15 Female Celebrities Who Quit Twitter For Reasons You Didn't Know
Love it or hate it, Twitter is one of the most addictive social media platforms out there, just ask Donald Trump, but for celebrities the decision 'to tweet or not to tweet' can actually make or break their careers. We, the fans, have always had an insatiable appetite for the personal lives of our favorite stars, but with Twitter came the opportunity to follow them and get the intimate details first-hand, in real-time. With this new ability to connect with their adoring fans, stars have also opened themselves up to controversy never seen before as well as dangers no one could have imagined.
Although, many stars have mastered the medium, even the most prolific of celebrity tweeters have decided to abandon the platform at some point - some for a short time, some indefinitely, but often for very unique reasons.
Here are 15 female celebrity Twitter quitters and the reasons why they left the popular platform.
15 Demi Lovato
It was back in June when Demi Lovato first quit Twitter with little explanation beyond a series of tweets pontificating that the world's problems are caused by people who “Pay more attention to good than bad.”
Apparently, the outspoken singer was sick of those who spoke out about her controversial opinions. The tweets didn't specifically say what sparked her decision to ditch the site, but there was speculation that comments she made on Twitter stating that, "Mariah (Carey) is a legend and is so talented but constantly disses people.” was the cause.
Lovato went on to say she thought Mariah's treatment of Jennifer Lopez was nasty and Ariana Grande was an innocent victim to the pop diva's wrath. Mariah's loyal “lambs” were not happy with comments and passionately let Lovato know.
Demi never deleted her account, however, which left the door open for her inevitable return to the social media outlet along with more trouble. A staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton, Lovato began an anxious series of tweets on October 7th, the night before the election, that carried through to the next day culminating in one of the most controversial tweets the star has ever posted.
The tweet, “Sometimes you just have to agree to disagree and grab some p*ssy,” was quickly deleted and the singer later posted an apology to anyone it offended.
14 Miley Cyrus
Although Miley Cyrus was one of the most Twitter-happy celebrities on the social network service at the time, in October 2009 she announced her departure in a now famous tweet, "FYI Liam doesn't have a twttr & he wants ME 2 delete mine w/ gd reason."
Fans were upset at Miley; disappointed she would desert them for her boyfriend, Liam Hemsworth. Cyrus, 16 at the time, responded with a YouTube video rapping the real reason she was a Twitter quitter:
“Yeah, the rumors are true, I deleted my Twitter. I had to say goodbye and this little rap is to tell my fans why.”
Clarifying the motivation for her departure, “It wasn't because my friend told me to. I stopped living for moments and started living for people.”
Whether she was just trying to backtrack or not, the popular The Voice coach returned to Twitter in 2011 with Liam following suit. The Last Song costars eventually parted ways in 2013 only to be reunited at the beginning of 2016. Now the lovebirds are happily tweeting together.
13 Emma Stone
In the massive hit film of 2016, La La Land, Emma Stone plays Mia, an aspiring actress in modern day Hollywood trying to balance personal and professional desires. The role has catapulted the already rising star to supernova status, but Emma was once just like Mia - an actress struggling to navigate her way in the most public of businesses while maintaining some sort of normalcy in her private life. The actress realized in 2013, however, that in order to be successful, Twitter would have to go.
While Emma was filming the Amazing Spider-Man movies with Andrew Garfield, her boyfriend at the time, her Twitter account was hacked and a series of bizarre tweets were posted. The most enigmatic tweet read "nawder nad islasehne tsintgi ni a erte,” which rearranged is "Andrew and Shailene sitting in a tree."
Many thought the tweet, referring to actress Shailene Woodley, was a cryptic way of letting fans know all was not peachy between Emma and Andrew.
Emma denied responsibility for the posts, however, telling Ryan Seacrest on his radio show, “I heard the other day they tweeted an anagram about Shailene Woodley, who is one of my favorite human beings on the planet, and that was absolutely, I swear to you, was not me.”
Emma subsequently deleted her account and has not returned.
12 Kim Kardashian-West
Absolutely no one has mastered the art of social media like Kim Kardashian-West, but after being robbed at gunpoint by five masked men in her private apartment in Paris on October 3rd, the reality TV star quit Twitter without a word and has yet to return.
Apparently, the socialite agrees with the police who say her social media presence made her an easy target for the perpetrators who stole $10 million dollars worth of valuables including her $4 million 'upgraded' engagement ring from husband, Kanye, which Kim had repeatedly tweeted pictures of.
Two weeks after the terrifying experience, Kim, or someone in her place, returned to the Twitter account, but only to 'unfollow' 14 users going from 121 down to 107.
Not surprisingly her 49.3 million Twitter followers have been pleading with Kim to return to Twitter, but her October 2nd tweet, which includes a video invitation to meet her “#KimKardashianGame character at the So Chic Boutique in Downtown LA”, remains to be the last.
