It’s Avril Lavigne’s 42nd birthday on Sunday (27 September), and fans all over will no doubt be buzzing to flood the Canadian singer with birthday messages.Amongst all the jubilation and ‘Sk8er Boi’ jokes, some fans may be reminded of the extremely bizarre conspiracy theory about her body double who is apparently named ‘Melissa’.Now, anyone on the internet should know to take online conspiracy theories with a whole gallon of salt, but one of the less peculiar ones, and that’s saying something, centres aroundthe beloved pop singer, with many fans genuinely believing she actually died in 2003 and was replaced by a doppelgänger named Melissa.

For anyone out of the loop, the theory claims that Avril decided to hire a body double to stand in for her at public events because she got fed up with celebrity life.Then, as the theory goes, the ‘Girlfriend’ hit-maker passed away shortly after the release of her successful first album, Let Go, which came out in 2002 and before 2004’s Under My Skin.However, to keep up appearances and continue making profit, the theory claims that the record company decided to hire Melissa as Lavigne on a full-time basis.The rumours became so relentless that Avril herself was forced to address the speculation in a 2024 episode of Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast.