Katy Perry addresses online hate in emotional note to fans: ‘Please know I am OK’
"When the 'online' world tries to make me a human piñata, I take it with grace and send them love," she wrote
By Tomás Mier
Katy Perry wants her KatyCats to know she’s doing alright, even as she faces a barrage of hate online. On Tuesday, the pop star left a lengthy comment on a fan page, reflecting on how she’s dealt with the digital attacks and thanking those who have supported her along the way.
“I’m so grateful for you guys. We’re in this beautiful and wild journey together,” Perry wrote in an Instagram comment. “I can continue to remain true to myself, heart open and honest especially because of our bond.”
She later continued: “Please know I am ok, I have done a lot work around knowing who I am, what is real and what is important to me. My therapist said something years ago that has been a game changer, ‘No one can make you believe something about yourself that you don’t already believe about yourself,’ and if I ever do have any feelings about it then it’s an opportunity to investigate the feeling underneath it.”
Perry’s comment expressing her gratitude was in response to a worldwide fan project that congratulated the singer for the launch of her tour with a temporary billboard in Times Square. “Know that you are safe, seen and celebrated,” the fans wrote in the billboard, seemingly alluding to the intense backlash she’s received over her recent Blue Origin space mission, and criticism around clips of her Lifetimes Tour.
“When the ‘online’ world tries to make me a human piñata, I take it with grace and send them love, cause I know so many people are hurting in so many ways and the internet is very much so a dumping ground for unhinged and unhealed,” Perry wrote. “What’s real is seeing your faces every night, singing in unison, reading your notes, feeling your warmth.”
Every night of her Lifetimes Tour thus far, Perry has personally selected fans from the crowd and invited them onstage to perform a surprise song with her, embracing them during the set. In her note, she reflected on that connection during the show.
“I find people to lock eyes and sing with and I know we are healing each other in a small way when I get to do that [no], l’m not perfect, and I actually have omitted that word from my vocabulary,” Perry wrote. “l’m on a human journey playing the game of life with an audience of many and sometimes I fall but… I get back up and go on and continue to play the game and somehow through my battered and bruised adventure, I keep looking to the light.”
The new message from Perry comes as she’s set to wrap the Mexico dates of her Lifetimes Tour before starting the U.S. leg of her run next week. She kicks off the tour in Houston on May 7. During one show in Mexico City last Friday, Perry was seen with tears down her face as she performed Teenage Dream deepcut, ‘Pearl.’