Newark Liberty International Airport is facing a shortage of air traffic controllers, forcing flight cancellations.
Gary Hershorn/Getty Images
United Airlines will cancel 35 daily round-trip flights from Newark Liberty International Airport.
CEO Scott Kirby cites the airport's inability to handle the scheduled flight volume.
The decision comes after more than 20% of FAA staff members walked off the job.
United Airlines is canceling dozens of daily flights to and from Newark Liberty International Airport because the airport "cannot handle the number of planes" coming in and out.
CEO Scott Kirby made the announcement on Friday, citing a staff shortage at the airport's air traffic control.
"Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead," Kirby said in a letter to customers. "We feel like there is no other choice in order to protect our customers."
Air traffic control issues have plagued Newark in recent weeks, causing major delays. In response, many airport workers walked off the job, exacerbating the problem.
"Technology that FAA air traffic controllers rely on to manage the airplanes coming in and out of Newark airport failed, resulting in dozens of diverted flights, hundreds of delayed and canceled flights, and worst of all, thousands of customers with disrupted travel plans," Kirby said in a statement to customers on Friday.
Kirby blamed a "chronically understaffed" air traffic control facility and a lack of intervention as the root causes.
The airline operates around 300 daily round-trip flights on average.
United, which operates as a major hub there, has long pushed the government to reclassify Newark as a "Level 3" airport, which would allow the FAA to limit the number of scheduled flights based on capacity and infrastructure constraints.
Several factors have contributed to the ongoing air traffic controller shortage in the United States. A 2023 report from the Department of Transportation found that the FAA still faced staffing challenges after the COVID-19 pandemic forced a pause on training. The report said the FAA "lacks a plan to address" the staffing issues, which "in turn poses a risk to the continuity of air traffic operations."
Air traffic controllers are also hard to staff because they have specific age requirements. The FAA requires that air traffic controllers retire when they turn 56, and the agency is now only accepting applications from people under the age of 31.
In a call with US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, however, Kirby expressed optimism: "We're pleased that the new administration has put together a proposal for a large, systemwide investment in FAA technology, infrastructure and staffing," he said.
Duffy said Thursday the FAA is on track to hire 2,000 new air traffic controllers this year. His plan also includes monetary incentives of up to $10,000 for academy graduates who are assigned to "hard-to-staff" air traffic facilities. The proposal would also provide financial incentives to staff, reward academy graduates, and expand the number of instructors.
"Today's actions will supercharge the air traffic controller workforce from both retention and hiring side of the equation — bringing us one step closer to reversing decades of staffing declines," Duffy said in a statement.
Duffy added on X: "We are working to harden the system. But this is why it's critical that we build an all-new air traffic control system."
Many tenants are facing an increase in fees, sometimes for services that used to be included in the rent.
Mariaelena Caputi for BI
Tenants are facing a boom in fees for services once included in the rent.
Equity Residential and other landlords use fees to boost revenue amid rising rental costs.
FTC and states are scrutinizing rental fees, with some legal actions and new regulations.
In 2014, Marianne Napoles moved into a two-bedroom garden apartment in Eagle Canyon, on the forested slopes of Chino Hills, California. She found the property managers helpful, and the landlord, Equity Residential, lowered her rent by $43 when she renewed in 2020.
Then came the fees, starting with $2 a month for pest removal, then $10 to use her unit's one-car garage — amenities originally included in the rent. The monthly parking charge was hiked to $20, and then she got hit with a $30 charge for compost pickup after Equity hired Valet Living for state-mandated organic waste disposal.
"It started to feel like I was being pushed out of the community where I've lived for the past decade," Napoles said.
In February, Napoles paid $165 in monthly fees, including water and sewage, up from $44 when she moved in. Her rent rose by about 70% over the decade, while her fees nearly quadrupled.
After she wrote an op-ed article about the situation for her employer, the Chino Valley Champion, Napoles' property manager emailed to say the costs were beyond Equity's control: "Our competitors that are REITs they have already been ahead of the game and charging such fees."
In reality, Equity Residential was an early champion of finding ways to squeeze more money from rentals.
The company's founder, the late billionaire Sam Zell, predicted 25 years ago that half of revenue for publicly traded residential real estate firms would come from income other than rent. Other huge corporate landlords have adopted the playbook, advertising one amount for rent and then tacking on a range of optional and mandatory costs.
Sam Zell, founder of Equity International
Steven Ferdman/Getty Images
A 2024 lease from Progress Residential, which manages some 85,000 single-family rentals, is 40-plus pages and includes at least 15 potential fees — for example, $125 for "Lease Administration," a $50 "Lease Application," "Insurance Exemption" fees, and a $75 "trip" fee on top of repair costs billed to tenants.
Leases reviewed by BI show that last year, Progress added a sentence directing tenants to a website to view a list of potential fees. A Progress spokesperson, Nikki Sloup, said by email that the company discloses "all mandatory fees at the start of the leasing process" but declined to comment on the added language.
A Progress Residential lease signed in the fall of 2024 discloses a range of administrative fees.
Obtained by Business Insider
Marty McKenna, a spokesperson for Equity Residential, said the firm did not consider itself an innovator in renter fees. "We have more transparency on fees today than ever," he said.
The industry's position is that the charges cover legitimate services tenants should pay for, and some landlords say it's long-standing practice to advertise rental pricing without fees. But the charges have also been labeled "junk fees." In 2023, the Federal Trade Commission sought to prohibit hidden costs attached to everything from concert tickets to hotel stays to rentals.
The real estate lobby argued that fees are not deceptive and that landlord-tenant relationships should be exempt. In December, the FTC omitted rentals from its rule in favor of case-by-case enforcement.
In January, the FTC sued the property management firm Greystar, which it accused of hiding fees from prospective renters. (In late April, tenants in California filed a federal class action suit alleging Greystar added mandatory "junk fees" while advertising a lower rental cost.)
Greystar called the FTC suit "agency overreach" in court papers and moved to dismiss the case, arguing an online listing with base rent is "not likely to mislead" since renters understand there will be more to the lease than an ad says. Greystar lawyers also noted the FTC recently exempted the rental market from a rule on deceptive fees.
Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, one of the FTC commissioners, told BI that the 4-1 vote excluding rentals was a sign of bipartisan compromise and not a suggestion that renters don't face junk fees or that landlords aren't subject to the law.
"The absence of rental fees in the rule is not an implicit, and certainly not an explicit, blessing of the practice of charging junk fees in rentals," she said."The rule we passed is better than having no rule at all."
Rebecca Kelly Slaughter
Susan Walsh/AP Photo
President Donald Trump fired Slaughter and the only other Democratic commissioner in March, and both are suing to get their jobs back. Slaughter and said the "chaos" calls into question the agency's oversight of rentals and ongoing lawsuits against landlords.
But the backlash to fees does appear to be having some effect.
About 22 states have protections limiting fees, according to data compiled by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Colorado passed a bill allowing renters to reuse background checks for up to 30 days to avoid multiple fees. Massachusetts and Rhode Island banned application fees. In April, Illinois' House of Representatives passed a bill that would bar landlords from charging a move-in fee and limit late fees; it's pending in the state Senate.
In January, an industry group started by the National Multifamily Housing Council issued updated data models that allow property managers to standardize how fees are displayed across listing platforms — in categories ranging from direct costs such as "clean" and "damage" to more opaque buckets like "admin," "accounting," and "other."
Ariel Nelson, a staff attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, described disclosure as "the most minimal level of consumer protection" and said such efforts were just one "piece of this puzzle to make it better."
The age of luxury
Through court records, interviews, and company documents, Business Insider traced the history of rental fees — from early experiments with luxury services to a widespread practice that affects many of the nation's 45 million residential rental units.
It begins in the early 1990s, when overbuilding and a credit crunch sent real estate into a downspin. The federal government seized and auctioned off $456 billion in properties and other assets from failed savings and loans — and investors smelled opportunity.
With the credit markets in shambles, this new crop of investors turned to the public market to fund their growing empires, using a newly popular vehicle, the real estate investment trust. According to the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts trade association, there were 119 REITs in 1990, with a total market value of $8.7 billion. Nine years later, the number hit 211 with a market value of $140 billion.
REITs came under scrutiny from analysts and pressure from investors keen on maximizing returns at a challenging time for rental housing, with vacancy rates climbing to nearly 11% before the 2008 housing crash.
As a result, REITs looked for creative ways to attract residents: high-speed internet and home theaters in a Dallas suburb, on-site day care in Santa Monica, even a synthy music album titled "Renters Paradise" produced by Equity for prospective and existing tenants. Equity and Camden Property Trust, which bought up properties in the Sun Belt and went public in 1993, used amenities like swimming pools and exercise rooms to stand out to prospective luxury tenants — and their own investors.
The drive to explore non-rental revenue gained steam in 2001 when the REIT Modernization Act allowed these landlords to own third-party property management companies. Ernst & Young's then head of real estate said the change would allow REITs to "really blow these activities out."
Ric Campo of Camden Properties, which embraced ancillary services.
Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
Equity Residential's Zell was a loud voice in favor as landlords began to explore ancillary income opportunities.
"For every dollar you get," Camden's CEO Ric Campo said in 1996, "you don't have to raise the rent."
Supersizing through software
The concept of optimizing revenue without reducing costs or making major investments wasn't without controversy. When the airline industry pioneered dynamic pricing of tickets, the Department of Justice found it tantamount to illegal price fixing because it was coordinated through a shared software system. (The airlines settled in 1994, agreeing not to share pricing information.)
About a decade later, these revenue models began cropping up in rentals. Lease Rent Optimizer and YieldStar, which suggest pricing for clients' units, were among the early tech offerings; several were bought out by RealPage, now the largest revenue management software in the market. (RealPage is the target of a DOJ suit over claims of price fixing through shared software; it denied that its software has anticompetitive effects, called the lawsuit "baseless," and has a motion for dismissal pending.)
The impact of automation was striking. When Equity tested Lease Rent Optimizer, an executive later said, revenue increased by 3% to 5%; in 2006, Equity rolled it out to all properties.
When the 2008 housing crisis hit, more major players looked to fees to replace lost rents. Camden's 2008 financial filings show revenue from its properties jumped 1.5% despite low occupancy rates.
Camden's then president, Keith Oden, said the company would focus on what it could control: lowering costs and charging fees — a "nickels-and-dimes business," he called it. The company launched a trash service similar to Valet Living, which Oden predicted would clear $2 million in profits by 2009. (A Camden spokesperson said in an email that today's renters had "better visibility" into what is included in a "quoted rental rate" and that tenants appreciated its "ancillary services.")
A wave of corporatization
The subprime mortgage crisis also accelerated investors' acquisition of rental housing. As millions of borrowers lost their homes to foreclosure, investors started showing up to auctions to build out portfolios of single-family homes.
From 1980 to 2004, fewer than one in five rental properties were bought by nonindividuals. From 2013 to 2015, that number jumped to nearly one in two. And with more corporate landlords came more dynamic pricing — and more fees.
Big landlords expanded their influence over the terms of the rental market, said Jeffrey Newsome, a private consumer protection lawyer in Tampa, Florida, who represents tenants in several class action lawsuits. "They'd like to make money out of every single aspect of it but not be held accountable for it," he said.
Blackstone saw an opportunity when it launched Invitation Homes in 2012. Within five years, the company owned 82,000 residential properties, making it the nation's largest owner of single-family homes at the time.
The firm went hard on fees as it went public. In 2017, its CEO said "automated charges" helped push a 22% increase in ancillary income during a single quarter.
At a 2019 investor event, as Blackstone was winding down its investment, Invitation Homes announced a new plan to boost revenue: It would grow its auxiliary income to as much as $30 million by 2022.
The company added mandatory charges for "utility management," "smart home technology," and "air filter delivery" that generated more than $60 million in fees from 2021 to June 2023, according to the suit.
An FTC unfair-practices lawsuit against Invitation Homes, filed in 2024, said CEO Dallas Tanner told a vice president it was time to "juice this hog." The suit also alleged that in a November 2021 slide deck, senior leadership instructed Invitation's salesforce to avoid readily disclosing these charges to prospective renters.
