Halsey Said She Won't Do Press After Their Quotes About Race Were Misrepresented

The life of a pop star isn’t all glitz and glamour. When you’re in the limelight, doing media rounds is a given, and sometimes, celebrities aren’t pleased with what’s published about them. Case in point: Recently, Halsey said they won’t do press after their quotes were misrepresented in a magazine cover story.

Between giving birth and preparing to release a new album and IMAX film, “Without You” singer Halsey’s got a lot on her plate lately. Naturally, she’s also been doing a lot of press promoting and speaking about her numerous endeavors. On July 13, she appeared on the cover of Allure, and in her interview, she talked about everything from parenthood to her mixed-race and gender identities.

Soon after the cover story was published, Halsey’s supporters expressed frustration on Twitter over the fact that despite the Allure story acknowledging the recording artist’s nonbinary identity, its author solely used she/her pronouns to identify Halsey, who has previously discussed they prefer when they’re addressed with she/they pronouns (rather than just she/her or they/them exclusively). In March, Halsey said, “I am happy with either [set of] pronouns. The inclusion of ‘they,’ in addition to ‘she,’ feels most authentic to me.”

In response to fan feedback, Allure announced they would update the story accordingly in a July 14 apology tweet. “We’ve heard your feedback and you’re absolutely right: we messed up,” the magazine wrote. “We are adjusting our cover story with Halsey to use both ‘she’ and ‘they’ pronouns.”

On July 14 — a few hours after Allure promised to edit the interview — Halsey shouted out the cover story, tweeting a “massive” thank you to the magazine’s glam team. They also posted about the Allure cover on their Instagram feed, however, the post was taken down sometime between July 20 and the morning of July 21.

Now, Halsey is criticizing Allure for their initial use of she/her pronouns only, along with their use of a “bastardized” quote about Halsey’s mixed-race identity. In a series of now-deleted tweets, she told Allure to “do f*cking better.”

“Hey @Allure_magazine,” they wrote, “First your writer made a focus point in my cover story my pronouns [sic] and you guys deliberately disrespected them by not using them in the article. Then your admin bastardized a quote where I discuss the privilege of being the white child of a Black parent... [sic] Intentionally used a portion that was the antithesis of the point I was trying to make. All of this ironically on the tails of an article where I give your author the intimate admission that I hate doing press because I get exploited and misquoted. Do f*cking better.... ?”

The “bastardized” quote Halsey is referring to appeared in a now-deleted tweet Allure made on July 20, in which Halsey was described as a “white-passing Black woman.”

“Throughout her life, @halsey has struggled with her identity as a white-passing Black woman (her mother is white and her father is Black),” the tweet read. “‘A lot of people try to write off a lot of my experiences because I present white.’”

The quote Allure used in the tweet was not technically a misquote, but it did lack context. In the cover story, Halsey went on to acknowledge she doesn’t have the same experiences as a Black person. “No matter how many tears I’ve shed because I’m not connecting with my family,” she said, “or my culture in a way that I would like too [sic], or because the waitress thinks I’m the babysitter when I go out with my family, none of that would compare to the tears that I would shed for presenting phenotypically Black and the disadvantages and the violence that I would face because of that.”

All this is to say that, in light of this particular cover story, Halsey announced they will no longer do any press. “#NoMorePress goodbye ❤️,” they said in a now-deleted July 21 tweet.

The Allure situation isn’t the first time Halsey has felt misrepresented by the media. At one point in the interview, they said they “don’t do press anymore... I just don’t translate very well in print. Even saying this is going to get me in trouble. I already know that it is.”

Halsey also claimed they told the interviewer they are often “exploited and misquoted” by the media, although this quote was not published in the interview.

It’s unclear if Halsey taking down her tweets means she changed their mind about not doing press. Only time will tell.