Kierra Sheard is the latest celebrity to have to defend herself after blogs took a soundbite from a recent interview and spun it into a story. Sheard is a newly married woman who is trying to educate herself and her audience on healthy boundaries. Unfortunately, this was taken out of context, with many people believing Sheard’s married is already in trouble if the gospel singer/actress cannot trust her new husband. What exactly did Sheard mean when she said she does not trust her friends around her man?
Interviewer Tashira Jones seems to be to blame for the mishap. While discussing Sheard’s marriage, Jones brought up the topic of bringing another woman into your house. Jones said that even though she is not married, this is advice she got from her mother and wondered if Sheard had received the same advice from her mom Karen Clark Sheard.
Kierra was simply answering the question but did agree that protecting her marriage was important to her and that all friends should not be trusted around your man. “Besides the whole conversation that we had prior, that wasn’t considered for full context…” she said in her repost of the conversation, including the part where Jones asked the question. She dismissed fans trying to make her feel that her “healthy boundaries” were actually insecurities or doubts in her marriage. She accused blogs of “reaching” and creating “juicy headlines for clout.” She stood by her wording and felt it was unfair for people to project when according to her, she is just teaching others to be “smart and decerning.”
Many still felt like Sheard’s statement was wrong and that it singled out friends as the enemy with no accountability towards her husband. Luckily for her, most of the responses on her page were positive, with members of the gospel community championing her message. Gospel artist Todd Dulaney said, “Listen… I LOVED THAT YOU SAID THIS… 🤷🏾♂️ and I AGREE… I feel the same way about men staying at my house…See.. cause if I find out anything happened… NOW YOU CAN’T LEAVE.. 🤷🏾♂️”
Unfortunately, headlines like this are far too common these days. Several celebrities have come forward in recent months to defend themselves from headlines built on sound bites and omitting the full context of their statement. Jada Pinkett Smith and her husband Will Smith experienced this a lot last year. Between her Red Table Talk and his tour to promote his book Will and his Youtube documentary, they both spent a lot of time talking about their marriage. With so many people just eager to hear their “drama,” quite often, quotes were taken out of context from the pair. From Jada’s comments on Will’s “not being able to please” her early on in their marriage to comments about her grandmother teaching her sex education. She has had to defend herself several times and clarify things following salacious headlines.
The Real host Jeannie Mai recently had to call out bloggers who assumed she was raising her child gender-less after she revealed she was doing “genderfree” planning for her nursery. While she neither confirmed nor denied the connection, she did not appreciate sites declaring she made a decision about her child that she did not officially announce herself.
Kanye West in also in the middle calling out media for bad headlines. He recently came for TMZ after they tried to spin the issues going on in his family for clicks. “TMZ MY CHILDREN ARE NOT A GAME TO ME I NEED AN APOLOGY FOR HOW YOU TRIED TO SPIN THE NARRATIVE,” he said in a since deleted tweet. Do these celebrities have the right to be upset or does this come with the territory?