"Invitation Homes was not trying to hide any fees, but it instead recognized that its fees could change and intended to ensure that copy was always as accurate as possible," Kristi DesJarlais, a company spokesperson, said by email. "Nothing we do should be classified as a 'junk fee,' but rather as transparently communicated services that directly align to the enjoyment or use of the homes."
The company settled in September without admitting wrongdoing, paying $48 million in refunds and agreeing to list a home's "true rental price."
An Invitation Homes car in Riverside, California
Mike Blake/Reuters
When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, along with a moratorium on evictions, corporate landlords again looked to fees to plug revenue holes. Camden's chief financial officer credited utility fees as one of the additions that helped the company's revenue the first year of the pandemic.
With tenants in lockdown, institutional apartment investors buoyed by cheap debt went on another buying spree. RealPage, meanwhile, had just rolled out new updates to its revenue management software.
The DOJ's lawsuit against RealPage alleges it floated add-ons for landlords, like "weekend premiums" to discourage renters from moving on weekends without paying a fee. The suit added several landlords as defendants in January, including Camden and Greystar. Both have joined other landlords in filing motions for dismissal.
The great unbundling
Alongside the rise of service fees came fees for the basics of life as a renter.
Camden piloted turning some utilities historically included in rent into a revenue boost. In a 1996 press release from a real estate industry group, the Camden CEO Campo said the company cut company water bills in half by passing costs to tenants.
Equity Lifestyle Properties, the mobile home and RV park cousin of Equity Residential, called the process "unbundling" — a strategy to charge for utilities separately "every chance we get," CFO Paul Seavey said in a 2022 investor call.
An Equity Lifestyle spokesperson, Jennifer Ludovice, said by email that the company used unbundling "to increase transparency in billing and allow residents better control of their expenses."
Today, rebilling services help landlords remove those costs from their books. They act as an intermediary between tenants and utilities and typically charge tenants the cost of the utilities plus an administrative fee.
Last year, a group of tenants in Washington, DC, tried to find out how much extra they were paying. They compared utility costs for two one-bedroom apartments: a 913-square-foot unit in their building, Guild Lofts, owned by the asset manager Brookfield, and a 728-square-foot apartment in the older Insignia on M, owned by the real estate firm Bozzuto.
In addition to the cost of consumption, the Brookfield tenant paid nearly $40 in utility fees in June — almost half of them to a Brookfield-owned water metering service. The Bozzuto tenant paid $19 in fees.
Brookfield told Guild Lofts tenants in their 2024 lease amendments that they would be hit with a new "common area electricity" charge, which included charges for heating and cooling tenants' own units and common areas like the lobby. This charge, which changes month to month based on building use and for which tenants don't see the underlying calculation, added about $100 a month to the tenants' bill.
"Market giants like Brookfield view our homes as assets, and their only objective is to squeeze residents for profits," said Noëlle Porter, an organizer for Brookfield DC Tenants and director of government affairs for the National Housing Law Project. "Deceptive and even illegal fees are on the rise across the country, and overburdened renters cannot afford $200, $300, $400 per month in additional, surprise charges and fees."
One tenant's December class action suit accused Brookfield of violating local laws with hidden utility charges. Brookfield said in a filing that the case should be dismissed because it "expressly told its tenants, including Plaintiff, exactly what they were paying for and exactly what they were receiving in return."
However, an April email exchange between Brookfield and its utility billing partner, obtained by Business Insider, showed they were accidentally overbilling some units at a Navy Yard property called Foundry Loft for gas, stormwater, and trash. A Brookfield spokesperson said the company is now conducting "a complete review of billing" across the Navy Yard properties, and the company is distributing about $4 a month to Foundry Loft tenants for gas, stormwater, and trash overbilling from June 2023 to April 2025, according to an email obtained by BI.
"We care a great deal about being fair and transparent in pricing apartment homes to be consistent with market demand and in line with all regulatory requirements," they said to BI.
Meanwhile, other tenants are now being charged for the simple act of paying the rent.
Landlords who use AppFolio, a property management tech company whose software is used to manage over 8 million properties, may pass onto tenants those fees: $2.49 for each eCheck or 3.49% of their rent if they use a credit card — which would be $70 a month on a median US rent of $2,000, according to Zillow.
The FTC proposed a rule on "junk fees" that received public comments. The final rule exempted landlords. Asked about this comment about fees to pay the rent, PhillyLiving Management Group said they do not profit from the fees.
FTC
The strategy has been lucrative. In January 2024, the company's CFO at the time, Fay Sien Goon, said "value added services" had contributed to year-over-year revenue growth of 39%, partially driven by 48% growth in ancillary revenue. "Card adoption for rent payments," she said, "continued to exceed our expectations." AppFolio did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
'The market has determined that it's fair'
Not all housing-related fees are imposed by landlords. Third-party vendors are now competing for a piece of the action, promising to trim costs and drive revenue for landlords — including mom-and-pop property owners — by providing fee-based services like garbage collection or offering "resident benefits" like air filter delivery and move-in "concierge" help.
Valet Living, owned by private equity, has become the nation's largest provider of doorstep trash collection. One of its sales presentations said the service could add an average of $40,000 a year in net operating income for a landlord.
In a statement, Valet Living said that it didn't set prices or collect money directly and that the company supported "transparent fee structures that allow residents to understand all housing amenities and costs before they move-in or sign a renewal." A spokesperson did not respond to a question about how the firm would increase net operating income for landlords, or whether it charges landlords directly and then encourages landlords to mark up the service to make a profit off of their tenants.
The growth of proptech, or property technology, fueled by a venture capital spend that peaked at $32 billion in 2021, has further spurred the rise of third-party providers.
Latchel, which launched in 2017, offers landlords a "resident benefit package" that includes pest relief, a drain snake, and reimbursements for accidental damage to a unit, for a fee of 2% to 3% of the rent — $40 to $60 a month on the national median rent — which can then be passed on to the tenant. Latchel, which did not respond to BI, advertises that by outsourcing a landlord's maintenance costs, Latchel can generate savings of up to $20 a unit each month.
