A woman named Gabriella Zuniga has made a modification to her Instagram profile in response to case of mistaken identity.
Former NFL player Shannon Sharpe was accused of sexual assault in a lawsuit they say was filed by a woman named Gabriella Zuniga. Sharpe’s legal team responded to the allegations, and say he is being blackmailed. Though the woman who filed the lawsuit against Sharpe did so under the name “Jane Doe,” Sharpe’s legal team identified the woman as Zuniga.
Sharpe’s legal team released numerous explicit text messages intended to paint the relationship between Sharpe and Zuniga as consensual. Naturally, that led to many people with interest in the story trying to locate Zuniga on social media. They quickly zeroed in on an individual with the Instagram handle gabriella.zuniga, and she rapidly gained followers and received a number of comments about the situation.
There was just one problem. The woman in question was adamant that she was not the Zuniga who has been linked to Sharpe. In fact, she said she has nothing to do with the case whatsoever.
The person behind that Gabriella Zuniga Instagram page changed her profile on the social media site to deny all links to Sharpe.
“Im (sic) not associated with Shannon Sharpe Im (sic) from Canada,” she edited her Instagram biography to say.
Apparently I slid in the wrong Gabriella Zuniga DMs on IG 🤷🏽♂️ pic.twitter.com/2OXZTyGDZ3
— Dubskie (@Dubskie) April 21, 2025
Zuniga also posted to her Instagram story to try to clarify things further, and urged those who had just followed her to unfollow.
“This is not me,” she wrote over a screenshot of the alleged texts from Sharpe’s accuser. “I’m just a girl who has the same name!”
Eventually, the Instagram user in question set her account to private.
Very little information has come out about the woman who actually was allegedly involved with Sharpe. In her original lawsuit, which was filed under the alias Jane Doe, Sharpe was accused of rape, and the suit sought over $50 million in damages. Sharpe responded by accusing the woman identified as Zuniga of blackmail, and claiming that she was distorting the details of a consensual relationship.
