Olivia's Getting Backlash For Waiting To Defend Sabrina From Haters
Fans want to know why she waited seven months to speak out.
Generally, fans value transparency from celebrities, but after Olivia Rodrigo got real about the drama surrounding her heartbreaking “Drivers License” lyrics (aka, everyone deciding unanimously they were about Sabrina Carpenter), fans felt her honesty came too little too late. The singer has played coy from the start about her feelings on the situation, and if she was salty, no one could tell. However, in a new interview with Variety, the truth came pouring out. Olivia Rodrigo’s quotes about the hate Sabrina Carpenter got over “Drivers License” condemn all the hate Carpenter received. But Rodrigo taking that stance in August, seven months after the song’s release, has fans split.
Rodrigo appeared on the cover of Variety’s Power of Young Hollywood Issue, where she talked all about her viral success and navigating the spotlight. One quote from the interview really had fans talking. “I just remember [everyone being] so weird and speculative about stuff they had no idea about,” Rodrigo recalled. “I don’t really subscribe to hating other women because of boys. I think that’s so stupid, and I really resent that narrative that was being tossed around.”
To be fair, Rodrigo insisted the backstory behind “Drivers License” doesn’t matter shortly after its release in January, but she never went as far as to tell haters to leave Carpenter alone, which many trolls felt was as good as confirming all the rumors. Critics wondered why she waited so long to condemn fans’ speculation and actions toward Carpenter if she resented it from the start, with some accusing her of having stayed silent until the last moment possible in order to fuel the buzz around her hit single.
At the same time, others fiercely defended Rodrigo, pointing out it isn’t her responsibility to police trolls on the internet.
Some took more of a middle ground stance and said they saw both sides of the story.
Despite so many saying it was a bad look for Rodrigo to wait so long to speak out, at the end of the day, she promoted loving and respecting other women in her interview.
“It’s so nice to be welcomed into the music industry and so great to be supportive of other women,” Rodrigo said. She touched upon the special bond she shares with Taylor Swift, and the support her fellow pop star has given her. “She wrote me a letter a while ago, and she wrote something about how you make your own luck in the world, and how you treat other people always comes back to you.”
While some critics find Rodrigo hypocritical for preaching about supporting and loving other women when the hate Sabrina received over a boy went unacknowledged for so long, at least she’s speaking out now. You heard it from Rodrigo herself: Hating other women over boys is not cool at all.
