Katy Perry has shifted from her “I Kissed a Girl” and pop party girl days to dating billionaires and mingling with some of the world’s most powerful people.
But this week, Australian actress Ruby Rose’s public accusations of sexual assault left her “blindsided,” her friends told Page Six.
Ms Rose claimed in a thread that the 41-year-old singer rubbed his exposed crotch in her face during a boozy night at a Melbourne club in 2010. “Detectives are investigating a historic sexual assault that took place in Melbourne in 2010,” police said in a statement this week.
Mr. Perry vehemently denied the allegations. Rose spoke about her battle with depression. He previously said in a 2011 article about his night with Perry that “nothing terrible happened.”
Social media users quickly resurfaced this week a clip featuring “Pitch Perfect” actress Anna Kendrick on Conan O’Brien’s talk show in 2014, in which the “Aggressive” singer said she once stuck her finger in Kendrick’s cleavage, but added that the plunging neckline of her dress “kind of called for it” and that she “would have been a little sad if no one else did it.”
It’s definitely been a nightmare for Perry, 41, to be caught up in all this, and we’re told she faces being forever tainted by the online allegations.
“We’re being asked to believe in all women…” said a music insider who has worked with Perry. “But Katie is constantly distraught and will now face trial online for these harmful claims.”
The claims come after Perry was discovered by generations of new fans. Her 2010 hit song “The One Who Got Away” returned to the Billboard charts after going viral on TikTok.
In recent years, Perry has moved away from dressing like a hamburger and wearing rotating bras to operate in rarer circles.
The preacher’s daughter, who admitted that drinking “became a problem” in her early 20s, is estimated to be worth $400 million and counts Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos among her closest friends, according to Forbes magazine. She was spotted sunbathing on a $100 million yacht with billionaire Barry Diller’s wife, designer Diane von Furstenberg, and performed at King Charles’ coronation in 2023.
To make matters worse, her relationship with former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is heating up.
In fact, just days before Rose’s accusations, Perry and Trudeau were photographed attending an intimate banquet thrown by Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, one of Hollywood’s most powerful figures, and his wife, Nicole Avant, a former U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, with whom Prince Perry and Prime Minister Trudeau recently enjoyed a ski trip at the exclusive Yellowstone Club in Montana, were also guests at the new season launch event for Netflix’s Beef.
A source from Canadian Society for the high-profile couple, who were also spotted together at last weekend’s Coachella music festival, said, “They have been building a really fulfilling relationship over the past few months.” “They’ve made no secret that they’re crazy about each other, but this is the first challenge they’ve faced since they started dating.”
The association added that it could put Trudeau in an “awkward situation.”
“Justin was known to be a pro-female prime minister. He advocated gender equality in his cabinet, and he was involved in these kinds of social issues, so this could cause a bit of a rift in their relationship,” said a source at the association.
Prime Minister Trudeau, 54, is known for her feminist stance and said at the 2018 World Economic Forum conference, “When women speak out, it’s our responsibility to be heard and, more importantly, to be believed.”
But after making those comments in 2018, he also found himself in the crosshairs when a reporter accused him of molesting his girlfriend at a music festival in 2000 when he was a teacher.
Prime Minister Trudeau later apologized to the woman, but said he was confident he had not acted inappropriately.
Perry has been accused over the years of mom-shaming one “American Idol” contestant and planting an unwanted kiss on the lips of another contestant, who was 19 years old, but this was his first.
And even if Mr. Perry’s past antics were just jokes, “other people will try to write you off,” the source said. “Fame is a double-edged sword. People are now not afraid to use it against you.”
Rose, whose real name is Ruby Rose Langenheim, made her claims while responding to an online Complex article about Perry’s reaction to Justin Bieber’s set at Coachella.
“Katy Perry sexually assaulted me at the Spice Market nightclub in Melbourne. Who knows what she would think,” Rose wrote in a post in a now-deleted thread.
Rose, who played Stella Carlin in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, claimed of Perry, “She saw me ‘resting’ on my best friend’s lap, bent over to avoid her, pulled her underwear to the side, rubbed her disgusting vagina in my face, my eyes snapped open and I spat projectiles at her.”
“After I threw up on her, I went public with the story, but I didn’t know how else to deal with it, so I turned it into a ‘drunk funny story.’ Then she agreed to help me get a US visa. So I kept it a secret. But I told her she wasn’t a nice person,” the actress also claimed.
Perry’s rep denied Rose’s claims in a statement to Page Six, saying, “The claims Ruby Rose is spreading on social media about Katy Perry are not only categorically false, but dangerous and reckless lies. Ms. Rose has a well-documented history of making serious accusations on social media against various individuals, but the claims have been repeatedly denied by those named.”
Rose, who has been open about her past struggles with alcohol and drug use, has also been accused of harassment herself.
In 2018, Rose’s ex-girlfriend, Jessica Origliasso of the band The Veronicas, publicly accused Rose of “ongoing harassment”, calling their relationship “painful”, “tough” and isolating, and revealing that she had been estranged from her family during their time together.
Rose wrote an essay for Melbourne’s Herald Sun in 2011, describing how she was drunk when she “vomited” on Perry during a wild night out, including a fiasco before clubbing at her high school prom.
“One night recently, I spectacularly lost my dignity (and keys). Remember when Katy Perry and I failed at the ’12 formal? I don’t remember. I had been sober for 30 days — my first attempt at sobriety — and I was out partying with Katy,” Rose wrote.
“What I remember thinking was, ‘I’m going to drink tonight. Of course I should. I mean, what’s the worst that can happen?'” Well, not stopping at one drink or 10 and then vomiting on Katie’s feet was the answer. ”
To commemorate World Mental Health Day 2018, Rose wrote on Instagram: “I have struggled with mental health all my life,” adding, “When I was 18, I discovered I had dissociative amnesia.”
Meanwhile, in 2020, Warner Bros. announced that she had been let go from starring in the CW series Batwoman following an “extensive review of multiple complaints regarding her workplace conduct” and accused her of making a “revisionist history.”
Those around Perry hope the backlash from Rose’s allegations doesn’t derail a career that has taken her from food stamps to superstardom.
“The world we live in…anyone can say anything,” said an industry insider. “It’s sad because she doesn’t even have to be found guilty[of damaging her reputation]. Katie has worked incredibly hard.”
