Lily Allen apologizes for ‘being mean’ to Katy Perry over Blue Origin flight

Lily Allen poses for photographers upon arrival at the Olivier Awards in London, Sunday, April 10, 2022. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

British pop star and podcast host Lily Allen has apologized for criticizing U.S. singer Katy Perry for taking part in a recent all-female space flight.

“I would actually like to apologize for being mean about Katy Perry last week,” Allen said on her podcast “Miss Me?” in an episode released Monday.

“There was actually no need for me to bring her name into it, and it was my own internalized misogyny,” she told co-host Miquita Oliver.

In a previous episode of the podcast, Allen lambasted Perry for being one of six women who traveled aboard Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space tourism company Blue Origin’s all-female, suborbital mission earlier this month.

“I mean, what the… hell was all that about?” Allen said in a podcast episode released on April 17. “In all seriousness, what? Why? For why?”

“It’s so out of touch. Like, we’re on the brink of recession. People are really… struggling to make ends meet and get food on their table,” said Allen, who said that Perry had been sent to space for “absolutely no… reason.”

“And the fact that they’ve, like, made it like some sort of feminist thing…” she added.

Allen said Monday that she still disagrees with the fact that the flight took place, but apologized for singling out Perry.

“I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and it was just completely unnecessary to pile on with her. I disagree with what it was that they did, but she wasn’t the only person that did it,” she said.

“She was possibly the most famous, and the one that divides people the most, and so there was something in me that decided to choose her as the person (to criticize),” she added.

“Well, anyway, I’m just sorry. I would have been hurt if it had been me and someone in my industry… used me and my name, and I saw that, and I’m sorry,” said Allen.

The flight, which also counted journalist Gayle King and Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sanchez among its passengers, took place on Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft on April 14.

It lasted about 10 minutes and saw the group travel more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) into the sky, experiencing a few minutes of weightlessness before descending back to Earth.

Although the company trumpeted the all-female crew as a marker of progress, it also elicited plenty of criticism, with some aghast at efforts to promote space tourism at a time when millions of people are struggling to afford basic necessities.

Perry featured heavily in promotional materials for the flight, including being filmed holding up a butterfly with a track list for her upcoming tour on it to an onboard camera.

Notable critics included actress Olivia Munn, who called the mission “gluttonous,” while tech journalist Kara Swisher slammed it as a “publicity stunt.”