Claim: Kristian Nairn, the actor who played Hodor in ‘Game of Thrones’, has transitioned to a woman, according to reporting by Spanish media outlets.
Fact: Nairn has not transitioned. Spanish media outlets based their stories on a viral tweet by a trans woman who looked similar to the ‘Game of Thrones’ actor pre-transition.
On 5 May 2022, the Facebook page of Minuto Argentina shared a post claiming that Kristian Nairn — the actor who played Hodor in HBO’s fantasy TV series ‘Game of Thrones’ — has transitioned to a woman.
The post in Spanish on the Argentinian news website’s Facebook page cited a tweet as its source, believing it to be from Nairn’s Twitter account.
It stated, “Pero ya no es Kristian, ahora es Danielle. La ahora actriz ha mostrado en su cuenta de Twitter cómo ha sido su transición a mujer, algo que ha hecho con mucha naturalidad y mucho sentido del humor. [But it’s not Kristian anymore, now it’s Danielle. The now actress has shown on her Twitter account how her transition to a woman has been, something that she has done very naturally and with a great sense of humor.]”
Fact or fiction?
Soch Fact Check checked the Twitter account with the handle @daniellewthelle, which is visible in the screenshot in the Facebook post, and found the original tweet. Danielle posted the tweet as a joke since she claims people compared her, pre-transition, to Nairn as they both looked alike.
In the comments under the tweet, Danielle posted the before- and after-transition pictures of herself to clear up the misunderstanding, saying it was a “joke”. She then tagged the actor to make another joke, writing, “@KristianNairn the internet really wants you to transition.”
Danielle has previously posted pictures of herself during the process of transitioning.
Twitter user @Loladrones224 in a response under the tweet mentioned how “a spanish newspaper published the news” that Nairn had transitioned by wrongly citing Danielle’s post. The outlet in question is Spanish website 20minutos, which ran the headline, “Hodor, de ‘Juego de tronos’, muestra su transición a mujer: ‘Ahora la gente me sujeta la puerta a mí’ [Hodor, from ‘Game of Thrones’, shows his transition to a woman: ‘Now people hold the door for me’].”
El Cachanía, another Spanish website, also published the same false article.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found that the misleading posts appeared here and here.
Conclusion: Nairn has not transitioned; in fact, Spanish media outlets based their stories on a viral tweet by a trans woman who looked similar to Nairn pre-transition.