Katy Perry stung by snarky Wendy’s comment about her space flight: ‘Targeted hostility,’ source says
Katy Perry is hurt by Wendy’s “inappropriate” jibe about her trip to space with Lauren Sánchez and Gayle King, sources told Page Six.
The fast-food giant snarked “Can we send her back” in response to a post on X that read “Katy Perry has returned from space,” following the singer’s 11-minute mission with Blue Origin on Monday.
“We understand the internet loves a joke, but there’s a clear difference between humor and targeted hostility and this wasn’t harmless banter,” said a source familiar with Perry and the space team.
Perry held up a cardboard butterfly printed with the setlist for her “Lifetimes” tour while in space.
Katy Perry/ Instagram
Critics called the star’s concert promotion “cringe.”
Katy Perry/ Instagram
“This was a billion dollar brand using its platform to publicly demean a woman …Wendy’s didn’t make a joke — they made a choice,” the source added, saying the company — which features a young girl as their logo — should apologize. “Their recent posts were not only disrespectful, but blatantly inappropriate.”
Perry, 40, went up in the rocket owned by Jeff Bezos’ company along with the billionaire’s fiancée, Sánchez, who is a close pal. CBS morning host King, former NASA engineer Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist, astronaut Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn were also on the ride.
The rocket took them just past the Kármán line — 62 miles above Earth, which is considered the threshold of space, where they experienced a few minutes of zero gravity. Perry, clutching a daisy in honor of her 4-year-old daughter Daisy Dove Bloom, sang Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” while floating.
Burger giant Wendy’s made a jibe about sending Perry back to space on X.
@Wendys/X
The “Fireworks” singer kissed the ground after the Blue Origin rocket landed after the 11-minute journey;.
Blue Origin/Mega
“I feel super-connected to love,” the star said after landing. “This experience has shown me you never know how much love is inside of you, like how much love you have to give and how loved you are.”
But she was slammed online — including by other celebrities — for also revealing a butterfly-shaped note promoting her upcoming tour dates and dramatically kissing the ground when the capsule landed back at the Blue Origin base near Van Horn, Texas.
Emily Ratajkowski called the mission “beyond parody,” while Oivia Munn deemed it “gluttonous.” Olivia Wilde commented on a post about the flight: “Billion dollars bought some good memes I guess.
Kesha seemed to support Wendy’s comment by posting a photo of herself sipping a milkshake from the fast food restaurant.
@KeshaRose/X
After the Wendy’s slam, singer Kesha posted a selfie of herself grinning with a milkshake from the chain.
However, the source told us, “Wendy’s may think they’re being clever or witty, but what they’re really doing is feeding a culture of online bullying that everyone agrees has gone too far.”
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A Wendy’s spokesperson told Page Six in response, “We always bring a little spice to our socials, but Wendy’s has a ton of respect for Katy Perry and her out-of-this-world-talent.”
Still, the source insisted, “When billion-dollar brands join in, it’s irresponsible. They’re not adding to the conversation, they’re dragging it down and this kind of behavior contributes to a culture where women are punished for standing out or a woman daring to do something different is a target.
Perry reunited with daughter Daisy and partner Orlando Bloom after the flight.
Blue Origin/Mega
The star took a daisy to space in tribute to her daughter.
Blue Origin/Mega
“What’s worse is that the face of Wendy’s is a woman, which makes this decision not just hypocritical, but painfully ironic. Everyone expected more from a brand with this kind of platform. Wendy’s should ‘do the right thing’” — one of the core values listed on the company’s website — “apologize and do better in the future.”
Seventy-year-old King, who was also seen kissing the ground upon return, hit back at the backlash — telling Entertainment Tonight, “We duplicated the same trajectory that Alan Shepard did back in the day, pretty much. No one called that a ‘ride,’”
“It was called a flight, it was called a journey. There was nothing frivolous about what we did,”
King admitted she was initially a doubter of the space flights, but changed her mind when she looked at “what Blue Origin does” and the company’s intention “to figure out a way to harness the waste here and put it in space to make the Earth a better place.”
Lauren Sánchez (third from left) invited an all-women crew to space, including (from left0 CBS morning host King, former NASA engineer Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist, astronaut Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
