Billie Eilish Is Losing Fans

In the days since Billie Eilish confirmed that she is attracted to women, she has been steadily losing followers on Instagram.

The 21-year-old "Bad Guy" singer opened up about her attraction to women in an interview with Variety on November 13, which she then confirmed at Variety's annual Hitmakers brunch on December 2. Eilish was asked by a red carpet interviewer whether she had intended to come out in the article, to which she replied: "I kind of thought, 'Wasn't it obvious?' I didn't realize people didn't know."

Over the last 30 days, she has lost 179,619 followers on Instagram, with the majority of them unfollowing her on Sunday. According to social media stats platform Social Blade, Eilish lost 8,322 followers on Saturday and lost another 75,289 on Sunday.

While her follower count experienced a significant drop, on Monday she had also gained 64,779 followers. Newsweek reached out to Eilish's publicist via email on Tuesday, who declined to comment.

Fans have taken to X, formerly Twitter, to say that it's no shock to them that the singer is attracted to both men and women. Others have also thrown their support behind the 21-year-old, with TikTok star Estefanía Pessoa, who goes by "Tefi," calling those who have unfollowed Eilish "losers."

"She can wipe her tears with the other 110 million people who still follow her. Lol," one fan wrote in response to a post about Eilish's Instagram follower count, along with a gif of a man being thrown into a dumpster.

"Yes get rid of those homophobes [clapping emoji]," said another fan.

"This whole Billie Eilish thing only confirms what I've always thought and defended my whole damn life: coming out is a stupid a** thing that nobody should feel like that HAVE to do. I hate that whole idea with a passion and I'm glad we're moving on from it," a third person wrote.

A fourth X user added: "Full offence [sic] to those who have unfollowed but who the f*** ever looked at Billie Eilish and thought 'yeah, that's a straight woman' ????????"

While Eilish has had people support her online, some have been left confused by comments the singer made after the Variety event. Although she answered the question about her sexuality while being interviewed, Eilish hit out at the publication on Instagram.

The "Everything I Wanted" singer shared an image in the early hours of December 4 of her jeans, a belt buckle with two women on it, and her underwear on Instagram with the caption: "Thanks variety for my award and for also outing me on a red carpet at 11 am instead of talking about anything else that matters I like boys and girls leave me alone about it please literally who cares stream 'What was I made for.'"

The Instagram post had received over 4.3 million likes and over 16,000 comments as of the publication of this article.

A social media user commented: "Babe .... No one outed you, you literally had a conversation with the interviewer and said it yourself basically? What?" to which another puzzled fan replied: "That's exactly what I was thinking and didn't she say she was physically attracted to women thought I was going crazy. I love her but idk abt this one."

A second also pointed her interview out and said: "Did Billie not come out in the Variety Magazine that she's queer so why did she expect them not to talk about it and how is that 'outing her'?"

In the November interview with Variety's Katcy Stephan, Eilish said she "never really felt" she could relate to girls, saying, "I love them so much. I love them as people. I'm attracted to them as people. I'm attracted to them for real."

She continued: "I have deep connections with women in my life, the friends in my life, the family in my life. I'm physically attracted to them. But I'm also so intimidated by them and their beauty and their presence."

At the Hitmakers event, Eilish and her brother FINNEAS received the prize for Film Song of the Year for "What Was I Made For," from the movie Barbie.

Update 12/05/23, 10:41 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to include the fact that Eilish's publicist declined to comment.