MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – Erin Dietrich in Myrtle Beach became known as “Giraffe Mom” in early March when she used Facebook to live stream a spoof of April the Giraffe’s live stream. Dietrich was in the last days of her pregnancy when the video went viral, eventually being viewed more than 32 million times.
On Tuesday, Dietrich joined News13 Now at 9 a.m. to introduce her new baby boy Porter. While the mother and son have been on some TV programs since his birth, the interview on News13 Now was his first appearance on live television. Watch the video to see the full segment.
This is how Dietrich explained the lead up to what became internet fame:
On the Thursday before we made the video, I was explaining to my husband my obsession with April the Giraffe because I would watch the live feed of April at night when I couldn’t sleep. We decided to order the mask off of Amazon to make a spoof of it with no intentions of the video going viral. We put our kids to bed Sunday night, and decided to do a quick 1-minute video that eventually turned into 8 minutes. We made the video for our friends and went to sleep with a couple hundred views. We woke up with 4 million views and calls from news outlets around the nation.
Dietrich said life is still a little crazy following all of the attention, and with three other children she is very busy. Porter is healthy and happy, she said.
