JoJo Siwa has been making headlines all month long for a range of reasons, from her relatable journey with her gender identity and sexuality to her chemistry with Chris Hughes on Celebrity Big Brother U.K. and her recent split with Kath Ebbs.
Amid ^^^ all that, another Big Brother housemate of JoJo’s, Mickey Rourke, caught fire for telling her, “If I stay longer than four days, you won’t be gay anymore.” The “Karma” singer kept quiet about the incident until she recently spoke to Us Weekly and opened up about her feelings surrounding the former professional boxer’s homophobic comments.
“I think I learned very, very quickly that Mickey is not a good man, right?” JoJo said. “But two truths can exist. I can say Mickey’s not a good man. And I can say I have sympathy for Mickey. And I think one thing that Mickey has not gotten in a very long time in his life is sympathy or a conversation about something rather than a celebrity story, a movie he was in.”
She then shared how she was able to stay calm during the moment, saying, “It was day two in the house —I think if we would’ve been deeper in, it would’ve been a different experience. But I also think I’ve just learned you’re gonna get nowhere by yelling at somebody.”
The entertainer, who’s gearing up to release her new single “Bulletproof” later this month, also shared how she approaches interacting with people who think differently and hold different values than she does.
“Something else that I am very prominent on in my life is that if somebody thinks differently than you, whether that be on different social or political things in the world, would you get them a bandaid? And that’s how I decide if I can be good to somebody or not,” JoJo explained.
“Mickey Rourke and I have different brains. We handle things differently. We’re different people. I would, no matter what, if he cut his finger, get him a bandaid. And I think Mickey would give me a bandaid,” she continued. “I don’t think he would know where they are, but the intention is there! And that’s a message that I really stand strongly behind, is if somebody has different views than you, that doesn’t mean you cannot coexist.”
The Dance Moms alum also got candid about other times she’s faced homophobia and seemingly alluded to her time working with Nickelodeon from 2017 to 2021. When asked if she “had ever experienced such flagrant homophobia in person” before Mickey’s slurs, she responded, “Over the phone for sure, with the company I used to be with. Not in person like that. I think it just took me away because I was like, ‘this actually exists.’”
“I realized it exists and I’m going to be an example of how to exist with it. And I didn’t care if I did things right and I didn’t care if I did things wrong because I knew either way, I was an example of how to push through it,” she added.
JoJo worked with the children’s network as a teen from 2017 to 2021, where she appeared in multiple movies and TV shows, complete with licensing deals and merch. Upon coming out in 2021, she revealed she had a call with Nickelodeon’s president, who reportedly asked, “What are we going to tell the kids?” and suggested she contact retailers who sold her merch “to tell them that you’re not going crazy.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nickelodeon released a statement in response to JoJo’s claims that she was “blackballed” by the network. “We are unaware of the incident that JoJo is referencing and she was certainly not blackballed by Nickelodeon. We have valued and supported JoJo through our incredibly successful partnership,” the spokesperson told the outlet. “We continue to cheer her on and wish her nothing but the best.”