Other vendors, such as CredHub, charge landlords to report rent payments to credit agencies. Chris Dukelow, CredHub's cofounder, said that unlike add-ons "used more to make money" from tenants, rent reporting was beneficial. He said that tenants should be allowed to opt out or have the cost folded into their rent but that most CredHub clients marked up the cost through fees.
"Ultimately, it's up to the property manager what they do," he said.
Todd Ortscheid is a partner in PMAssist, a consulting company that helps property managers pursue what he calls "fee-maxing" through online courses that lay out more than 75 kinds of fees that can be charged. Ortscheid declined to comment but publicly credits more than a quarter of his own property management company's revenue to fees charged to tenants.
Ortscheid provides services mostly to single-family homes and "accidental landlords" — those who inherit a rental property, for example — the other end of the spectrum from massive REITs. He credits the National Association of Residential Property Managers conference with introducing him to "fee-maxing."
"Remember, if a tenant will pay it, the market has determined that it's fair," he said in a webinar recording viewed by BI.
'Pushing the envelope'
Regulators have been slow to catch up to the spread of rental fees.
In 2024, a California judge ruled that Equity crossed the line with a 5% late-payment fee that violated a state ban on marking up fees; the judge found that the company had charged more than $36 million in late fees in California over nearly 11 years and agreed with the general structure of the plaintiffs' calculations that found $26 million of that was excessive.
In a response to the filing, Equity argued that the calculations didn't take into account rising personnel costs and argued that the court should limit monetary relief. On an April 2024 earnings call, CEO Mark Parrell said the company was considering an appeal. McKenna, the Equity Residential spokesperson, declined to comment on lawsuits.
The evidence in the case included a 2008 internal document on "the potential upside" of hiking late fees to 5% of rent. Denise Beihoffer, the company's vice president for legal affairs, said Equity was "committed to pushing the envelope a bit where the risk of doing so is low." The firm's vice president of financial planning at the time told her in a May 2008 email that it looked like a "slam dunk"; because California's average rent was $1,500, "the average late fee would come in at $75," a 50% increase.
It may have been a reasonable calculation: The FTC has gone after only a few landlords over rental fees recently. And the impact of voluntary transparency efforts has been uneven.
In July 2023, as part of the Biden White House's push to ban "junk fees," the listing portals Zillow, Apartments.com, and AffordableHousing.com agreed to display fees and calculate the total cost of renting for renters. But that can be only so effective. A Zillow spokesperson, Emily McDonald, told BI that fees showed up only "when landlords and property managers provide them."
The Biden administration called for restrictions on so-called junk fees, but ultimately did not include rentals in the new rule.
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Listings within a property manager's control may not be complete. In the FTC case against Greystar, the agency said the company was not listing all fees on its sites. The lack of transparency had cost renters hundreds of millions of dollars, the suit says, citing one tenant whose actual monthly cost was 40% higher than what they were quoted when signing the lease.
In a press release, Greystar said no tenants paid any fee "they have not seen and agreed to in their lease" and said it had expressed willingness, in discussions with the FTC, to "display total monthly leasing price" whenever it was "within Greystar's control."
Greystar also said the FTC provided "zero guidance" when it decided to exempt landlords from its rule on fee transparency.
"The most effective path to achieving uniform and consistent fee disclosures is through clear regulatory guidelines for our industry," it said. "It is disappointing that the FTC has failed to show any leadership in this area."
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Reddit's stock jumped by 19% after hours on Thursday after the company released its Q1 earnings report.
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Reddit's stock surged as much as 19% post-Q1 earnings report, showing strong revenue growth.
The company reported a 61% year-over-year revenue increase, marking consistent growth.
CEO Steve Huffman emphasized Reddit's resilience amid tweaks to Google's algorithm and AI search trends.
Reddit's stock jumped by 19% after hours on Thursday after the company released its Q1 earnings report. As of publishing, it was up 7% after market close.
Reddit's revenue increased 61% year-over-year to $392.4 million in Q1 of 2025, the company said in an earnings release. CEO Steve Huffman said in a letter to investors that this marks the third consecutive quarter of growth over 60% for Reddit.
Reddit has seen considerable growth over the past year, thanks in part to a growing relationship with Google and site traffic growth from people searching for terms on Reddit through Google search. In February, Reddit's stock dropped more than 15% after CEO Steve Huffman said in an earnings call that Reddit saw "volatility" in traffic after Google tweaked its algorithm.
Huffman was asked how he sees "user growth going" over the rest of the year, given that Google has already changed its algorithm this year.
"We do expect some bumps along the way from Google, because we've already seen a few this year," Huffman said. "This is expected in any year, but given that the search ecosystem is under heavy construction, the near term could be more bumpy than usual."
Still, Huffman said that "short-term bumps" will not affect Reddit's long-term strategy and growing search market opportunities. Huffman said that there is "no doubt" that AI models will change the way people search for information on the internet, but Reddit will always meet the need of people looking for the "subjective, authentic, messy, multiple viewpoints that Reddit provides."
"In the same way that Reddit, for the last decade, has been an alternative to social media — social media being performative and manicured and Reddit being the opposite — Reddit communities and conversations will be an alternative to AI search answers," Huffman said.
Huffman also said in the earnings call that Reddit has maintained through big cultural shifts like the rise of smartphones and the COVID-19 pandemic because "the world needs community and shared knowledge, and that's what we do best."
"Ever-shifting macro environments like these create both challenges and opportunities," Huffman told investors. "We've grown through challenging times before people need connection and information just as much in uncertain times, and we're well-positioned to meet this moment."
Katie Passarello now lives with her Spanish partner, whom she met while studying her Master's.
Katie Passarello
Katie Passarello moved from California to Spain as a coteacher with the Fulbright program in 2021.
She went on to do her Master's degree at a Spanish university and met her partner while studying.
Passarello said she loves the relaxed culture and savings potential, and has no plans to leave.
This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Katie Passarello, a public relations contractor living inCariño, Spain. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Staying long after the food or drink is finished to sit around a table and share conversations is at the heart of Spanish culture.
The Spanish call this "sobremesa." To me, it's one of the greatest experience in life and part of why I fell in love with the country.
I moved to northern Spain in 2021 and never left.
