Sara Beth - a lovable contestant on this season of American Idol - has quit the show amid "hurtful" comments made by Katy Perry, one of the show's judges.
The 25-year-old mother-of-three had captured the attention of the judges with her talent, with Perry describing Beth as "a comic strip character come to life," per Yahoo.
When the judges discovered that she was actually a mother - not a high school student - Perry pretended to faint. Beth stated: "If Katy lays on the table, I think I'm going to pass out!"
It was at this point that Perry remarked: "Honey, you've been laying on the table too much!" This comment raised a lot of eyebrows, with some people arguing that it constituted slut-shaming or mom-shaming. At the time, Beth laughed it off, but has since spoken out about the incident.
Check out the moment here:Beth did end up going onto the next stage of the TV show, however, she has since quit the competition. Now, she's come out on TikTok to explain how Perry's comments made her feel, and to speak up about mom-shaming.
"It was embarrassing to have that on TV," she said in the TikTok. "And it was hurtful." She said the joke "wasn't super kind," adding, "I did want to take this opportunity to say that I think that women supporting and uplifting other women is so cool, and I think that mom-shaming is super lame."
"It's hard enough to be a mom and it's hard enough to be a woman," she continued, thanking her followers for their support, as well as commenters on the original YouTube video showing the awkward exchange.
"I see you and I hear you and I am grateful for you. Keep loving your babies; nobody deserves to feel crappy about that. I think if you're a good mama and you love your babies that's all that really matters and other comments don't feel necessary," she stated.
Despite referring to the opportunity as "really rad", she admitted her "heart’s at home." Beth added: "So, I’m going get home to my babies. They kind of need me."
Social media users have since taken the chance to stick up for Beth, with one person writing: "I'm so disappointed in how the judges seemed to go out of their way to judge her before they had anything to actually judge. After she sang her pure heart out, the judges acted like they needed to save face and stay rude towards her instead of acknowledging they might have jumped the gun forming an opinion too quickly."
"Also, I appreciated how she stayed authentic and didn't filter her answers to appease what the judges wanted to hear. Auditioning is proof that it’s her 'dream' otherwise she wouldn't have auditioned in the first place. Shame on Katy especially," they continued.
"Protect this mamma at all costs. It makes me sad how they treated her most of the time. And let the lady sing, stop screaming at her while she's at it [...] she's unique and so much better then a lot of other contestants, just because she didn't tell a huge sob story and begged for opportunity they tried to put her down. I don't get it," another person added.
What do you think about Perry's comments? Let us know!
