Matty Healy Podcast Controversy Explained—Here's What He Said About Ice Spice And More

Rumors have been swirling around that The 1975's vocalist – Matty Healy – is dating Taylor Swift, just weeks after her split with ex Joe Alwyn. The alleged romance has broken the internet, with fans sharing their concerns and disdain toward Healy and his "problematic" behavior.

The "Somebody Else" singer is currently at the center of more controversy due to a resurfaced podcast episode where he and other men made fun of the popular rapper Ice Spice. Here's everything you need to know. 

*This article is intended for readers 18 and older.*

What Was Said About Ice Spice on The Adam Friedland Show

In February, Healy appeared on a now-removed episode of The Adam Friedland Show with hosts Adam Friedland and Nick Mullen. In the one-hour special, Healy tells the hosts about the time he messaged Ice Spice, which led to speculations about her ethnicity. Friedman and Mullen call her an "Inuit Spice Girl" and then dub her a "chubby Chinese lady." They continue to mock Chinese and Hawaiian accents, and Healy "jokingly" calls Ice Spice dumb. 

Part of the reason why Ice Spice fans were upset by this is because she's actually a big fan of The 1975. "I listen to a lot of alternative music,” she told Elle earlier this year. “I feel like a lot of people wouldn’t expect that. Yeah, shoutout Coldplay, The 1975. [I’m] obsessed with them.” Months later, Healy apologized publicly to Ice Spice on stage.

"Sorry about the sh*t that I've said. I've never meant to hurt anybody," he said. "Sorry if I've offended you and, like, Ice Spice. I'm sorry. It's not because I'm annoyed that me joking got misconstrued, it's because I don't want Ice Spice to think I'm a d*ck."

"I love you, Ice Spice," he continued, "I'm so sorry."

Healy Gets Asked About Harry Styles

When one of the hosts asked Healy why he thinks Harry Styles gets a pass on "queer-bating," he responds, “He gets a pass, I don’t know... I actually don’t think the gays really like it, it’s young girls that think it’s a new thing that are like, ‘Oh my god.’” Many individuals began accusing Healy of being "homophobic" after this, even though he's been very vocal about LGBTQ+ rights in the past.

Matty Healy and “Racist” Porn Accusations

Another part of the podcast episode that has landed Healy in hot water is when Friedland revealed the time he got caught watching a genre of porn called "Ghetto Gaggers." The host said he left Healy's apartment after a party, but one of their friends, Olive, returned to grab her water bottle. “She went back in and Matty, like, on his phone and then on his 77-inch OLEDs just got Ghetto Gaggers blaring,” Adam recalled. “Thirty seconds after the hang, just hardcore pornography.”

This horrible genre typically features aggressive oral and abusive sex featuring black women. One person on Reddit described what he saw, writing, "One time I saw a ghetto gaggers where they rubbed watermelon all over this woman who was already covered in vomit." They add that the guy in the video "basically beat the sh*t out of her" and "asked her 'what would you feel if someone you loved saw this video.'" 

Unfortunately, Taylor Swift fans are now looking up the disturbing term following the emergence of the podcast episode. "The fact that my 14yr old didn't know what ghetto gaggers was until Taylor Swift is a reality I'm struggling with," writes one mom on Twitter. "And it's not about ignorant parenting, it's about teen curiosity. They are all talking about it and I'm 1000% sure looking it up." I can empathize with the many moms who would be upset over this ordeal since it is concerning, but we can't control who Taylor Swift dates.

Still, was Healy actually watching this? According to Friedland, he wasn’t, and he just used the term “ghetto gaggers” because it was a “funny alliteration.” This, to me, is believable, as the podcast hosts are known for their shock-jock commentary and crude humor. They don't mean a lot of the things they say, and their offensiveness is literally their whole schtick. (Though they definitely can go overboard at times). "I thought it was funny because of the alliteration," Friedland claims, adding, "I don't even know if he was actually watching that porn." 

Matty Healy Responds 

Following the backlash, Healy opened up about the episode and called his critics "deluded." When asked if he "baited his fans on purpose," he said, “A little bit. But it doesn’t actually matter. Nobody is sitting there at night slumped at their computer, and their boyfriend comes over and goes, ‘What’s wrong, darling?’ and they go, ‘It’s just this thing with Matty Healy.’ That doesn’t happen.” To which the interviewer says, "Maybe it does."

"If it does,” Healy tells The New Yorker, “you’re either deluded or you are, sorry, a liar. You’re either lying that you are hurt, or you’re a bit mental for being hurt. It’s just people going, ‘Oh, there’s a bad thing over there, let me get as close to it as possible so you can see how good I am.’ And I kind of want them to do that, because they’re demonstrating something so base level.” I agree with Healy here. Most people just want to jump on the bandwagon of condemning others so they can take the high moral ground.

If people want to continue "canceling" Healy and his takes, that's up to them – but if they truly care about sexual abuse, they need to stay consistent. Healy has yet to have allegations against him, while Swift's BFF Lena Dunham is reportedly a sexual abuser. In her book, Not That Kind of Girl, Dunham describes the time she examined her little sister's vagina. “My mother didn’t bother asking why I had opened Grace’s vagina,” she wrote. “This was within the spectrum of things that I did.”

She even admitted to doing things to get her sister to kiss her and lay on top of her. Dunham confessed in her book, "Basically, anything a sexual predator might do to woo a small suburban girl I was trying."

So if you ask me, Healy's remarks aren't as bad as what Dunham has done, yet he's somehow getting pinned as the worst person Swift has associated with.

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