As Kismet covered earlier this week, Katy Perry was part of the all-female Blue Origin crew which went into space for about 10 minutes. It cost a billion dollars to get some (frankly terrific) Gayle King memes and a video of Jeff Bezos face-planting in a ditch in the desert. All week, there’s been a lot of mockery and commentary about this wasteful, faux-feminist BS. As the flight was happening on Monday, a lot of people were making jokes about Katy Perry specifically. Wendy’s Twitter account made some jokes too:
I kissed the ground and i liked it https://t.co/pjBpDIZ9k8
— Wendy’s (@Wendys) April 15, 2025
If you go to that tweet, you can see that the Wendy’s handle is making jokes in the thread, like “When we said women in stem this isn’t what we meant.” Soon after, Kesha got involved, posting a selfie where she was sipping from a Wendy’s cup, with the logo visible. The backstory on that is: Katy Perry’s longtime producer is Dr. Luke and Katy is still working with him even after Kesha credibly accused him of physically and emotionally abusing her (and Kesha spent years battling Dr. Luke in court too). Anyway, Katy came back to earth and saw all of the mockery, and she decided that she’s especially mad about Wendy’s jokes. From a People Mag exclusive:
Wendy’s beef with Katy Perry over her Blue Origin space flight went too far, a source close to the situation feels. Shortly after Blue Origin’s first all-female crew flew to the edge of space and back on Monday, April 14, the fast food chain took a series of jabs at the “Woman’s World” singer, 40.
“Can we send her back,” the official Wendy’s account wrote in response to one post about Perry’s return from space, while another commented on how “when we said women in stem this isn’t what we meant.”
The barbed posts divided fans — and the commentary also sparked tension between Perry and fellow musician Kesha, 38. Now, the source close to the situation tells PEOPLE that the company was out of line and that Perry deserves an apology.
“Wendy’s didn’t make a joke — they made a choice. Their recent posts on X aimed at Katy Perry were not only disrespectful, but blatantly inappropriate,” the source says. “This wasn’t harmless banter, this was a billion-dollar brand using its platform to publicly demean a woman,” the source adds, contending that “when billion-dollar brands join in, it’s irresponsible.”
In response, Wendy’s kept it positive but stopped short of an apology in a statement to PEOPLE.
“We always bring a little spice to our socials, but Wendy’s has a ton of respect for Katy Perry and her out-of-this-world-talent,” the fast food company said.
The source close to the situation expressed dismay that the comments targeted a flight that featured an all-female crew.
“[Wendy’s is] not adding to the conversation, they’re dragging it down and this kind of behavior contributes to a culture where women are punished for standing out or a woman daring to do something different is a target,” the source says.
The comment that drew the most ire from the source was Wendy’s swipe about sending Perry back to space. “Telling a woman that she should be ‘sent back’ is shameful bullying and reflects a troubling willingness to tear down in today’s society,” the source says. “What’s worse is that the face of Wendy’s is a woman, which makes this decision not just hypocritical, but painfully ironic.”
“Everyone expected more from a brand with this kind of platform. Wendy’s should ‘do the right thing’ (the name of one of their core values) apologize and do better in the future,” the source continues.
Katy Perry has always promoted this quasi-feminism of “no one can say mean things about ME.” It’s especially galling for this “source” to get on their pseudofeminist high horse about “punishing women for daring to do something different” when Katy’s last album was mostly co-produced and co-written by Dr. Luke. Notice that Katy – sorry, I mean “a source” – can’t even bring herself to mention Kesha’s participation in this particular storyline. Katy thinks that her beef with Wendy’s is some sort of rallying cry for women, but really, she just looks thin-skinned and out-of-touch. Given how many celebrities and thought-leaders were loudly criticizing this Blue Origin mess, it’s strange that Katy only has smoke for Wendy’s.
— kesha (@KeshaRose) April 15, 2025
Photos and screengrabs courtesy of Backgrid, GMA/Blue Origin video.
