Alyssa Milano Defends 12-Year-Old Son from Harassment About Her Baseball Donations

“Every parent raises money for their child’s sports teams and many of them do so through GoFund Me,” Milano captioned a new Instagram share about the controversy on Thursday night. “I am no different.”

The difference, though, for many on social media is that Alyssa Milano is a famous person and therefore must have millions of dollars lying around. Their question is why she would ask for donations from anyone instead of just ponying up the cash herself.

It’s the same type of backlash Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne Johnson faced after the tragic fire in Maui saw them helping to promote fundraising efforts. The only difference here is that at least one of those people targeted Milano’s son, as well.

That was the main point of her latest post. The image she shared was of a person on social media commenting to her son with backhanded appreciation for him supporting an animal shelter. It was backhanded because the person used it to also take more shots at Milano.

“Hey thank you for helping abandoned dogs out!!” the person wrote. From there, though, they immediately went in to attack mode with the very next sentence. “I hope your mother who has a net worth of 10 million dollars donated to the shelter????”

They didn’t stop there, either, pivoting straight to the baseball controversy. “ALSO knowing she has this money she should not be asking middle income people from society to donate to a baseball team,” they continued. “It’s beyond ridiculous and selfish of her. Talk to your mom.”

The response shown to be from Milano’s son reads, “You do realize I’m only 12 years old and I love my mom. My mom is the greatest human of all time. She does everything for everyone.”

It was in response to this exchange that Milano lashed out publicly, calling out the user for “going on to my hardworking 12 year old son’s Instagram page and leaving these kinds of messages.” She called the act “horrid.”

“Leave the kids alone,” she wrote. “Let them play baseball. If you are against donating — don’t donate.”

Earlier in her message, she again defended herself from the assertion that she should just pay for everything.

“As much as I’d love to pay for the entire team and their families for travel, transportation, hotel, food and beverage, uniforms, trading pins and all the things teams do for this kind of trip — I can not afford to do so,” sh wrote. “Maybe someday.”

She then added, “Also, if I did pay for everyone — my trolls would find something else to be hurtful about.”

Milano first spoke out about all the hate she was getting for setting up the GoFundMe back on January 26, as reported by TMZ. At that time she said she was getting media questions about whether or not she’d financially supported the team herself at all.

“I’ve paid for uniforms for the entire team and coaches, thrown bday parties and sponsor any kid who can’t afford monthly dues,” she posted to her X (formerly Twitter) account. “The kids also do fundraising themselves — car washes, movie nights, and many other fun things!”

Regardless of the backlash from some, Milano’s GoFundMe has already reached and surpassed its $10,000 goal. At the time of this writing, the total stands at $12,005 from 367 separate donations.