Rihanna Is Being Praised For A Resurfaced Interview Where She Refused To Shade Britney Spears After Being Baited By A TV Presenter

When Britney Spears released her memoir, The Woman in Me, back in 2023, it led to a mass retrospective on how the star was treated by both the media and her fellow celebrities in the ‘00s. But as many famous faces — including Justin Timberlake, Sarah Silverman, and Diane Sawyer — sparked backlash for their behavior during this time, other stars were praised for going against the grain and refusing to take the bait when it came to trash-talking Britney.

One of these stars was Beyoncé, who ended up going viral in 2023 for comments that she made during a 2007 interview with Liam Bartlett for 60 Minutes Australia. For reference, 2007 is undeniably one of the darkest years for Britney, who catapulted to fame in 1999 at just 18 years old.

After filing for a divorce from her second husband, Kevin Federline, in November 2006, Britney was being relentlessly hounded by the paparazzi, and concern for her mental health began to grow. In February 2007, Britney checked into a rehab for 24 hours, and the following day, she shaved her head in front of the media’s cameras.

She ended up having another two stints in rehab that year, was court-ordered to give up custody of her two sons, and also hit the headlines when she attacked the paparazzi with an umbrella.

As a result, Britney found herself as the butt of everyone’s jokes in pop culture, with the star receiving little sympathy despite her obvious struggles.

But while everybody else was jumping on the bandwagon to mock Britney, Beyoncé remained dignified and sympathetic when Bartlett referred to Britney as “a complete disaster” in the 60 Minutes interview. In fact, Bey even alluded to the fact that Britney was surrounded by people who didn’t have her best interests at heart — something that was not publicly exposed until years later.

“I’m 25 and, if I really wanted to, I could still be a young woman and do something completely different and have a whole new career, and still have, hopefully, my whole life ahead of me,” Beyoncé said in the interview.

“But you could say the same thing about someone like Britney Spears,” Liam countered, which did not get a response from Beyoncé. He then continued: “There’s only three months between you and Britney… And look at the difference, a complete disaster.”

At this point, Beyoncé took the time to acknowledge the key differences between her and Britney, saying: “I mean, people handle different things differently and thank god I’ve been surrounded by honesty. And thank god I’ve chosen to still be around people that I trust — and it’s really difficult, when you’re a celebrity, to know the difference.”

And this week, another celebrity has gone viral for being ahead of the curve in their treatment of Britney during these difficult years. This time, it’s Rihanna, who first found global fame in 2005 at the age of 17.

On Monday, an X user shared a clip from an old MTV interview with Rihanna during the first couple of years of her career, where she also refused to take the bait as the host tried to shade Britney in front of a live studio audience. In the footage, the presenter mentions that Rihanna had been dubbed “the next Britney Spears,” which prompts a groan from the crowd.

He then says to her: “Six years ago, that would have been a really nice compliment… Now? I don’t know, not so much.”But RiRi was quick to shut this rhetoric down, replying: “People always seem to forget all the great things that people achieve. She has accomplished so much; she’s an incredible dancer, singer, she makes great hits. People always look at the negative things, so that’s a compliment — I’ll take it.”

The audience cheered Rihanna’s comments, with the X user observing in their post’s caption: “Look at how fast everyone switched up when they realized Rihanna didn’t like the Britney shade 😭” quickly racking up thousands of likes, retweets, and replies.

“Black women were so nice to Britney! It’s also kinda crazy how much the media added to it. They were HUNTING for women to dog pile on her,” one person noted in response to the video. Somebody else wrote: “Rihanna always been on the right side of history.”

“What a classy response!” one more added, another said of Rihanna: “She was an up& coming young woman (she was still in her teens here i think) seeing lots of success worlwide and practically everyone knew her name by that point + there was no social media to police her so she could've went along but chose not to, says a lot about her character.”

While one more concluded: “i always know what type of person someone is if they make fun of britney.”

You can watch the resurfaced MTV clip below — let me know your thoughts in the comments!

MTV / Via x.com

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