Jade (a.k.a. Jade Thirlwall), known as a member of Little Mix and a fierce ally to the LGBTQ+ community, has revealed in an interview that her long-standing distaste for Charlie Puth is real indeed. Some fans are gooped and gagged that this drama has been confirmed to a wider audience, while other fans have no idea what happened.
Sign up for the Out Newsletter to keep up with what's new in LGBTQ+ culture and entertainment — delivered three times a week straight (well…) to your inbox!
On Wednesday, June 25, Jade appeared as a guest on KISS FM UK to promote her latest single, "Plastic Box." In the interview, the pop star was asked which artist she "would never collaborate with" by Say It or Shot It host Harriet Rose.
Harriet Rose and Jade Thirlwall in Say It or Shot It interview on KISS FM UK.
Jade replied to the question, "I feel like the fans already know someone I wouldn't collaborate with: Charlie Puth."
The Say It or Shot It host seemed somewhat surprised by Jade's blunt answer, and asked Jade why that was the case.
"Just don't," Jade added. "Nothing to say, just yet, on that one."
Jade's response went immediately viral in the pop culture sphere and accumulated tens of thousands of likes from fan-pages re-posting her response, like a @PopBase post with 35,000 likes, a @Tracklist post with 6,500 likes; and a @ThePopTingz with 2,100 likes.
Charlie Puth and Jade Thirlwall performing "Oops" with Little Mix on The X Factor season 13 finale on December 2016.
ITV
As far as the public is concerned, this drama started with Charlie Puth reportedly flirting with Jade during a performance, and the Little Mix singer not reciprocating those feelings.
X user @povenvy wrote:
"He was hitting on her when they were doing a song together and she told him multiple times she had a boyfriend and he didn't gaf as he has a history of hitting on female artist he records with."
X user @cloudleigh explained:
"He had a crush on Jade and made it known when she already had a boyfriend at the time. They also performed together, and he kept making awkward eye contact with her during this performance knowing this."
X user @glindasfolklore wrote:
"Charlie and Little Mix did a collab call 'Oops' and when they were promoting the song he was flirting with her while she was in a relationship with her ex Jed. After Jade said no to him, he faked to don't know who she was and what Little Mix were."
This specific performance referenced by fans took place at the grand finale of The X Factor season 13 (U.K. series), in which Charlie Puth and Little Mix performed "Oops" together.
During that live performance — which you can watch below — Jade is seen interacting with Puth in a pop-star performative manner.
Even though Puth seems to be doing the same, he subsequently admitted to actually having a crush on Jade in interviews.
Several social media posts and videos have broken down this back and forth between Jade and Puth even further.
A YouTube video titled, "Little Mix - Oops ft. Charlie Puth videoclip with lyrics," for instance, has 533,000 views as of this writing (via @britjeeemixer9931).
Watch Jade's full interview on KISS FM UK's Say It or Shot It below.
