The Shady Side Of Katy Perry

The following article includes allegations of sexual assault.

Katy Perry may be a global pop star, but she also has an undeniable shady side. From spearheading beef with fellow female singers to calling out her male counterparts on their speculative behavior or even sidestepping non-famous folks to get what she wants, Perry's had a penchant for making her name known in a variety of less-than-ideal situations. That's not to say all of her talk is bad, though — she has continued to make her voice heard in realms beyond entertainment. "If you're not standing for anything, you're really just serving yourself, period, end of story," she shared with Vogue in 2017.

Throughout it all, Perry has remained a household name in music, television, and more. "Our priority is fame, and people's wellness is way low," she once told Rolling Stone in 2011. "I saw this knowing full well that I'm a part of the problem. I'm playing the game, though I am trying to reroute."

Katy Perry had a string of hits in the late 2000s and early 2010s with back-to-back albums "One of the Boys," "Teenage Dream," and "Prism." One of her biggest smash singles was "Dark Horse," which rocketed to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2014. However, the success of the song was marred by a plagiarism lawsuit that same year. In the suit, Christian hip-hop artist Flame (aka Marcus Gray) claimed that "Dark Horse" copied a significant portion of his 2008 song "Joyful Noise." By 2019, the courts found Perry "liable for infringement," according to Variety.

Gray appealed the decision in 2020, but to no avail — the appeal was denied in 2022, and Perry was freed from legal scrutiny over the song. The reason for overturning the ruling? The court ruled that the similarities between the two songs contained "'commonplace musical elements' that lacked the 'quantum of originality' needed for copyright protection," per Reuters.

Besides her superstardom, Katy Perry is arguably well-known for her years-long feud with fellow pop icon Taylor Swift. What started as a stolen roster of backup dancers that Perry poached from Swift turned into a media frenzy that included online barbs, diss tracks, and more. The two divas traded statements to reporters from 2014 through 2019 on and off and with the release of their respective singles "Bad Blood" (Swift) and "Swish Swish" (Perry), the internet masses continued to eat up the drama. "I wish that I could turn the other cheek every single time, but I'm also not a pushover, you know?" Perry shared with NME in 2017. "Especially when someone tries to assassinate my character with little girls [Swift's fans]. That's so messed up!"

By 2019, the two entertainers seemingly squashed their beef after Perry extended a literal olive branch to Swift before posting a peace offering of cookies on Instagram. She later appeared in Swift's music video for "You Need to Calm Down," where the two were shown embracing. "We made amends and I'm all about redemption and forgiveness," Perry shared afterward on "Ellen."

Taylor Swift isn't the only legendary pop star that Katy Perry has thrown shade at. In 2014, Perry seemingly smack-talked Mariah Carey in an Australian TV interview. After rebuffing the claim that she was the biggest female entertainer in the world, the reporter expressed that perhaps Mariah Carey would then have that title. "I mean, she's fabulous ... for a throwback," Perry responded (per News.com.au). "We love [Carey's songs] 'Fantasy,' I love 'Honey' ... I listened to all those songs growing up." Needless to say, fans of Carey's were not thrilled with Perry's words.

Perry has also made comments about Britney Spears — multiple times. She's had a history of mocking Spears' public meltdown from 2007, but the shady cherry on top came when Perry shared a post from producer Greg Wells on Instagram. In Wells' interview, he wrote that Perry "was her own woman" and "isn't handed a script like Britney Spears and told what to sing" (via BuzzFeed). The backhanded undermining of Spears' music career did not sit well with fans, who were fast to defend Spears and lambast Perry for mocking her.

2014 was a banner year for Perry in terms of calling out celebs, and Lady Gaga was no exception. The only difference? Gaga may have been the one to start this (alleged) feud. That year, Perry kicked off her Prismatic World Tour, sporting brightly colored hair and outfits that many aligned with Gaga's 2013 album and style "Artpop." Gaga herself even commented on the similarities in an X (formerly Twitter) Q&A with fans: "It looks like green hair and mechanical horses are the thing now [eyeballs emoji]."

Perry has also spoken not entirely complimentary about Gaga in public, even coming for Gaga's approach to her supporters. "I'm not, like, a crazy 'I'm gonna die for my fans' type," she told Rolling Stone. "Some people are so dramatic about it, and you're like, 'Honestly, you're not the Second Coming. You're just an entertainer.'"

Perry has also been at odds with Gaga over another pop artist, Ke$ha. While both were supportive of the "Tik Tok" songstress during her widely publicized lawsuit against mega-producer Dr. Luke, several leaked text messages between Gaga and Ke$ha made it seem otherwise. However, Gaga was quick to take the high road in a post to X that affirmed their respect for one another. "Love you too friend [heart emoji] Onward and upward," Perry responded in her own post to X.

Katy Perry hasn't just smack-talked her fellow pop stars — she's also ghosted them. In the early 2010s, Perry and Rihanna seemed thick as thieves, appearing alongside one another publicly at events, including the MTV Video Music Awards, and going on tropical vacations together. Rihanna even threw her friend a bachelorette party in 2010 before Perry got married to now ex-husband Russell Brand. But when Rihanna began seeing her (abusive) ex-boyfriend Chris Brown in 2012, Perry distanced herself from her former bestie. They even sat in different sections at the 2013 Grammys. "We've had dinner, and that's about it," Perry told MTV News in 2013 (via Glamour UK). "... I think she is doing fine. I don't know."

The two seemed to make up around 2015 for a while, as Perry began posting tributes to her "friend" once again. But by 2018, things had reportedly soured again, and Rihanna left her former bestie off of her after-party list when she hosted the Met Gala. "They used to be close but Rihanna's expression in the [publicity] photo says it all," a source told The Sun.

