British television host Piers Morgan and pop superstar Ariana Grande engaged in a Twitter cat fight after Morgan accused female pop group Little Mix of “stripping off to sell records.”
“It’s nonsense. It’s just stripping off to sell records. It’s actually using sex and sexuality to sell records. That’s it. There’s nothing else to this,” Morgan said of Little Mix’s recent photoshoot on Good Morning Britain.
Morgan also accused talk show host Ellen DeGeneres of being a hypocrite for a segment she did on attractive men on International Mens Day, describing it as the “hypocrisy of modern feminism laid bare.”
The comments were quickly criticized by feminists and Little Mix fans alike, with Grande’s mother Joan Grande tweeting at Morgan: “Didn’t your mother ever teach you, if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say it!”
“Hi Joan, my mother taught me to speak my mind & never be afraid to express honestly held opinion,” the former CNN host tweeted back, prompting a reply from Ariana Grande.
“Ellen is an incredible & kind human being. I use my talent AND my sexuality all the time because i choose to. women can be sexual AND talented. naked and dignified [sic],” Ariana Grande wrote. “We will keep fighting til people understand. i say this w all due respect but thank u, next [sic].”
“Also @piersmorgan, i look forward to the day you realize there are other ways to go about making yourself relevant than to criticize young, beautiful, successful women for everything they do,” she later followed up. “i think that’ll be a beautiful thing for you and your career or what’s left of it. ”
Morgan has since spent the rest of the evening tweeting about the catfight, describing the women’s mutual affection as “nauseating” and even celebrating how the issue started trending in the United Kingdom.
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