After Madelyn Cline reportedly unfollowed Kate McDuffie on Instagram, Outer Banks fans are speculating that the close friends had a falling out because Kate has struck up a friendship with Rudy Pankow and Elaine Siemek.

While Madelyn has not publicly commented on the status of her friendship with Kate, fans want to know more about what’s going on.

Kte McDuffie and the ‘Outer Banks’ Drama

Fans first noticed on November 23, 2024, that Madelyn was no longer following Kate, Rudy or Elaine on the social media site. The unfollowings appear to have happened right after Kate took a vacation with the couple for Elaine’s birthday and Elaine posted a photo with the tattoo artist on her Instagram Story.

“It’s so obvious elaine stole her from madelyn, and she wants it to be known, and i get madelyn bcs stealing someone’s best friend is actually disgusting and not okay,” one person wrote on X. Another added, “Elaine wanted to rub that kate is her best friend now through that ig story, she wanted madelyn to know.”

Kate being invited to Elaine’s birthday trip doesn’t seem too random, though – the studio owner posted an Instagram video with Elaine back in 2021.

However, for quite some time, fans have accused Elaine of causing a rift between Rudy and Madison Bailey, another Outer Banks costar. Now, the speculation is rampant that Elaine is also the reason for an apparent falling out between Madelyn and Rudy/Kate.

Just days before she unfollowed Rudy, Madelyn commented on his Instagram post about season 4 of Outer Banks with a “red heart” emoji. With everything seeming to be fine in their friendship at that point, fans are convinced something went down on the birthday trip that led to Madelyn not wanting to connect with her former friends on social media anymore.

“Something happened this weekend,” one Outer Banks viewer wrote on X, while another said, “Elaine’s birthday. rudy inviting kate has gote [sic] something to do with this for sure.”

Kate McDuffie Is a Tattoo Artist

Kate runs The Ghost Kat art studio. “The Ghost Kat has a wide range of concentrations including tattooing, drawing, graphic design, painting, photography, writing and more,” the company’s website says. “Kate is the designer of all art on the website. She has been an artist all her life and founded The Ghost Kat in 2018 as a central place to combine many of her interests.”

After beginning her career as a tattoo artist in North Carolina, Kate now takes tattoo appointments in New York and Los Angeles and focuses “on fine line work and small detail.” Ghost Kat studio also launched a merchandise line in 2023.

In a 2021 interview with Sheesh, Kate said she gradually started tattooing two years prior. “In full honesty, tattooing found me,” she shared. “I tagged along with my boyfriend at the time when he was getting tattooed by an artist in L.A. who we had some mutual friends with. I was intrigued by the craft because I am an artist myself and thought it would be incredible to learn how to apply my drawings to skin. As the day went on we talked a lot about the art of tattooing and I showed the artist some of my work. That day he even let me use the machine and try it out myself. We stayed in touch for the next six months and he helped guide me in ordering all of the equipment with the idea of me going out to L.A. to work with him. He gave me one lesson over FaceTime and I basically taught myself everything else from there.”

Kate McDuffie Has Famous Friends

In 2021, Madelyn got some ink from her friend – she had the words, “Tell me more,” written on her pointer finger. “I just let [Kate] do her thing,” Madelyn shared at the time.

Kendall Jenner is another one of Kate’s clients. The artist drew a tiny cowgirl boot on Kendall’s ankle in August 2022. “Teeniest cowgirl boot for Kendall,” she captioned a photo of the finished product.

Some other famous names that follow Kate on Instagram include Chase Stokes, Gracie Abrams, Kyle Richards, Taylor Lautner, Maggie McGraw, Kenzie Ziegler and more.