It's not just her own feuds that Katy Perry has commented on publicly; she's also chimed in on other celebrity spats. In the midst of her ongoing battle with Taylor Swift, Perry posted a response to Nicki Minaj's comment about the "Bad Blood" singer. Minaj shared her discouragement at not being nominated for Video of the Year at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards while other "skinny" artists were nominated, which Swift clapped back in defense of herself (despite not being specifically called out). Following Swift's suit, Perry also took it upon herself to say her piece about the situation that didn't necessarily involve her. "Finding it ironic to parade the pit women against other women argument about as one unmeasurably capitalizes on the take down of a woman," she posted to X. Minaj, for her part, liked Perry's post shortly after. But unlike Perry and Swift's years-long battle, Minaj's supposed beef with Swift didn't last long. The two later appeared on stage together at the VMAs, while Perry was not present at the ceremony.

Aside from her public comments against her fellow pop divas, Katy Perry has also shined a shady spotlight on a few male artists, including one of her ex-boyfriends. After a brief affair with DJ Diplo in 2014, Perry put their sex life on blast years later in a viral game of "Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts" with James Corden. In the game, she ranked three of her (then) exes by how great they were in bed, and Diplo came in last. For his part, the musician joked about his stance on social media. "I won the bronze medal in the sex Olympics," he posted to X. He followed up with a separate post, saying, "I don't even remember having sex."

In another link to her epic Taylor Swift feud, Perry once had a public spat with one of Swift's exes, Calvin Harris. But their fight happened years before the two divas' bad blood. Harris once dropped out as an opening act on Perry's tour at the last minute, prompting the singer to blast him online. But all was forgiven a few years later when the two joined forces on Harris' song "Feels." "Eight years or so had passed. It was time to put all that behind us," Perry revealed on "On Air with Ryan Seacrest."

Katy Perry has taken her shady side to real estate, allegedly trying to forcibly remove an 83-year-old veteran from his home. In 2021, Perry and her partner, actor Orlando Bloom, purchased a sprawling Montecito, California mansion in a $14.2 million deal. But, the estate's previous owner, Carl Westcott, later sued the couple and claimed that he was not of sound mind when he initially signed the deed over to them. To further the hurt, Westcott suffered from Huntington's Disease, which affected his brain function.

According to the New York Post, the famous folks sent Westcott a letter detailing their love of the property and even raising the price they'd pay for their potential new home. In turn, Westcott wouldn't budge, claiming that he was entering the last years of his life and wanted to remain on the property. By 2023, Westcott's wishes didn't matter, as the judge sided with Perry and Bloom and granted them their dream home. "Mr. Westcott breached the contract simply because he changed his mind," Perry's rep said to Rolling Stone. "We eagerly anticipate resolving this matter during the scheduled damage trial phase ..." This wasn't the first time that Perry entered a years-long legal battle. She also once sued an Australian designer named Katie Perry over the use of her own name.

Katy Perry has entered a number of legal battles over the years, but one of the more bizarre occurrences is arguably when she sued a group of nuns over the sale of their Los Angeles-area convent. In 2015, Perry sought to purchase the property originally owned by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and housed the sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The building was initially sold by the sisters to Dana Hollister, a restaurateur, but the archdiocese revoked the sale and instead counter-sold it to Perry (per NPR).

This caused an uproar among the nuns and the public, and a long public campaign lambasting Perry took over area media. "Katy Perry represents everything we don't believe in," Sister Catherine Rose Holzman shared in an interview with Billboard. "It would be a sin to sell to her." However, all of the public commentary was to no avail, as a judge ruled in the archdiocese and Perry's favor in 2016. To make matters worse, Holzman collapsed and passed away during a court appearance fighting the matter in 2018.

For six years, Katy Perry was the middle-seated judge on the revival of "American Idol." But by the end of her tenure on the long-running reality competition program, Perry's favor with audiences (and reportedly producers) had soured immensely. In 2024, Perry announced that she was leaving the show amidst rumors of production treating her poorly and editing footage to make her look like the harshest judge. To make matters worse, "Idol" fans had complained about Perry's on-screen behavior, even going so far as to boo her on air when she criticized a contestant's outfit.

"She went into [the show] thinking she was going to foster young talent," an anonymous source told the New York Post. "For her good intentions to be misinterpreted it was not what she wanted." The star was eventually replaced with former "Idol" winner and country music maven Carrie Underwood. "I love 'Idol' so much," Perry shared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (via Billboard). "It's connected me with the heart of America, but I feel like I need to go out and feel that pulse to my own beat."

Katy Perry came under fire in 2024 after reuniting with producer Dr. Luke on a new album. The two had previously collaborated on some of Perry's biggest hits, including "California Gurls" and "Teenage Dream" alongside another legendary producer, Max Martin (who also returned to produce Perry's 2024 album). But the controversy surrounding Dr. Luke (and Perry's involvement in it) sparked concern from fans. In 2018, Dr. Luke was embroiled in an ongoing legal battle with another pop star, Ke$ha, who accused him of sexual and emotional abuse. Ke$ha, who was once featured in one of Perry's music videos, involved Perry in the lawsuit when she claimed that Dr. Luke had sexually assaulted Perry, an allegation that Perry denied.

Though the lawsuit was settled in 2023, fans were not thrilled when Perry announced that she would be joining forces with the embattled hitmaker once again. Even other celebrities expressed their distaste for the new collaboration. "Working with known abusers in any industry just contributes to the narrative that men can do abhorrent s*** and get away with it," actor Abigail Breslin wrote on X. As for Ke$ha's response? She kept things simple with her post to X: "lol."

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).