JoJo Siwa definitely has some complicated feelings about Miley Cyrus joking about her sexuality. The Dance Moms alum opened up about feeling judged by one of her idols in a post on Thursday (June 12).
Sharing a throwback photo on Instagram of herself from her fifth birthday party — which was Miley-themed — Siwa wrote that the “Flowers” singer “is my day 1.” “I wasn’t sure how I felt about things for a couple of days,” she continued. “I don’t believe what Miley said at world pride was ill intended, honestly I think it was meant to be a joke, but just not very good one haha. Not what the world, or myself needs to hear any day of the week.”
The post comes five days after Cyrus — who identifies as pansexual and is in a relationship with musician Maxx Morando — quipped in a video that played during the WorldPride festival in Washington, “Alright, I’m going back in to get some more pretzels and find JoJo Siwa and bring her back out.”
The clip was filmed inside a closet, implying that the Hannah Montana star was jokingly trying to say that Siwa no longer identifies as part of the LGBTQ community. In fact, the So You Think You Can Dance veteran still identifies as queer, despite what many on the internet have been saying about her new romance with Celebrity Big Brother costar Chris Hughes, before which Siwa had mostly publicly dated women as well as nonbinary partner Kath Ebbs.
But even though she felt hurt by Cyrus’ comment in the moment, Siwa says that everything is good between them. “I messaged miley light heartedly about it and she replied and said ‘All love. Always,’” wrote Siwa, also sharing a photo she snapped with MC at a past event. “Honestly the most beautiful thing I’ve learned in the last 5 years is that love is a gorgeous rainbow.”
“Don’t question yourself, don’t second guess yourself, just love,” Siwa added. “People judge no matter what, and it can be very hard, especially when it comes from someone you love, and look up to… but if you feel happy and content with yourself, that’s most important. You get one life… hold onto it, make it yours, find your happy, and love.”
The situation comes shortly after the internet went haywire over the “Karma” singer confirming her relationship with Hughes. “It’s not platonic anymore,” she told The Guardian on June 1.
Drama has also surrounded the timing of Siwa’s breakup from Ebbs — who said that her now-ex dumped them at the Big Brother wrap party — but the YouTuber shared her side of the story in a recent interview on Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast.
“I had all these realizations in my life, things that I wasn’t happy [with], and things that I was being OK with that I should never have been OK with,” she said. “I’m not happy, so I need to handle things, and I did very quickly once I got out of the [Big Brother] house. Over a little bit of time, I realized that I started to feel something for Christopher that I never intended to, but I couldn’t not feel. And I’m a very, very lucky girl because he was feeling the same thing.”