I've always wanted to travel
From a young age, I was interested in other cultures. I was raised in California and had an amazing childhood. But I knew from early in my life, I wanted to get outside my comfort zone.
While studying international relations at Boston College, I traveled to Italy to visit friends. Spending time with someone living in the culture was so different from visiting as a tourist, and my urge to experience the world grew.
I was drawn to Europe because you could travel between countries, and many people were multilingual. Being from California, I spoke a bit of Spanish, so Spain seemed like a logical place to consider.
My college program encouraged studying abroad, so I headed to Spain in January 2020. COVID-19 hit Spain hard, and I had to return to the States in March. I'd seen just enough to fall in love — the slow days and fascinating people had me researching my path back.
I moved to Spain as a student and never left
I applied to teach English in Galicia, a northern region of Spain, through the Fulbright scholarship, a selective year-long program for students traveling abroad after I graduated.
After a rigorous application process, I was accepted and moved to Cariño, a city at the northwest tip of Spain to teach.
When I started my new position, I taught second through fifth grade English as a coteacher. A few weeks into the experience, I was already researching how to stay in Spain. I immediately fell in love with the amazing food, gorgeous country, and the lack of hustle culture compared to the US.
Katie Passarello completed the Fulbright program teaching English in northern Spain.
Katie Passarello
When Fulbright ended, I started working on my Master's in digital marketing and strategy at a Spanish university. During my studies, whenever I headed too far into overachiever land, other students in my group would say, "Hey, we can just do what the assignment says and not blow this out of proportion."
I was no longer in a place where the goal was to be the top of everything, which was a huge relief. When I visit California now, I immediately am struck with the sense of "Am I doing enough? Am I saving enough? Am I progressing in my career enough?" The answer is always "no."
I don't feel the constant need to get ahead, or like I'm always falling behind, in Spain.
Three months into my time in Spain, my path kept overlapping with a man named Miguel. I was drawn to his character and work ethic — he is an engineer at a sustainable architecture firm. We have been together for over three years and plan to get married and build a life together. I've also made some unexpected and profound friendships.
Katie Passarello met her partner, Miguel, while studying her Master's.
Katie Passarello
It's not always tapas and siestas
It can be easy to fantasize that moving abroad will be all tapas and siestas. While that's true, like anywhere, it has its struggles.
I was on a student visa during the program. There was a hangup with my visa as I transitioned from the Fulbright program to my Master's program. More issues cropped up when I wanted to stay in Spain for good.
I learned that slow bureaucratic processes are the downside to living in a culture with a more relaxed pace of life.
I now have an EU Residency. Miguel and I are "Pareja De Hecho," which grants me residency as his legal partner in Spain. With this status, I can work and live in Spain.
Passarello and her partner, Miguel, renovating their apartment.
Katie Passarello
In December 2023, Miguel and I fell in love with an old apartment and bought it. The apartment cost 135,000 euros (around $152,000), we put down a 20% deposit and invested 85,600 euros (around $96,000) of our own savings to renovate it.
The project came with unexpected trials like "carcoma" or woodworm — my new least favorite Spanish word. Aside from that, it has been worth the trials to live in a beautiful town with my partner.
Passarello and her partner Miguel's apartment.
Katie Passarello
Costs of moving abroad
I started working and saving money as a teenager.
The summer before I moved to Spain, I worked several jobs, as I knew the Fulbright stipend wouldn't cover my living expenses and the fun travel I had planned. I saved a lot.
These savings, plus money I earned working full time after Fulbright, paid for my half of the apartment down payment and upfront renovation costs.
Now, I work in public relations as an independent contractor. I can visit family, maintain clients in the US and Spain, and work on a schedule that fits my American roots and Spanish life.
The cost of living is lower than in California, but so are the salaries, which were shocking initially. Working a lot and with US clients means I have a higher savings capacity.
I don't live a high-roller lifestyle. I enjoy living modestly, saving and having money to travel home or invest in the house.
What the future holds
Five years after my first trip to Spain, and I've built a life here.
I love cooking and hosting with Miguel, our meals sometimes merge Californian culture with Spanish food.
Passarello loves cooking and hosting her new friends.
Katie Passarello
Homesickness is real. It is a constant ache and longing for what's familiar, for your old country, your family, and your friends. We might go back one day, but not today. I can't imagine having kids without my mom nearby.
For now, I'm grateful for the original Spanish woodwork above my table, a loving partner, and friends joining for "sombresa" in my beautiful new city.
A truck drives past shipping containers from China at the Port of Los Angeles in February.
Mike Blake/Reuters
A lag in ocean shipping means consumers will soon see the effects of Trump's trade war.
Canceled orders and a slowing economy are sending ominous signs for US shoppers.
"We're expecting this to continually get worse," one supply chain expert told BI.
Nearly a month has passed since President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on, well, basically everything the US imports from everywhere.
Apart from financial market gyrations, most of the real-world effects have remained comparatively muted thus far.
That delay is all thanks to the nature of ocean freight shipping times, which can take 20 to 45 days to cross the Pacific.
In particular, orders from Chinese suppliers that were canceled on or after Trump announced the new trade policy are just now starting to be felt in the US.
"We're starting to see this on the West Coast, and we're expecting this to continually get worse," Michigan State University professor and supply chain researcher Jason Miller told Business Insider.
In recent weeks, executives from major retailers, including Walmart, Target, and Home Depot, reportedly warned Trump that US shoppers could start to see empty shelves across the country in the coming weeks if his policies continue.
In a cabinet meeting Wednesday, Trump acknowledged that his policies could reduce shoppers' choices later this year.
"Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls," he said. "And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally."
Whether faced with sharp price increases or outright product shortages, trade experts say US shoppers are likely to face some difficult realities starting this summer.
Here are seven charts that might be noteworthy on their own, but together, they raise alarms about the consumer economy.
GDP shrank for the first time in three years
Data released Wednesday from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed a critical dip in US GDP, ending 11 straight quarters of growth and sparking renewed concerns of a recession. It's worth noting that the first quarter ended before the trade war was officially announced on April 2, still, the number was shaped by business expectations, specifically anticipation of new import costs.
