Brandy wanted her response to body-shamers to be a “teaching moment” to others.
The 47-year-old singer found herself targeted by cruel comments about her appearance after making a return to the spotlight, and hit back at the trolls in a post on Instagram.
Alongside a series of glamorous pictures of herself, she wrote: “Before you speak about someone’s body, before you speak about someone’s face, before you decide who they are by what you see, remember, you are looking at someone’s child. Someone’s friend. Someone’s dream. Someone’s life. A soul. And souls have always been more beautiful than surfaces.”
Now Brandy has opened up about why she took such a public stand against the body-shaming remarks, as she told E! News: “There was a moment where people were really coming at me for my appearance and I didn’t love the way that made me feel. “So I just thought about how everyone feels if someone comments about their appearance or anything like that and I just took the moment and decided to share in a teaching kind of way to just encourage people and inspire people to just be gentle with each other.”
Brandy went on to say that she wants people to remember there are always untold stories to bear in mind when it comes to someone you don’t know.
She mused: “You see someone and you don’t know what story they’re carrying, you don’t know what they’ve been through or anything like that.
“So just be kind and be gentle.”
A clip of the interview was shared on Instagram by E! News, with people quickly taking to the comments section to weigh in.
One wrote: “She seems to have the sweetest spirit. I love how she responded.”
Another added: “After 30 years of being in the public eye, Brandy deserves some damn peace. I am just so happy to see her outside, smiling, performing. And that’s all that should matter to anyone.”
While a third commented: “People are always coming for and she literally bothers NO ONE!! One of the sweetest people on the planet…she deserves some peace for once.”
As someone else wrote: “Everything she said! You just never know what people are dealing with. It takes nothing to be kind, empathetic and just basic manners!”
