The owner of the Brooklyn shop at the centre of Kelly Clarkson's furious rant has said the backlash left him fearing for his safety as the "entire weight of the internet came crashing down".
Adam Rubin, owner of Art of Play, told Page Six that the singer's public comments about being unable to buy a $15,000 (£11,000) automaton bird sparked a wave of hateful phone calls, threats and text messages. He said fans even resorted to doxing his neighbours.
He-said-she-said dispute
Rubin explained that Clarkson was simply told she could not have the specific item, but was not asked to leave. CCTV footage shared online showed the singer looking unhappy before exiting the store.
Speaking to Page Six, he said: "It's just like [a] he-said-she-said thing, right? So she's going to say one thing, I'm going to say another thing. The point of it is, nothing happened in the shop that was so dramatic that it's worth throwing a Molotov cocktail into a mom-and-pop business."
He added: "It's so hard to forgive her actions after she walked out the door. She knew what was going to happen. She knew that the entire pressure of her millions and millions of fans around the world were going to come to the service of their queen and weaponise themselves and debase themselves on behalf of a millionaire they have never met."
Price raised to $15 million
Rubin said the store has responded to the attention by raising the price of the item from $15,000 to $15 million. "And if somebody walks into the shop with $15 million, they can take the thing off the wall and enjoy it in their home," he said.
Clarkson had previously branded the store owner "rude" and a "liar", claiming her complaints were met with fabricated stories. The singer travelled 18 hours to the store before being told the item she wanted was not for sale.
