Kayla Penoli, a former contestant on MTV’s Double Shot at Love with DJ Pauly D & Vinny (Season 3), has been the subject of widespread claims online that she died in a car accident on December 9, 2022. We looked into this story directly, and here’s the honest answer: we could not independently verify the death through any named news outlet, official statement, or verifiable social media post. Below is exactly what checks out, what doesn’t, and where this claim actually appears to have come from.
| Full name | Kayla Penoli |
| Known for | Double Shot at Love with DJ Pauly D & Vinny, Season 3 (MTV) |
| Confirmed | Real person; genuine Season 3 cast member (verified via IMDb and the show’s official cast announcement coverage) |
| Claimed | Died in a car accident on December 9, 2022, in Sonoma County, California |
| Verification status | Unconfirmed — no mainstream news coverage, official statement, or traceable original source found |
Who Is Kayla Penoli?
Kayla Penoli is a real reality TV personality who appeared as one of 17 women competing for Vinny Guadagnino’s attention on Season 3 of Double Shot at Love, alongside castmates including Peyton Freestone, Erika Devito, and Kortni Montgomery. Her cast credit is listed on IMDb, and entertainment outlets covering the season’s cast reveal named her among the confirmed contestants. That part of her story is solid and easy to verify.
Some articles describe her as the founder of a hair-extension business called “Kayla’s Kurls” and as an Instagram and TikTok personality with a large following. We weren’t able to independently confirm the business or locate an active, verified account matching the handle commonly cited for her, so we’re not presenting those details as established fact here.
The Car Accident Claim: What’s Confirmed and What Isn’t
The claim that Kayla Penoli died in a car accident traces back to articles and videos that started circulating in early 2024, over a year after the date they cite. We checked for the kind of sourcing a story like this should have, and it isn’t there:
- No major entertainment or local news outlet (People, TMZ, Us Weekly, E! News, or California local news) has reported it.
- No verifiable original social media post from Kayla Penoli’s own accounts, or a confirmed post from her family, could be located.
- The handful of sites repeating the claim don’t cite each other or any primary source — several openly note they lack citations, and at least one appears to be directly copying Tricklings’ own earlier version of this article rather than reporting independently.
None of that proves the claim is false. It’s entirely possible for a story about a lower-profile reality TV cast member to go uncovered by major outlets. But it also means there’s currently no solid basis to report her death as a confirmed fact, so we’re not doing that.
Where Did This Story Come From?
Unverified “reality TV star death” stories are a recognizable pattern online: a claim starts on YouTube or a low-quality content site with a clickbait, search-friendly title, gets picked up and reworded by similar sites chasing the same search traffic, and ends up looking more credible simply because multiple pages repeat it, even though none of them actually sourced it independently. That pattern matches what we found here. If a credible primary source for Kayla Penoli’s passing surfaces, we’ll update this page to reflect it.
FAQs
Is Kayla Penoli dead?
It’s widely claimed online that she died in a car accident in December 2022, but we could not verify this through any mainstream news source, official statement, or her own social media. Treat the claim as unconfirmed.
What show was Kayla Penoli on?
Double Shot at Love with DJ Pauly D & Vinny, Season 3, where she was one of 17 women competing for Vinny Guadagnino.
Did Kayla Penoli run a hair extension business?
Some articles say she founded “Kayla’s Kurls,” but we couldn’t independently confirm this, so we’re noting it as unverified rather than fact.
Where did the car accident story come from?
It began circulating on YouTube and a handful of low-authority content sites starting in early 2024, not from any named news outlet or verified official statement.
Has Kayla Penoli’s family or castmates confirmed her death?
Several articles claim a family statement was posted on social media, but we could not locate the original post to confirm it.
A similar wave of unverified reality-TV death claims has circulated around other names, including Takarra Farrington Jones — worth reading with the same caution.
Sources
- IMDb — Kayla Penoli, cast credit for Double Shot at Love with DJ Pauly D & Vinny
We could not identify a credible, citable source confirming the death claim itself. If you have verified information, we welcome a correction.