11 Normani Kordei
Just this past summer, amid rising racial tensions across the country, Normani Kordei of the girl group Fifth Harmony, quit Twitter because of relentless racist attacks she had been subjected to on the social media site. On August 6th she posted a screenshot of a note to her fans, which read:
"I am taking a break from twitter for now. Over the past four years of being in the public eye, I've learned to grow a thick skin to critics and those who may not like me. I've never been one to deny anyone of their opinions, but over the course of this last week and especially over the last 48 hours, I've not just been cyber bullied, I've been racially cyber bullied with tweets and pictures so horrific and racially charged that I can't subject myself any longer to the hate."
Fifth Harmony was formed in 2012 after Normani and four other solo-singers successfully auditioned on the second season of X Factor but failed to progress to the judges' houses stage of the competition. After Normani quit Twitter her group-mates jumped in to support her and chastise the haters, but the singer has yet to return.
10 Lena Dunham
In September 2015, Lena Dunham announced she had hired someone to take over her Twitter account after receiving body-shaming "verbal abuse" on the site. The harassment was in response to a photo she posted on Instagram of her wearing nothing but a sports bra and her boyfriend's boxers.
In Dunham's words, "It wasn't a graphic picture. I was wearing men's boxers, and it turned into the most rabid, disgusting debate about women's bodies, and my Instagram page was somehow the hub for misogynists for the afternoon."
Explaining why she didn't quit altogether, the co-creator of the hit HBO series Girls explained, "I really appreciate that anybody follows me at all, and so I didn't want to cut off my relationship with it completely, but it really, truly wasn't a safe space for me."
At the time, Lena said she didn't even know the password to the account, but at some point, she must have cracked the code. The actress has stirred up major controversy this fall being accused of tweeting “sexist” and “racist” comments and videos, but she continues to tweet on a regular basis.
9 Leslie Jones
In one of the most emotional Twitter-exits of 2016, Leslie Jones announced she was leaving the site in July with “tears and a very sad heart.” The actress said the departure was due to a relentless bombardment of racist attacks she received on the social networking platform.
The trolling was triggered by her role in the controversial all-women casting of the remake of the 80s classic Ghostbusters. One hater tweeted, "Don't let #Ghostbusters bombing get you down. You're a shoo-in to star in the Harambe motion picture as the man himself.”
At first, the actress tried to fight back, but when a cry out to Twitter to put an end to the abuse received a personal response from CEO Jack Dorsey along with a public statement saying the site had taken the necessary action, it seemed the matter had been taken care of.
All was lost for the actress, though, when the very next day a fake account bearing her name tweeted equally offensive rants. When Leslie noticed the posts she tweeted a screenshot of them along with a caption that read, "THIS WAS NOT ME!! OK TWITTER IM DONE!!”
Leslie summed up the experience in her final tweet, “All this cause I did a movie. You can hate the movie but the s*** I got today… wrong."
8 Adele
Adele has become arguably the most beloved artist of the century, even though we are barely a fifth in. Her songs give voice not only to her own heartache but ours. Like many stars of this generation, Adele was discovered through social media when in 2006 a friend posted her demo on Myspace. The British singer-songwriter was subsequently awarded a recording contract with XL Recordings and the rest is history.
Unfortunately, the iconic artist eventually experienced the dark side of putting your personal life on the digital world stage when in 2012 she received death threats via her Twitter account. The trolls not only targeted her but her newborn baby, so Adele quickly quit the site.
The account has since been reactivated, but like many other yo-yo Twitterers, it's unclear if it is actually the star who is posting or someone representing her. Besides a barefaced vlog posted in August, most of her feed is filled with PR-related material.
7 Iggy Azalea
As one of the world's top female rappers, Iggy Azalea has proven herself a master wordsmith, but in February of 2015 she handed the 140-character reigns to her Twitter account over to her management team. The reason? While on vacation with her boyfriend, Nick Young, “a perve with long distance lense hiding out” captured photos of Iggy in a bikini showing her cellulite. Iggy went to Twitter to vent her frustration and disgust not only for the reaction to the photos but social media as a whole.
In her final tweet, the Australian singer/songwriter said, “The Internet is the ugliest reflection of mankind there is.”
Ironically, Iggy's controversial rise has been aided by the power of the Internet beginning in August 2011 when she burst onto the hip-hop stage with her debut single "Pu$y" via Youtube. The video featured her chanting the title while a child rode a rocking horse. Although many found the setup offensive, the video went viral, as did Iggy's fame.
The social media maven turned cynic couldn't stay downtrodden for long, however. It is unclear exactly at what point, Iggy took back control of her Twitter account or if she has yet to fully do so, but she has been posting more personal tweets on a regular basis recently.
6 Sinéad O'Connor
In 2011, Sinéad O'Connor's Twitter feed was one mixed with suicidal thoughts and bedroom desires.
The diva's social media demise began in August 2011 when she tweeted, "My sh*t-uation sexually/affectionately speaking is so dire that inanimate objects are starting to look good.” Subsequent tweets were blatant boyfriend solicitations, but the singer turned a dark corner in September when she posted "All this shit we're not supposed to say, including suicidal feelings, etc.”
Continuing, “U just get treated like a crazy person. I want to go to heaven SO bad. Have for [years]… Can't manage any more. Badly wish cud die without it ruining my kids lives."
