Katy Perry stands by her defence of Ellen DeGeneres and refuses to apologise following backlash

Katy Perry is standing by her defence of embattled talkshow host Ellen DeGeneres.

In an interview with the LA Times, the musician opened up about why she decided to publicly defend the Ellen DeGeneres Show host after a long string of allegations that the show runs under a toxic environment.

Referencing the tweet, Perry said:

I started that tweet off not undermining anyone else’s experience.

She stood by her remarks and didn’t take the opportunity to apologise for the backlash against her.

I wanted to only speak from my own experience. I have over 100 million people that follow me on Twitter, so not everyone is going to agree with me. And I’m not here to make everyone agree with me.

Perry’s original defence of DeGeneres didn’t go down well with a lot of people online, who branded it "disrespectful". Many pointed out that it’s not really relevant how millionaire celebrity guests are treated, when the issue seems to be how staff feel they’ve been treated working behind-the-scenes.

The Ellen Show came under fire in July after BuzzFeed News published reports of racism, fear, intimidation and sexual misconduct behind the scenes of the show. Several Ellen producers have denied the alleged incidents detailed in the BuzzFeed report, but the allegations still prompted WarnerMedia to launch an investigation into the show.

DeGeneres apologised to staff on the show in an internal memo which was leaked to various news outlets.

On day one of our show, I told everyone in our first meeting that The Ellen DeGeneres Show would be a place of happiness — no one would ever raise their voice, and everyone would be treated with respect.

Obviously, something changed, and I am disappointed to learn that this has not been the case. And for that, I am sorry.

Perry isn’t the only celebrity who has come under scrutiny for defending DeGeneres. Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Hart were also criticised for their defences of the embattled talkshow host.

The backlash against famous people defending DeGeneres seems to be centred around the fact that wealthy celebrities might not have any idea how lower paid production staff are treated on the show when they appear as guests. Just because a famous, wealthy person is treated a certain way, doesn’t mean that this experience is universal.

Though both Perry and Kutcher have made clear that they were speaking from their own perspective only, and for now Perry is holding firm on her remarks despite the controversy.