Backlash at John Mayer for weighing in on Free Britney: ‘Apologise to Jessica Simpson and Taylor Swift’

‘The ‘Taylor Swift is crazy and boy-obsessed’ narrative was principally fueled by John Mayer’

Social media users are calling out John Mayer for his alleged treatment of famous women he has dated.

Speaking to Andy Cohen on SiriusXM, the “New Light” singer said that he “almost cried five times” while watching the much-discussed documentary Framing Britney Spears, which looks at how the pop performer was badly mistreated by the media throughout her life and career.

“To go through this and come out the other side OK is to have infinite grace for those who struggle with it,” added. “I came out OK ... I have a very strong feeling that part of that is because I'm a man. And I have a very strong feeling that a lot of these things that happen to female performers is endemic to being female.”

Mayer also noted that Spears “got much more maligned by the inhuman experiment of fame than I did”.

After the interview, fans on social media were quick to call out the way Mayer used to speak to the press about famous exes, specifically Jessica Simpson and Taylor Swift.

On TikTok, a fan read excerpts from Jessica Simpson's 2020 memoir, Open Book, where she wrote that Mayer broke up with her dozens of times via email. (Simpson and Mayer dated for about a year in 2006.)

“He would tell me that my true self is so much greater than the person I was settling on being,” Simpson wrote. “Like there was some great woman inside me waiting to come out, and I had to hurry up and find her because he wanted to love that woman, not me.”

“I constantly worried that I wasn't smart enough for him,” Simpson continued. “I was so afraid of disappointing him that I couldn't even text him without having someone check my grammar and spelling.”

The on-again, off-again relationship eventually ended in 2010, and Mayer famously referred to Simpson as “sexual napalm” in an interview with Playboy, which Simpson wrote “floored and embarrassed” her.

Other social media users referenced Mayer's prior relationship with Taylor Swift, whom he dated briefly in 2009. It is widely believed that he is the subject of Swift's 2010 song “Dear John”. In the song, Swift references a vast age difference (she was 19 and he was 32 at the time): “Dear John, I see it all now, it was wrong / Don't you think 19's too young / To be played by your dark, twisted games / When I loved you so?”

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Mayer said he'd felt “humiliated” by the song, which fans have pointed out fed into a “crazy ex” narrative around Swift. (For the majority of her career, Swift has faced harsh judgement for referencing public relationships in her songs.)

“Something that doesn’t get discussed enough is that the ‘careful she’ll write a song about you’ jokes and the ‘Taylor Swift is crazy and boy-obsessed’ narrative was principally fueled by John Mayer after she (19) wrote a song detailing his (32) emotional abuse,” a user wrote on Twitter.

The Independent has reached out to Mayer's representatives for comment.

Read More: Framing Britney Spears: Sam Smith and Hayley Williams react to ‘shocking’ documentary