A woman has recounted what it was like to go viral after Cole Sprouse caught her Googling him in an ice cream shop: 'I was stressed out of my mind'

• Musician J. Maya saw who she thought was Cole Sprouse in an ice cream shop in 2018.
• She Googled him, then found out he had taken a picture of her doing so and posted it on Instagram.
• She recounted the story on TikTok, saying the experience made her "stressed."

Musician J. Maya has recounted the story of when she saw who she thought was Cole Sprouse in 2018, and inadvertently ended up going viral on the actor's Instagram, calling the whole experience stressful.

J. Maya, whose real name is Janani Krishnan-Jha, posted a TikTok over the weekend which was viewed 1.6 million times. She said she thought it was funny Sprouse was in the news at the moment as she'd had a run in with him when she was a 19 year old college student, and could offer a "unique perspective."

Sprouse made headlines last week after a "Call Her Daddy" interview where he revealed to host Alex Cooper he had been cheated on in every relationship, that his twin brother Dylan was a bully at school, and that he had lost his virginity when he was 14.

Sprouse's demeanor throughout the interview, and the way he took long drags of the cigarette he was smoking indoors, divided the internet, with some saying he had given them "the ick."

"Very long story short, in 2018 I was in an ice cream shop and someone who I thought looked a little bit like Cole Sprouse walked in behind me," Krishnan-Jha said in her TikTok. "I hadn't seen Cole Sprouse on TV in years, so I wasn't sure if it was him or not because he was obviously grown up."

To check, Krishnan-Jha took out her phone in what she "thought was a private manner" to Google photos of the actor.

"Little did I know that Cole Sprouse was behind me, and he took a picture of me Googling him and put it on his Instagram story of him reacting to that," she said. "Basically after that the situation just completely spiralled."

Krishnan-Jha said she asked Sprouse to take a selfie, and he looked at her with a "deadpan" expression and said, "Yeah, I saw you Google me."

"I thought, oh my god, this is probably the most cringiest moment of my entire life," Krishnan-Jha said. "But at least in the moment I told myself in my head that nobody would ever know what happened. But I was so wrong."

Krishnan-Jha immediately started receiving messages from her friends when she exited the shop, who were telling her she was on Sprouse's story. She had become another victim of Sprouse's hobby of snapping photos of fans. Within an hour, Buzzfeed had reached out for an interview.

At the time, Krishnan-Jha didn't have any social media, and wasn't sure how to handle the situation. She said some of Sprouse's fans were angry that she didn't recognize him and left negative comments under the articles. She also tried to keep her identity private, but one of her friends tweeted her full name on Twitter and the thread went viral.

Krishnan-Jha said she ended up doing a couple of interviews but "the whole time I was stressed out of my mind." These stories haunted her for years, because whenever prospective employers would Google her, they would come up.

"It's obviously been so many years at this point so I just think it's really funny even though at the time I was a bit stressed," she said. "But I'm never going to Google a celebrity in front of them ever again."

Insider has reached out to Sprouse's representatives for comment.