Sabrina Carpenter Slammed,
Pop star Sabrina Carpenter found herself in hot water recently after making a controversial joke about happily married actor Cillian Murphy. The “Nonsense” singer’s comments during an Oscars interview with Vanity Fair didn’t sit well with many viewers who slammed her remarks as “distasteful” and “cringe.”
The offending joke came when Carpenter was asked which celebrity she hoped to encounter at the glamorous event. Her response: “If I see Cillian Murphy, I’m probably gonna leave the party. Probably gonna leave with him. I’m not going to leave with him, I’m just going to leave at the same time as him, so I can see where he lives. So I can follow his car.
While Carpenter likely intended it as harmless celebrity admiration humor, the fact that Murphy has been happily married to their wife Yvonne McGuinness since 2004 made the quip land poorly with many fans. The backlash was swift across social media.
One Instagram user criticized, “I can take a joke, but it’s very distasteful to involve married people even so.” Another argued the joke was “Unfunny and cringe af. If it was a man making that joke, we’d see the cancellation train appearing out of nowhere.
Some defended Carpenter’s attempt at humor, with one commenter writing, “Obviously she’s joking, so cue the dim-witted clods who don’t know how to laugh or recognize a joke.
Regardless of intent, the overwhelming response deemed the Cillian Murphy comments to be in poor taste given the Peaky Blinders star’s nearly 20-year marriage and family life. Murphy, 47, met Yvonne in the 1990s, and the couple share two sons, Malachy and Aran.
While Carpenter likely didn’t mean any actual disrespect, the incident highlights how even jokes made in jest can spark backlash if perceived as insensitive – especially toward beloved public figures’ private lives.
As a public figure herself, the 23-year-old has faced criticism that her failed attempt at humor during a major Hollywood event came across as immature and thoughtless toward Murphy’s well-known marital status.
The saga serves as a learning experience for the young star emerging from her Disney roots. What may read as an innocuous celebrity crush joke can land as “distasteful” and “cringe” when the subject is a happily married public figure like Cillian Murphy.