That decline came from companies pulling import orders forward
The biggest factor that weighed on GDP last quarter was a ballooning trade deficit from rushed imports. Companies largely knew that some form of tariffs were coming with the election of Trump, and many ordered inventories ahead of time.
Still, ordering a bunch of stuff ahead of schedule comes with its own set of expenses and logistical challenges, and it could leave retailers and suppliers on the hook if consumer spending falters.
Cargo volumes are down significantly — especially from China to the US
Containerized cargo is generally measured in twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, and the numbers have dropped precipitously this week. Some carriers have reported transpacific bookings falling by 30% or more, largely out of China.
A Port of Los Angeles spokesperson told BI that arrivals will slightly increase after next week as more imports come in from countries other than China. Many of these countries are looking to beat the deadline of Trump's pause on so-called "reciprocal" tariffs.
But MSU's Miller said the lift will most likely be temporary.
"Any type of rushing stuff to the US from everywhere else cannot fully counterbalance the loss of Chinese volume," he said.
Instead, the US is receiving more empty containers
Blank sailings are ships that carry empty containers to ports where they will be filled with exports. Normally, the Port of LA sees about a half dozen blank sailings a month, except once a year following the Lunar New Year holiday in China.
The port says it expects to receive 17 and 12 blank sailings in May and June, respectively, and estimates the combined capacity loss to be 350,000 TEUs.
Policy uncertainty is at its highest since early in the COVID-19 pandemic
One result of this lack of clarity is elevated levels of policy uncertainty that last peaked in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Americans are historically pretty capable of managing both good news and bad news, but uncertainty tends to lead households and businesses to lock down spending, cut investments, and take a defensive stance.
Small business optimism is in the pits …
Large firms aren't exactly excited about the trade situation, but many have repeatedly said over the past six months that they are well-equipped to deal with whatever is thrown their way.
Smaller companies, meanwhile, are often more dependent on China and don't have the physical or capital capacity to avoid incurring tariff charges. Nor do smaller companies typically have the purchasing power to ask overseas suppliers for discounts to offset import costs.
"Oftentimes, when businesses and consumers are concerned about the future because of uncertainty, they will stop their activity," Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board, previously told Business Insider. "Businesses won't invest or they won't hire, consumers won't spend, they'll just kind of sit there and wait and see what happens."
… as is consumer sentiment
Like small businesses, US consumers are not feeling great about the economy.
University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index took another nosedive in April to 52.2, down nearly 20 points from the start of the year. The last time the number was this low was the summer of 2022, when inflation was at its peak of more than 9%.
Of course, low sentiment and high prices didn't appear to slow consumer spending all that much back then, but it's not clear that shoppers will show such resilience this time around.
Even if the White House changes course, Miller said the price impacts and product shortages will start rippling across the US as tariffed inventory works its way through the supply chain.
"A lot of the pricing impacts from this are not going to be felt until the summer," he said. "You're going to start seeing the toasters with the 145% tariff probably hitting the shelves in late May, early June."
Donald Trump's MO is to take credit for the performance of the stock market — but only when it's rising.
The president said the market still belonged to Joe Biden when pointing to the decline in stocks this year.
Trump has tried to take credit for stock gains even when he wasn't in the White House.
Donald Trump has used the stock market as a scorecard in the past, so it might make sense to look at a chart of the S&P 500 year-to-date and wonder if the president thinks his performance could be better.
Judging by Trump's own words on Wednesday, that's not the case.
Following his 100th day in office, data showed the US economy contracted last quarter for the first time in three years. Stocks reacted negatively, but the president said the market still belonged to former President Joe Biden, redirecting blame for the 6% decline in the S&P 500 this year.
"This is Biden's Stock Market, not Trump's. I didn't take over until January 20th," Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Wednesday.
"Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden 'Overhang.' This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other," he added.
For those following along since his first term, it was a familiar sight. The president has often taken credit for stock gains—even during times he was not in the White House — and blamed others for losses.
In March, shortly after returning to the White House and as the market tumbled from all-time highs reached in February, he suggested that investors shouldn't be watching stocks, though he referred to the market's gains during his first term as an "amazing achievement."
"You can't really watch the stock market," Trump said in an interview with Fox News in early March after tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China were first unveiled. "If you look at China, they have a 100-year perspective. We have a quarter. We go by quarters."
Trump suggested that the decline in stocks this year was due to "overhang" from Biden's presidency.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
The Trump bump
The comments shifting blame are the opposite of what Trump has claimed relatively recently. He has put the success of the stock market front and center as his doing.
The day before his inauguration, Trump said that the rise in stock prices was the "Trump effect."
"Everyone is calling it the — I don't want to say this, it's too braggadocious, but we'll say it anyway — the Trump effect. It's you. You're the effect," Trump said at a rally in Washington. "Since the election, the stock market has surged, and small-business optimism has soared a record 41 points to a 39-year high. Bitcoin has shattered one record high after another."
Trump referred to the market's gains throughout his first term as an "amazing achievement."
AP Photo/Paul Sancya
That's plausible, as markets had initially priced in a big boost to growth and economic activity. However, expectations were recalibrated once he took office, as it became clear that the trade war would be more aggressive than anyone predicted.
However, Trump has even taken credit when he wasn't anywhere near the levers of power in Washington, DC.
"THIS IS THE TRUMP STOCK MARKET," Trump wrote in a January 2024 Truth Social post. "BECAUSE MY POLLS AGAINST BIDEN ARE SO GOOD THAT INVESTORS ARE PROJECTING THAT I WILL WIN, AND THAT WILL DRIVE THE MARKET UP."
Perhaps the best example of the president's eagerness to take credit for the market's good fortune came in 2020, when Trump sent Fox News host Lou Dobbs an autographed chart of the Dow Jones Industrial average, which shot up 2,000 points in a single day after he declared COVID-19 an emergency.
Trump sent the late Lou Dobbs an autographed chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average on March 13, 2020.
A screenshot from Lou Dobbs Moneyline show on Fox Business.
While Trump has historically highlighted the stock market to showcase his achievements as president, his team has suggested this time around that he's got his eye on a different scorecard: the 10-year US Treasury yield.