Understandably, many of her fans were concerned about the star, but Sinéad, who suffers from bipolar disorder, quickly reassured them she would not hurt herself.
Sinéad finally left Twitter in 2012, explaining, “Twitter is sadly not safe for people who do what I do for a living.”
5 Lady Gaga
With 64.8 million followers, Lady Gaga is considered one of the most influential celebrity tweeters, but in the summer of 2013 she mysteriously disappeared from Twitterverse without a word.
After months of infrequent vague tweets and the occasional retweet, over the Fourth of July weekend of that year her profile picture and bio were removed, replaced with the site's default “egg” avatar and the caption, “This interface has been shutdown temporarily. Please check back for updates.”
Many thought it was just another publicity stunt as the only other time the superstar had abandoned the site was in 2010 when she and a few other celebrities boycotted social media to raise money for the HIV/AIDS charity Keep A Child Alive's Digital Death, but that was only for six days and was a highly publicized campaign.
Whatever the reason, Lady Gaga couldn't leave her Little Monsters for long, eventually returning to the site as 'xoxo, Joanne'.
4 Lily Allen
Although Lily Allen has been one of the most outspoken razzers of Donald Trump using Twitter as her preferred platform, the singer has ditched the service multiple times specifically because of its massive reach.
The first time was in 2009 when Lily abandoned the site (and the Internet as a whole), describing herself as a neo-luddite (anti-technology), tweeting, "My boyfriend gets really angry. He's like: 'I want to spend some time with you, do we have to have one and a half million people in the room with us?'”
It didn't take long for her to return, however, only to quit again in 2012. This time it was because of a tweet by Sniper Lance Corporal Harry Wilson, of The Royal Regiment of Scotland, which read, “All the best with your new family just seen you bought s*** I meant adopted a child from Africa #hero.”
The British pop star interpreted the tweet, which was referring to Allen's adopted child, as blatant racism and reported it to the country's Ministry of Defence.
All is good on the Twitter front, though, as the soldier apologized (with flowers) and the singer is free to tweet her little ranting heart out.
3 Chelsea Cain
Bestselling novelist, Chelsea Cain, deleted her Twitter account on the morning of October 26, 2016, after waking up to yet another vicious stream of sexist harassment on her feed.
Cain had been a victim of misogynistic comments since she began penning Marvel's comic book series Mockingbird, which features a female protagonist. After eight issues, the author tweeted on October 17th that the series had been canceled but that supporters should, “make sure @Marvel makes more room for more titles by women about women kicking a$$.”
This along with a photo of the cover for the final “Mockingbird” issue, which features the superheroine standing on a beach wearing a T-shirt that says 'Ask Me About My Feminist Agenda', caused a barrage of hateful comments from “misogynist bullies.”
After Cain's departure from Twitter, many fans went on their own tweeting rampage in support of the author, posting the “Mockingbird” #8 cover along with the hashtag #StandWithChelseaCain.
But Cain had had enough, explaining on her website, “I left Twitter because of the ordinary daily abuse that I decided I didn't want to live with anymore. The base level of casual crassness and sexism.… If a stranger yells at you on the street? You walk away.”
2 Chrissy Teigen
After receiving death threats in response to a controversial tweet about gun control, Chrissy Teigen quit Twitter in October of 2014.
The tweet, which read, “active shooting in Canada, or as we call it in america, wednesday” was referring to a high-profile shooting which had taken place in the Canadian capital of Ottawa earlier that day, a Wednesday.
The comment set off a firestorm, being retweeted more than 1,000 times. Teigen initially renounced the backlash, tweeting, “Sorry you don't understand that is a knock at america and our issues with gun control. No one is minimizing the Ottawa shooting.”
But after a day of responding and defending, the model gave up, “I can't see anything through the sea of hate and anger that is now my Twitter. Seriously I can't sift through it all.”
And finally, “I feel sick. Bye Twitter. Taking my talents to instagram.”
Teigen did eventually come back to Twitter and is as prolific and political as ever.
1 Alicia Keys
Occasionally, celebrities quit tweeting for altruistic reasons as well.
In 2010, Alicia Keys joined a group of celebrity tweeters, including this list's Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian, in boycotting the social media platform to raise money for the HIV/AIDS charity Keep A Child Alive's Digital Death. The campaign asked the A-listers to sacrifice “their digital lives to help save millions of real lives” in Africa and India.
The boycott began on December 1st and it only took six days to raise the $1 million goal.
Unlike most celebs, Alicia has continually and successfully used Twitter with minimal controversy. The only real debate the singer-songwriter has sparked on the platform was when she showed up at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards without any make-up on, to which she tweeted another barefaced photo of herself blowing a kiss with the caption,
"Y'all, me choosing to be makeup free doesn't mean I'm anti-makeup. Do you!"
Like fellow The Voice coach Miley Cyrus, Alicia continues to value the power of the social media platform, taking to Twitter this fall to DM her followers personally to try and boost sales of her latest album, “Here”. The reach out received extremely positive responses from the recipients.