I read that "black holes do not exist" is the popsci version. The actual version is "black holes as they were originally conceived do not exist."
Stephen Hawkings: I have come up with an alternative theory to solve the information paradox. *tries desperately to dumb it down for the news media*
News: Stephen Hawkings says black holes don't exist!
Person: See! Science is always changing it's mind. There's no such thing as knowledge!
Fundamentalist: God is angry! Repent!
Comments and reactions to Hawking are pretty sad to say the least.
That's primarily because the media are lying. Hawking's not saying these supermassive objects don't exist. He's only saying that there isn't this one property that they are assumed to have which is that there's a certain point of no return where spacetime is simply curved in such a way that there isn't a path light could ever take to escape the black hole (i.e. there's no event horizon).