The key bond yield is a reflection of long-term interest rates in the economy. That ties into the president's goal of lowering borrowing costs for Americans, which was a central point in his campaign for president last year.
Neither Ryan Gosling nor Jennifer Aniston has attended the Met Gala.
Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Moët & Chandon
The Met Gala, one of the most exclusive fashion events, will be held on May 5.
Over the years, some A-list stars have surprisingly not been invited or have declined.
Ryan Gosling, Dolly Parton, and Angela Bassett have never walked the Met Gala red carpet.
The Met Gala is fashion's biggest night — and celebrities love to show up on the first Monday in May to show off the most iconic looks of their careers.
However, not every A-lister has decided to attend the party. There are plenty of living legends who, for whatever reason, have foregone attending the event, including Meryl Streep, Will Smith, the entire cast of "Friends," and more.
Here are some of the biggest celebrities to have skipped the Met Gala so far.
Victoria Montalti and Elana Klein contributed to a prior version of this story.
Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep.
Jordan Strauss/AP Images
A three-time Academy Award winner and nine-time Golden Globe winner, Meryl Streep is accustomed to red carpets.
However, although the acting legend has starred in several fashion-forward roles in movies like "The Devil Wears Prada" — in which she essentially played Met Gala organizer and Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour — and "Mamma Mia," she's never attended the Met Gala.
Streep was a Met Gala co-chair for the 2020 event. However, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented it from taking place that year.
She was not re-added as a co-chair when the Met Gala was held again in 2021, and has skipped every year since.
Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling.
Greg Doherty/WireImage/Getty Images
Contrary to what his popularity and his role as the clothes horse Ken in "Barbie" might suggest, Ryan Gosling has still never been to the Met Gala.
This was particularly surprising in 2023, as "Barbie" was the biggest hit of the year.
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie.
Gennaro Leonardi Photos/Shutterstock
With the perfect mix of edgy and elegant style, it's shocking that the actor never attended the event, particularly in the 2000s, when she was at the height of her Hollywood career.
The costuming and cinematic masterpiece of the "Maleficent" films also seemed like perfect opportunities for Jolie to make her Met Gala debut. However, we're still waiting for that day to come.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
Dwayne Johnson in 2023.
ABC/Getty Images
Although he's acted in box-office hits like the "Fast and Furious" franchise and "Moana," the actor and former wrestler has never attended the Met Gala.
The cast of "Friends"
(From left to right) Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, and Lisa Kudrow.
Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images
Somehow, neither Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, nor Matthew Perry (before his death in 2023) ever attended the event.
While the Met's attendees include fashion's elite, the guest list also includes the biggest names of the moment, so it's shocking that none of the powerhouse "Friends" cast made appearances when the show was on the air or afterward, when their careers — especially Aniston's — and personal lives made headlines.
Drake
Drake.
Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock
No, Drake was never Rihanna's date to the Met Gala. While rappers like ASAP Rocky, Lil Nas X, Chance the Rapper, and Migos have all made appearances, the Canadian star has not.
Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, and Jane Fonda
(From left to right) Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, and Jane Fonda.
Chris Pizzello/AP Images
The "9 to 5" cast of acting legends and fashion icons has never been at the big night.
Each of these women is a legend with a very active career. They also know how to make a statement with their outfits: Parton with sparkles and fringe, Fonda with sleek silhouettes, and Tomlin with graphic T-shirt-and-blazer combos.
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.
Jae C. Hong/AP Images
The often-controversial couple has always been carefully watched by the public, making headlines and starting heated debates. However, they undoubtedly also have some pretty great red-carpet couple looks.
One carpet they never walked on is the Met Gala. Their children, Jaden Smith and Willow Smith, have attended, though.
Adele
Adele.
Joel C Ryan/AP Images
The music icon's 2021 comeback also cemented her spot as a fashion icon. Whether performing in outstanding gowns sans heels or sitting courtside in striking coats, she turns heads.
Although the "Easy on Me" singer hasn't attended the event yet, there's hope for her debut since she's returned to the limelight in recent years.
Britney Spears
Britney Spears.
Chris Pizzello/AP Images
When the Princess of Pop was at her height of fame in the 2000s, you may have suspected she walked the Met Gala's red carpet, but she didn't.
It would've been fitting to see Spears reinterpret her eccentric tour costumes and award-show style to match the unique Met Gala themes.
Prince William and Kate Middleton
Kate Middleton and Prince William.
If there's any celebrity who could have a Met Gala theme based on them, it's probably Helena Bonham Carter. The actor is always dressed in vintage-punk Vivienne Westwood and Tim Burton-esque looks.
While her character in "Ocean's 8" attends the Met in a fabulous gown, Bonham Carter hasn't been in real life.
In a 2018 interview on "The Graham Norton Show" in the UK, Bonham Carter said she'd never been invited. Her costar Rihanna jokingly explained, "That's because you wear dresses like that," pointing to Bonham Carter's funky printed look.
Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera.
Craig T Fruchtman/Getty Images
While the Met Gala is the perfect platform to showcase entertainers' cool and quirky styles, Christina Aguilera has never had the chance to be part of it.
The "Genie in a Bottle" singer has been busy creating music, touring, acting, and creating an image for herself for most of her life.
While her fan base would no doubt be excited to see her flaunt her style at the Met, they'll have to keep waiting.
Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt.
Isaaak/Shutterstock
Brad Pitt is a red-carpet staple, always in a dapper suit and always with a new hairdo. It seems surprising that he's never been to the Met, especially when his costars and friends like George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jonah Hill have.
But like his famous exes, Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie, Pitt has also steered clear.
Carrie Underwood
Carrie Underwood.
Jordan Strauss/AP Images
With eight Grammys, 16 ACM awards, dozens of CMT awards, and many more awards, Underwood has proven she's a singing sensation.
But she hasn't attended the Met Gala — not back in the day when she won "American Idol" and not now, when she's still serving red-carpet glamour.
Tom Holland
Tom Holland.
Todd Owyoung/NBC/Getty Images
While many superheroes have graced the Met Gala red carpet sans armor, some key actors have not.
Tom Holland (Spider-Man) should surely have been invited over the years with his fiancée, Zendaya, but the two have never attended the event together.
