Lauren Jauregui: Perez Hilton denies ‘outing’ former Fifth Harmony singer

‘I would do it again,’ Hilton replied to a Twitter user, who criticised him for posting private pictures of Jauregui in 2016

Perez Hilton has responded to Lauren Jauregui’s allegations that he “violated” her “process” of coming out in 2016.

Appearing on a recent episode of the Red Table Talk: The Estefans show – hosted by Gloria Estefan, her daughter Emily, and niece Lilli – Jauregui opened up about her experiences with cyber bullying.

The 25-year-old singer, who was formerly a member of Fifth Harmony, said that celebrity blogger Hilton became famous “by cyber-bulling” celebrities, including herself.

“In 2016, he was the harbinger of doom for you,” Estefan replied.

The singer said that Hilton “violated” her “process [of coming out]” in 2016 when he tweeted private pictures of Jauregui kissing her then-girlfriend at her uncle’s wedding in New Orleans.

Jauregui said: “I’d been dating the girlfriend that I had at the time for probably a year at that point, but we had fallen in love when I was like 15.”

“He definitely outed me,” she continued, adding that she had not been ready to publicly embrace her sexual identity at the time.

Hilton captioned Jauregui’s leaked photo: “Why are Fifth Harmony fans being so extra over this photo of Lauren Jauregui (in the red) kissing another girl? NBD (or no big deal)!”

Responding to the singer’s allegations on 9 December, Hilton tweeted that he was neither sorry nor remorseful for posting the leaked picture of Jauregui.

The 43-year-old said: “Kissing someone of the same sex in a photo booth is playful and so many people do that. It does not mean that person is gay, bi, queer or whatever.”

Reiterating that he did not comment on the singer’s sexuality, Hilton told People: “It was her fans that caused this photo to go viral. By the time I commented on it, it had already gone viral.”

“It was already trending by the time I chimed in,” he clarified, separately revealing he was scheduled to appear on the next episode of Red Table Talk.

Describing her fans as a “little wild” during the episode, Jauregui admitted that they were the ones who found the pictures first.

Following the episode’s release, Jauregui addressed the “intense” conversation on Twitter. She said was speaking from “a healed place” and did not want to “rehash drama”.

She asked her fans not to send any hateful messages to Hilton and reminded them to protect their mental health on social media.

The singer publicly came out in a strongly worded letter addressed to a Donald Trump supporter, the same year Hilton shared the picture.

At the time, she wrote: “I am a bisexual Cuban-American woman and I am so proud of it.”

Since leaving Fifth Harmony in 2016, Jauregui has collaborated with Halsey and Steve Aoki.