Frankie Bridge, singer in pop group The Saturdays, has confronted online trolls in a new mini documentary.
Bridge appeared on Victoria Derbyshire’s show on BBC Two, revealing that she suffered abuse about her weight when she was pregnant.
The singer spoke to one individual who had sent women rape threats anonymously online. She said to him: “I know from when people have said things to me and they haven’t called me a bitch and they haven’t told me they’re going to rape me like you have said to people. These are just comments about the way I look or about my personality or something and that really hurt me when I’m feeling insecure.
“I can’t even imagine how I would have felt if someone would have said some of the things you’ve said. And as someone who has actually been bullied, do you not see that that’s just as nasty, even though it’s just on the internet?”
Speaking after filming the documentary, Bridge said: “A lot of it seemed to me like he did it for the attention. I think there’s a line and sometimes it’s crossed. I started in the industry at 12 and there was no social media.”
She added of her own experience with body shaming abuse: “I was really sheltered because I wasn’t allowed to be put in magazines and things like that. I came into the Saturdays really naively.
“I don’t understand why you would want to say those things to someone. Why would you want to go out of your way to be nasty? I know people sit and they chat but to actually say it so that they know that I’ve read it, that’s what I found really hard to get my head around.
“I don’t think I’ll ever understand that, even after meeting him,” she concluded.
Watch the documentary in full below.