Former Fifth Harmony singer Lauren Jauregui says Perez Hilton “violated” her when he publicly “outed” her on his gossip blog in 2016, before she was ready.
Lauren, who is openly bisexual, was the latest guest on Gloria Estefan‘s Red Table Talk on Facebook Watch to discuss cyberbullying — something they believe is what made Perez famous. Gloria opened the discussion by saying the blogger was “the harbinger of doom” for the young singer when he publicly outed her five years ago and stole her “opportunity to come out.”
“I had been dating the girlfriend that I had at the time for like, probably a year at that point, but we had fallen in love when I was like 15,” Lauren recalled. She had invited her partner to her uncle’s wedding, which had a photo booth, and she said, “My girlfriend and I, we were drunk, so we had taken a picture kissing.”
Lauren’s aunt then “innocently posted” all the photo booth pictures to Facebook, adding, “It was like a link for the family to be able to click on,” but her overzealous fans found it and Perez publicly posted the photo across his accounts.
“[Perez] definitely outed me. I wasn’t ready,” she said. “I felt like my own process was violated.” Lauren says his actions also affected her family because they had to “deal with [it] on a public scale.”
Perez on Wednesday responded to the “Worth It” singer and said he is “NOT sorry for that tweet” because “that was not ‘outing’ her.”
“All I did was send out a tweet talking about the leaked photo and I said “Why are #FifthHarmony fans being so extra over this photo,'” Perez continued. “I don’t regret that. I never claimed or presumed anything about her sexuality.”
All I did was send out a tweet talking about the leaked photo and I said “Why are #FifthHarmony fans being so extra over this photo of @LaurenJauregui (in the red) kissing another girl? NBD!” I don’t regret that. I never claimed or presumed anything about her sexuality.
— Perez (@ThePerezHilton) December 8, 2021
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