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Do you ever feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, wanting to start again? No? Just Katy Perry then. Seven months since her sense-defying jaunt into space, life on planet Earth hasn’t let up for the embattled hitmaker. She’s back in the headlines this week, implied to be raiding the pockets of a “disabled veteran” while facing scrutiny for her somewhat inexplicable new romance with Justin Trudeau. Yes, that Justin Trudeau. Shall we?
1. Perry wins in court, but loses online
By one metric, such as “relative to the rest of 2025”, this might have been a good week for Katy Perry. Since 2020, she has been embroiled in a legal battle against Carl Westcott, who sold her an eight-bedroom, 11-bathroom mansion in Montecito for $15m. Westcott then attempted to renege on the deal, claiming to have been incapacitated by painkillers (prescribed after a back operation) when signing the paperwork. A judge ruled in Perry’s favour in May last year, finding that Westcott was sound of mind when the sale went through. This week, another judge ruled that Perry was owed $1.8m in damages. This sounds like a win, you might think – except Perry had pushed for Westcott to pay $4.7m, and it’s been widely written up as Perry money-grubbing from an “85-year-old disabled veteran”. To give military.com’s headline, from earlier in the dispute in 2023: “Katy Perry Is Fighting a Dying, Elderly Veteran to Force Him to Sell His Home.” It is true that Westcott served in the 101st Airborne Division, is 85 years old and seriously ill with incurable Huntington’s disease. But the insistent framing may say more about Perry’s unenviable position as pop culture’s preferred punching bag.
Side note: you may recall that this is not Perry’s first long-running legal dispute with an elderly person over property. In 2015, she was thwarted in her attempt to buy a former convent in Los Angeles by its former residents, who were reportedly unmoved by her attempt to win them over by showing them the Jesus tattoo on her wrist and singing a hymn. Sister Rita Callanan, 77, told the LA Times: “I found her videos … I wasn’t happy with any of it.” In 2018, another nun locked in the legal battle against Perry collapsed and died during a court hearing.
2. The Blue Origin space-flight saga continues to burn bright …
As of this year, Perry risks being remembered primarily for her participation in the all-female Blue Origin flight, widely criticised as a small step for women and a giant leap in idiocy for humankind. Perry spent 11 minutes in space; seven months later, she is still copping flak for being not only the junket’s highest-profile passenger but also its hammiest. She sang What a Wonderful World in space, broadcast a print-out of her tour setlist to the onboard camera, and extravagantly fell to her knees to kiss the ground upon her return. On Thursday Perry’s fellow space cadet, Gayle King, took some responsibility for Perry’s suborbital shenanigans, telling Ruthie’s Table 4 podcast that she only sang after pressure from her fellow passengers. On their descent, as they broke through the Earth-space boundary, “we said to Katy Perry, ‘Are you gonna sing Roar? Are you gonna sing Firework?’” King said. Per King’s account, Perry responded: “Shut the bleep up. I’m not going to sing a song. And if I was, I’m not going to sing any of my own freaking songs.” Perry landed on the Louis Armstrong classic just as the rocket broke through the Earth’s planetary bounds. “It was just so special,” said King. King justified her own participation on Blue Origin as part of her new year’s resolution to “open [herself] up to new adventures”. She had meant with regard to dating, King added, but going to space was good too.
3. … though some doubt that it happened at all
While the rest of us struggled to make sense of the Blue Origin saga, some independent thinkers claimed to have figured it out: the girlboss mission to space was in fact a cover-up to convince us that the Earth isn’t flat. The conspiracy theory was taken up when some online footage showed the door to the spaceship being opened from the inside, moments before Amazon founder Jeff Bezos opened it from the outside. For some, this was proof enough that the entire trip was staged. Regrettably: it happened.
4. Perry has been brought crashing back down to Earth
Two weeks after Perry’s not-so-triumphant return to terra firma, a group of her fans (or KatyCats, as they self-identify) clubbed together to show their support for the beleaguered star, paying for a digital billboard in New York’s Times Square to broadcast, for 24 hours, their “boundless, unwavering and eternal” love. Responding to the gesture on Instagram, Perry admitted to being “battered and bruised” by the Blue Origin backlash and online efforts to turn her into a “human piñata”, but nonetheless determined to “keep looking to the light”. But Perry’s decision (as stated on Instagram) to remove “perfect” from her vocabulary proved grimly prophetic, with her Lifetimes tour (as advertised in space) receiving mixed reviews and yet more online ridicule.
5. Love no longer Blooms
In July, Perry confirmed her split from the actor Orlando Bloom, her fiance of six years, with whom she shares a five-year-old daughter Daisy Dove. The Blue Origin flight was reportedly a source of contention between the couple, with Bloom allegedly saying it was “embarrassing”, “cringeworthy” and “looked ridiculous” during an argument. In the immediate aftermath of the split, Bloom sought solace in the wisdom of Jung, according to a spate of quotes posted to Instagram. A few months later, at Halloween, a photo of him posing with a woman dressed up as Perry on the Blue Origin flight went viral (though online speculation that she was his new girlfriend was quickly disproved).
6. A romance too good to be Trudeau?
An assumed silver lining of Perry’s 2025 has been her reportedly finding love – with none other than the former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau (who separated from Sophie Grégoire, his wife of 18 years, in August 2023). The pair were spotted together during an apparent dinner date in Montreal in late July, then Trudeau was spotted at Perry’s concert. But the mindboggling match didn’t receive much coverage. More than three months later, however, Perry and Trudeau seem to be a genuine item. In October, they were photographed together on Perry’s luxury yacht in California, locked in what might fairly be described as “a steamy embrace”. Even the Daily Mail didn’t seem quite able to believe it, reporting on the “eye-popping pictures” and “roaming hands”. But a source was eager to quell any suggestion that the attraction might be purely physical, informing People magazine: “they are both smart and love to talk about serious issues … The romance has merit”. Later, Perry and Trudeau made their first public appearance together, photographed hand-in-hand outside the Crazy Horse cabaret in Paris after Perry’s 41st birthday celebrations.
Two weeks ago, Grégoire alluded to her ex’s high-profile new romance, telling a podcast: “We’re all human beings and stuff affects us.” Well, sure. Grégoire continued along the high road, saying that she chose “to listen to the music instead of the noise” – but it’s safe to assume she’ll be skipping Teenage Dream.
