YouTubers Jonathan Joly and his wife Anna Saccone were once the reigning king and queen of the ‘sharenting’ genre – chronicling their young family’s every last move on the internet for more than a decade.
Nothing was off limits: from a ‘vlog’ showing the birth of their first child Emilia (5.6million views) to another revealing that their second, born a boy, was trans (80,000 views).
Their daily updates quickly started bringing in the sort of money that saw their estimated net worth reach over £1million.
Until, five years ago, in a storm of controversy about their parenting style and accusations that they were exploiting their children, the Saccone Jolys all but disappeared from YouTube – and deleted much of their back catalogue of videos.
Fans and critics alike concluded that was it for the family. But in an unexpected twist, the garrulous Jonathan this week made a surprise return to their YouTube channel – which still has more than 1.6million subscribers – with a Halloween-themed video.
This time, however, it was the children, not their parents, who took centre-stage, with eldest daughter, Emilia, and her siblings starring in the vlog.
Given the 45-year-old Jonathan’s love of the limelight, this was a surprising development. But it is unlikely to prevent those accusations of exploitation being resurrected.
Anna Saccone and Jonathan Joly with Emilia (in green) and Edie at a premiere in 2022
Jonathan celebrates with Anna after winning a celebrity dad of the year award in 2019
The video begins with Jonathan announcing the comeback with almost frightening enthusiasm before he is practically elbowed aside by Emilia, who jokingly insists her father is ‘so old and he’s been doing this for way too long’.
The accompanying blurb tells viewers that the ‘voices you once watched are now grown-up, and a fresh generation is taking the reins’. It adds: ‘This channel is back, redesigned for 2025 and beyond: real life, no filter and driven by the young adults who grew up in front of the camera.’
The precocious-sounding Emilia certainly looks comfortable in the spotlight. Caked in make-up and wearing two-inch-long fake nails, the 13-year-old repeatedly rolls her eyes and pulls forced smiles as she outlines her plans to go ‘trick-or-treating’ with a friend.
Her trans sister Edie, 11 – originally known as a boy named Eduardo but now sporting a crop top and a headful of tumbling curls – explains how her Halloween costume includes black eyeliner, fake eyelashes, bat wings, a pair of tights and ‘a Hotel Transylvania wig’.
For her part, eight-year-old Alessia – who is having a friend to stay for a sleepover – is filmed applying her own make-up. ‘This is only the start, guys, this is only the start,’ she says confidently. ‘Trust me, it’s good.’
Jonathan with Amelia in new video posted after Halloween
Meanwhile, eagle-eyed viewers will note the show has been discreetly renamed SacconeJolys Sisters (although there is no record as to what the youngest child – a seven-year-old boy named Andrea – makes of this).
Mum Anna, 38, only makes a brief appearance to explain her aversion to carving Halloween pumpkins.
Much of the 22-minute video is taken up with footage of Emilia – repeatedly pouting for the camera and dressed as if she is heading for a nightclub – wandering the streets with a pal.
Later they spend an inordinate amount of time prowling the aisles of a Morrisons branch as they search for bottled water, chocolate and milkshakes.
But the YouTube community has been lapping it up. With almost 36,000 views so far, the video has been greeted with a barrage of gushing comments. ‘I think everyone looks so gorgeous,’ wrote Kayla Feliciano.
Another fan, using the name ‘Lorluvvv’, said of Emilia: ‘I watched her grow up and I feel like a proud auntie lol.’ Yet another follower, Amomuzz, trilled: ‘Emilia has Anna’s mannerisms, but Jonathan’s sense of humour! I love it!!!’
When a rare negative commenter had the temerity to gently point out that the nails and make-up might not be entirely appropriate for a 13-year-old, they were turned upon. ‘Stop hating,’ advised one reply. ‘Shut up,’ said another.
Jonathan with all four of his children before their social media break
It all comes after Joly and his wife stopped posting new clips on the original SacconeJolys channel in 2020. While many of the home videos they removed two years later subsequently reappeared on the platform, the couple have largely been broadcasting separately ever since – although they have been at pains to point out on their other social media platforms that they are still very much together.
The couple met in Joly’s native Dublin in 2007. Anna was born in the US, in Baltimore, Maryland, to an Italian father and half-Irish mother, but moved to Cork when she was eight.
Ms Saccone has previously told how she started posting videos of fashion and make-up tips during a ‘lonely’ period when she was about 20. But she said it was only when she started receiving small cheques for her videos that her husband-to-be realised ‘we could actually make a living from this’.
Which raises the question: who will be cashing in on their comeback?
In a statement about the re-emergence of their YouTube channel, Joly told the Daily Mail: ‘I never thought I’d post on that channel again, but Emilia really loves making videos and was the one who pushed for the comeback.
‘Now that she’s a teenager, it’s become her space to talk to her peers – and apparently, I’m too old and irrelevant anyway.’
In the US, there have been growing calls to introduce child labour-style protections, requiring parents to set aside earnings or letting children delete content once they’re older. No such laws exist in the UK.
It remains to be seen, therefore, whether Emilia, Edie and Alessia will ever see the profits of their new starring roles.
