TRENTON — Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday addressed the persistent but false claims that his daughter is getting married and doing so while violating her father’s executive orders mandating social distancing.

Noting the “insanity on social media sometimes,” Murphy said his 20-year-old daughter “did not have a bachelorette party, is not engaged and is not getting married this weekend – just for the record, to all of you bozos out there who think otherwise.”

New Jersey 101.5 this month has published two fact-checking articles debunking the false claims about Emma Murphy, which were circulated by conservative-leaning and other rumor-mongering online and social media sites.

The most recent was a low-resolution photo purporting to show Murphy’s college-student daughter at a bachelorette party at the Beachcomber Bar and Grill. The Seaside Heights bar’s owner confirmed to New Jersey 101.5 that young lady in the photo was not Emma Murphy.

The woman who claimed to be in the photo — Camille Tough — as well as some of her friends responded on the photo posted by NJ Incident Alert Network Facebook page to say that she was not Murphy’s daughter.

“I was out enjoying my bachelorette weekend with my girls!” she wrote. “We were harassed by a man claiming I was the governor’s daughter and when we told him that I wasn’t her he still continued to harass myself and my friends. Also he was not wearing a mask as well and tried to get extremely close to us."

The photo was also posted by Ocean County Scanner News and given credence by state Sen. Declan O’Scanlon, R-Monmouth, who commented on Twitter that the governor’s children should be off limits without indicating whether or not the claim was true.

Earlier in July, rumors circulated online that Emma Murphy would be getting married at an indoor wedding at the Park Savoy Estate. The Florham Park venue said the claim was “false and patently untrue."

Murphy has not addressed the rumors but brought them up Wednesday when discussing the 31 states on New Jersey’s quarantine list. One of them is Virginia, where his daughter will be attending the University of Virginia. While the voluntary self-quarantine does not apply to people traveling for business, Murphy said it does apply to college students.

It is not clear why the rumors about Murphy’s daughter started although State Police Superintendent Pat Callahan, who has appeared beside Murphy during his daily and now thrice-weekly news briefings, revealed in April that his own daughter had to postpone her wedding that had been planned for this summer.

KEEP READING: Is New Jersey beating the virus?

Sergio Bichao is deputy digital editor at New Jersey 101.5. Send him news tips: Call 609-359-5348 or email sergio.bichao@townsquaremedia.com.

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