Katy Perry has shifted away from her “I Kissed a Girl” and pop party-girl days to consorting with billionaires and socializing with some of the world’s biggest power players.
But she was left “blindsided” this week as Australian actress Ruby Rose, 40, publicly accused her of sexual assault, her friends told Page Six.
Rose alleged on Threads the 41-year-old singer rubbed her exposed crotch on Rose’s face during a boozy night at a Melbourne club in 2010. Police said in a statement this week that “detectives are investigating a historical sexual assault that occurred in Melbourne in 2010.”
Perry has vehemently denied the allegations. Rose, who has spoken about her battle with depression: previously said in a 2011 article about her night with Perry that “nothing horrific happened.”
Social media users this week were quick to resurface a clip of “Pitch Perfect” actress Anna Kendrick, on Conan O’Brien’s talk show in 2014, saying the “aggressive” singer had once stuck her finger into Kendrick’s cleavage — though she added that the plunging neckline of her dress was “kinda asking for it” and “If nobody had done it, I would’ve been a little sad.”
Being dragged into all this is certainly a nightmare for Perry, 41, who faces being forever tarnished by these allegations online, we’re told.
“We’re asked to believe all women … ” said a music insider who has worked with Perry. “But Katy continually gets torn down and now she’ll be tried online for these hurtful claims.”
The claims come as Perry has been discovered by a generation of new fans: Her 2010 hit “The One Who Got Away” is back on the Billboard charts after going viral on TikTok.
In recent years, Perry has moved away from dressing up as a burger or wearing a spinning bra to moving in rarefied circles.
The preacher’s daughter, who has admitted that drinking had “become a problem” in her early twenties, is worth an estimated $400 million, according to Forbes, counts Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez-Bezos among her best friends. She been spotted soaking up the sun on billionaire Barry Diller’s $100 million yacht alongside his wife, designer Diane Von Furstenberg, and performed for King Charles at his 2023 coronation.
To top things off, she’s been getting hot and heavy with former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Indeed, just days before Rose made her allegations, Perry and Trudeau were pictured at an intimate bash thrown by Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, one of the most influential men in Hollywood, and his wife, Nicole Avant, the former US Ambassador to the Bahamas.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, with whom Perry and Trudeau recently enjoyed a ski trip at the exclusive Yellowstone Club in Montana, were also guests at the event to launch the new season of Netflix’s “Beef.”
“They’ve really been luxuriating in their relationship over the past few months,” said a Canadian society source of the high-profile couple, who were also seen hanging out at the Coachella music festival last weekend. “They’ve made it no secret that they’re really into each other, but this is really the first challenge they’ve faced since they’ve been together.”
The society source adds that it potentially puts Trudeau in an “awkward situation.”
“Justin was known as a pro-woman prime minister. He had gender equality in his cabinet, he’s been linked to these kinds of social issues, so this could put a little bit of a dent into their coupledom,” the society source said.
Trudeau, 54, is known for his feminist stance and said at the World Economic Forum conference in 2018: “As women speak up, it is our responsibility to listen, and more importantly, to believe.”
However, after making these comments in 2018, he also found himself in the crosshairs when he was accused by a reporter of groping her at a music festival in 2000, when he was a teacher.
Trudeau later said he had apologized to the woman, but said he was confident he did not act inappropriately.
Over the years, Perry has been accused of mom-shaming one “American Idol” contestant and giving another, who was 19, an uninvited kiss on the lips — his first.
And even if Perry’s previous antics were in jest, “Others will try to cut you down,” said the insider. “Fame is a double-edged sword. People are now just unafraid to use it against you.”
Rose, real name Ruby Rose Langenheim, made her allegations while replying to an online Complex article about Perry’s reaction to Justin Bieber’s set at Coachella.
“Katy Perry sexual assaulted me at spice market nightclub in Melbourne. Who gives a s–t what she thinks,” Rose wrote in the now-deleted Threads posts.
“She saw me ‘resting’ on my best friend’s lap to avoid her and bent down, pulled her underwear to the side and rubbed her disgusting vagina on my face until my eyes snapped open and I projectile vomited on her,” Rose, who played Stella Carlin on the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black,” claimed of Perry.
“After it I threw up on her, I told the story publicly but changed it to be a ‘funny little drunk story’ because I didn’t know how else to handle it. Later she agreed to help me get my US visa. So I kept it a secret. But I DID tell yall she wasn’t a good person,” the actress also alleged.
Perry’s rep denied Rose’s claims in a statement to Page Six, saying, “The allegations being circulated on social media by Ruby Rose about Katy Perry are not only categorically false, they are dangerous reckless lies. Ms. Rose has a well-documented history of making serious public allegations on social media against various individuals, claims that have repeatedly been denied by those named.”
Rose, who has been open about her past struggles with alcohol and drug use, has also been accused of harassment herself.
in 2018, her ex-girlfriend Jessica Origliasso of the band The Veronicas publicly accused Rose of “continued harassment” and called their relationship “painful,” “tough” and isolating, revealing she became separated from her family during their time together.
Rose wrote an essay for Melbourne’s the Herald Sun in 2011, describes how she was intoxicated when she “threw up” on Perry during a wild night out, which included them crashing a high school prom before heading to a club.
“I spectacularly lost dignity (and keys) one night not too long ago. Remember when Katy Perry and I crashed the year 12 formal? I don’t. I had been off the grog for 30 days — my first attempt at sobriety -—and I was out partying with Katy,’ Rose wrote.
“What I do remember thinking was: ‘I’ll have a drink tonight, I deserve one. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?’ Well, not stopping at one drink, or ten, and then vomiting on Katy’s foot was the answer.”
In 2018, to mark World Mental Health Day, Rose posted on Instagram: “I’ve struggled with mental health my entire life,” she wrote, adding “When I was 18 I found out I had dissociative amnesia.”
Meanwhile, in 2020, Warner Brothers said she was fired from her lead role in the CW series “Batwoman” after “multiple complaints about workplace behavior that were extensively reviewed” — and accused her of creating a “revisionist history.”
Those around Perry hope the blowback from the Rose allegations won’t ruin a career that has taken her from food stamps to the heights of superstardom.
“The world we live in … anyone can say anything,” said an industry insider. “You don’t even have to be found guilty [for your reputation to be harmed], and that is the sad thing. Katy has worked incredibly hard.”
