas, California, home, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department confirmed to USA TODAY on Thursday.

Adams was booked into the sheriff department's Lost Hills station on a misdemeanor charge, according to arrest records reviewed by USA TODAY, though additional details on the incident were not immediately available.

A bail amount for Adams is currently not listed.

Nicki Minaj's legendary rap career has spanned nearly two decades. From breakout mixtapes to chart-topping crossover albums, she has shaped pop culture, fashion and the rap game along the way. Scroll on for a look back at her career.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj performs onstage during her Pink Friday 2 World Tour at Madison Square Garden on Sept. 7, 2024, in New York City.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj performs onstage at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 12, 2023, in Newark, New Jersey.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj accepts the best hip-hop video award for "Do We Have a Problem?" onstage at the 2022 MTV VMAs at Prudential Center on Aug. 28, 2022, in Newark, New Jersey.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Here, Minaj and her husband Kenneth Petty pose at the Marc Jacobs Fall 2020 runway show during New York Fashion Week on Feb. 12, 2020, in New York City. The couple welcomed their first child together on Sept. 30, 2020, in Los Angeles.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj accepts the Gamechanger Award at the Billboard Women In Music event on Dec. 12, 2019, in Los Angeles.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj works the runway in an elegant pink train at the 2019 Met Gala "Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion" on May 6, 2019, in New York City.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj rocks a short, blonde hairdo during New York Fashion Week on Sept. 11, 2018, in New York City.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj attends the "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination" Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 7, 2018, in New York City.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj performs onstage during the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 27, 2017, in Inglewood, California.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj performs on stage during the 2017 NBA Awards Live on TNT on June 26, 2017, in New York City.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> From left, Fergie, Kim Kardashian West and Nicki Minaj attend the Daily Front Row's third annual Fashion Los Angeles Awards at Sunset Tower Hotel on April 2, 2017, in West Hollywood, California.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Minnie Mouse and Nicki Minaj attend the Fashion LA Awards. Minnie is wearing a custom alice + olivia by Stacey Bendet dress at the Sunset Tower Hotel on April 2, 2017, in West Hollywood, California.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj, right, and Meek Mill watch the game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Portland Trail Blazers in Philadelphia on Jan. 16, 2016.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé perform onstage during TIDAL X: 1020 Amplified by HTC at Barclays Center of Brooklyn on Oct. 20, 2015, in New York City.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> From left, Victor Cruz, Debbie Harry, Nicki Minaj and June Ambrose attend the Givenchy fashion show during Spring 2016 New York Fashion Week at Pier 26 at Hudson River Park on Sept. 11, 2015, in New York City. 

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Cedric The Entertainer as Eddie, left, Nicki Minaj as Draya and Ice Cube as Calvin in a scene from the film "Barbershop: The Next Cut."

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj performs onstage during the 2015 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 17, 2015, in Las Vegas.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> From left, Charli XCX, Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande perform onstage at the 2014 American Music Awards at Nokia Theatre on Nov. 23, 2014, in Los Angeles.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj performs at Fashion Rocks 2014 at the Barclays Center on Sept. 9, 2014, in Brooklyn, New York.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> (Front to back) Nicki Minaj, Jessie J and Ariana Grande perform onstage during the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 24, 2014, in Inglewood, California.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Leslie Mann, Cameron Diaz, Nicki Minaj and  Kate Upton speak onstage at the 2014 MTV Movie Awards at Nokia Theatre on April 13, 2014, in Los Angeles. 

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj attends her Kmart collection private event at Fig & Olive Melrose Place on March 1, 2013, in West Hollywood, California.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj performs onstage during the 40th American Music Awards held at Nokia Theatre on Nov. 18, 2012, in Los Angeles.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj arrives at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards at Staples Center on Sept. 6, 2012, in Los Angeles.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj onstage at the 2013 BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards at Hammerstein Ballroom on Aug. 22, 2013, in New York City.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj performs at the Nokia Theatre on Aug. 8, 2012, in Los Angeles

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj visits BET's "106 & Park" at the BET Studios on April 2, 2012, in New York City.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj speaks onstage during The Grammy nominations concert live countdown to music's biggest night at Nokia Theatre on Nov. 30, 2011, in Los Angeles.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj (L) and editor-in-chief of American Vogue, Anna Wintour, attend the Carolina Herrera Spring 2012 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at The Theater at Lincoln Center on Sept. 12, 2011, in New York City.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj arrives at the 2011 Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on Feb. 11, 2011.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Nicki Minaj performs onstage during "VH1 Divas Salute the Troops" presented by the USO at the MCAS Miramar on Dec. 3, 2010, in Miramar, California.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

Nicki Minaj: See her award-winning rap career in pictures

Nicki Minaj's legendary rap career has spanned nearly two decades. From breakout mixtapes to chart-topping crossover albums, she has shaped pop culture, fashion and the rap game along the way. Scroll on for a look back at her career.

Nicki Minaj gets political:Rapper says 'bullying' of Trump propelled her into politics

According toNBC4 Los Angeles, Adams was arrested after refusing to "heed the warning from the property's security" and leave Minaj's home, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department told the outlet. Police said Adams did not enter Minaj's house.

It's unclear if Minaj or her family were present at the time of the break-in, per NBC News. Security officers reportedly detained Adams until deputies arrived.

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USA TODAY has reached out to Minaj's representatives for comment.

In recent months, Minaj has found herself in the political spotlight due to her vocal support forPresident Donald Trump. The Grammy-nominated rapperattended the Trump Accounts Summitin late January, touting herself as "probably the president's No. 1 fan."

Nicki Minaj andDonald Trump:Rapper snags Trump gold card after saying she is his 'No. 1 fan'

Minaj opened up about herallyship with Trumpduring a February appearance on"The Katie Miller Podcast."

"When I saw how he was being treated over and over and over, I just couldn't handle it," Minaj told Katie Miller, the wife of top White House aideStephen Miller.

"I felt that … a lot of that bullying and the smear campaigns and all of the lying, I felt that that had been done to me for so many years," Minaj told Miller. "And I was watching it in real time happen to someone else, and I didn't think he deserved it."

Contributing: James Powel, Jay Stahl and Taylor Ardrey, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Nicki Minaj home – Man arrested after trespassing on rapper's property