Not OK. Phoebe Bridgers got real about fake fans and trolls after she was harassed at the airport while trying to get to her father’s funeral.
“I’m coming from a place of literally — I’m feeling it in my body as I’m saying it, but — people with my picture as their Twitter picture, who claim to like my music, f—king bullied me at the airport on the way to my father’s funeral this year,” Bridgers, 28, revealed during an interview with Them published on Wednesday, March 29.
The “Copycat Killer” songstress, who lost her dad, Tony Bridgers, in December 2022, noted that people claiming to be “fans” on social media and the internet can be cruel.
“If you’re a kid and the internet somehow taught you that that’s an OK thing to do, then of course I hate capitalism and everything that led you to believe that it’s OK to do that,” Phoebe continued.
She revealed: “I, at one of the lowest points of my life, saw people who claim to love me f—king dehumanize me and shame me and f—king bully me on the way to my dad’s wake.”
The California native announced her father’s death in early January via Instagram. The following week, she was spotted walking through Los Angeles International Airport with comedian Bo Burnham.
While Phoebe didn’t explain the exact reason for the bullying, the LAX spotting came amid rumors that she and Paul Mescal had called it quits — and after she and Burnham, 32, were spotted together on multiple occasions. (Neither the Normal People actor, 27, nor Phoebe have publicly addressed the breakup.)
The “Kyoto” singer pointed out on Wednesday that it wasn’t as if the trolls didn’t know her parent had passed away when the hurtful messages poured in.
“A lot of the top comments [were] like, ‘Hey, her dad just died, what are you guys doing?’ If you harass her with her face as your profile picture, I f—king hate you,” Phoebe confessed. “And I hope you grow the f—k up.”
The Boygenius musician concluded by saying that “most of the people I talk to light up my life and remind me what I love about my job.”
She noted that her bandmates Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus have recently helped her set the “boundary” with her fans after feeling so down amid the hate speech.
“I don’t have to sit here and be f—king grateful that that happened and that that’s a part of my job,” Phoebe revealed. “It doesn’t have to be, and it wasn’t five years ago, so I appreciate being able to look at two other people and be, like, this is dehumanizing abuse, horrible s—t.”
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Dacus, 27, agreed, telling the outlet, “It’s abuse. We’ve talked about this to ourselves, but I’m glad you’re gonna say it to people who actually need to hear it.”