Angela Bassett
Angela Bassett.
Valerie Terranova/Getty Images
In this case, Angela Bassett did notdo the thing — she's never attended the Met Gala, even though she has impeccable red-carpet style and has been a star for decades.
As 2019 neared its close, Del Rey's first two albums, "Born to Die" and "Ultraviolence," both landed on several decade-end lists. She was named one of the decade's defining artists by Business Insider.
But shortly after, Del Rey's behavior began to make more headlines than her music.
Her reputation suffered a rapid downturn, thanks to a string of controversial public statements, questionable accessories, and a strong tendency to double down.
Many fans even said they'd "lost respect" for the singer, and she became increasingly described online as a "problematic white woman." More recently, Del Rey has faced backlash for leaning into what listeners have described as a "conservative Southerner vibe" with her music, aesthetics, and inner circle.
Keep reading for a timeline of her biggest scandals and inflammatory comments.
Note: This article has been updated since its original publish date.
May 2020: Del Rey posted an unprompted public statement about her own reputation
It all began on May 21, four months after the 2020 Grammys, when Del Rey shared a lengthy open letter on Instagram.
Posed as a "question for the culture," Del Rey praised her own legacy and broadly described her critics as "pathetic."
"Now that Doja Cat, Ariana, Camila, Cardi B, Kehlani and Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé have had number ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, fucking, cheating etc," she wrote, "can I please go back to singing about being embodied, feeling beautiful by being in love even if the relationship is not perfect, or dancing for money, or whatever I want, without being crucified or saying that I'm glamorizing abuse?"
"I'm fed up with female writers and alt singers saying that I glamorize abuse," she continued, "when in reality I'm just a glamorous person singing about the realities of what we are all now seeing are very prevalent emotionally abusive relationships all over the world."
She defended writing songs about being "submissive" in relationships, despite what she described as "a long 10 years of bullshit reviews."
"I also feel it really paved the way for other women to stop 'putting on a happy face' and to just be able to say whatever the hell they wanted to in their music," she wrote, "unlike my experience where if I even expressed a note of sadness in my first two records I was deemed literally hysterical as though it was literally the 1920s."
Del Rey concluded her statement by plugging her forthcoming poetry books, mentioning that she donates to "Native American foundations," and announcing a new album.
It remains unclear what triggered Del Rey's statement, or why she felt compelled to defend her music after months of glowing reviews.
Early in her career, Del Rey was seen as a controversial figure, but largely due to accusations of inauthenticity and artifice — especially because she orchestrated an aesthetic pivot after releasing a "flop" album under her birth name, Lizzy Grant.
Del Rey's tragic-glam persona that she introduced in the "Born To Die" era, which leaned heavily on images of white Americana, received far more scrutiny than her lyrics. She was also criticized in 2014 for telling Fader, "Feminism is just not an interesting concept."
Del Rey may have been reacting to a 2019 article from The Independent, in which writer Helen Brown "examines how easy it is to misread her lyrics as 'antifeminist'" — although Brown actually defends Del Rey's "sharp" songwriting and roundly praises her newest album.
Additionally, six out of the seven people she mentioned were women of color, which sparked accusations of racism.
As Tulane University's Christine Capetola wrote, in addition to her reductive descriptions of their music, Del Rey "failed to recognize Black female artists' decades-long — and ongoing — struggle to express their sexualities on their own terms within the realm of pop music."
Del Rey also implied that she's more "delicate" than her peers, and claimed that feminism is intolerant of "women who look and act like me."
"The optics of Lana, a white woman, complaining about feminism lacking space for her while critiquing the acclaim allotted to several Black pop artists is mortifying," Ashley Reese wrote for Jezebel.
YouTuber D'Angelo Wallace said Del Rey's album announcement was amplified by media coverage of the controversy.
"Was Lana Del Rey profiting off Black outrage to sell her album? Yes," he said in a video titled, "Lana Del Rey has Lana Del LOST IT."
"I don't think she did it on purpose," he said. "But once she realized who she was making mad, and that it was getting her even more attention than she initially was looking for, she made four follow-up comments. And they were all about the outrage."
He added: "I'm just gonna be honest. This is where my respect for her started to dip."
Shortly after, Del Rey doubled down and insisted she's not racist
Del Rey's response to the backlash focused on her reasoning for naming specific artists.
"To be clear because I knowwww you love to twist things. I fucking love these singers and know them. #that is why I mentioned them," she wrote. "I would like to have some of the same freedom of expression without judgment of hysteria."
"I haven't had the same opportunity to express what I wanted to express without being completely decimated," she continued in a second comment. "And if you want to say that has something to do with race that's your opinion but that's not what I was saying."
"This is the problem with society today," she said in a third comment. "It's exactly the point of my post — there are certain women that culture doesn't want to have a voice it may not have to do with race I don't know what it has to do with."
"I don't care anymore but don't ever ever ever ever bro- call me racist because that is bullshit."
"And my last and final note on everything," Del Rey wrote in a fourth comment, "when I said people who look like me — I meant the people who don't look strong or necessarily smart, or like they're in control etc. it's about advocating for a more delicate personality, not for white women — thanks for the Karen comments tho. V helpful."
However, Del Rey's comments struck many people as overly defensive, tone-deaf, and unproductive, rather than illuminating.
"'Don't ever call me racist' is hands-down the single-most disappointing reaction to accusations of racism," Wallace said in his video.
yeah when you offend a group of ppl, even if it wasn’t your intent..this is not the right response.
why is so hard to just say “i hear you, i apologize for how my statement made you guys feel, it was never my intentions, i just wanted to shed light on blank” and keep it moving https://t.co/2WSbRE4V8z
— lady gaga’s defense attorney (@codistweets) May 22, 2020
Black writers like Nichole Perkins and Roxane Gay also pointed out Del Rey's use of "coded" language and self-victimization.
So the women that she mentioned previously cannot be delicate? The narrative of the "strong black woman" that ultimately prevents us from being allowed to display any sort of vulnerability is just another racist bias she doesn't realize she has... She needs to stop talking asap
Del Rey posted an additional statement on Instagram, accusing her critics of wanting a 'race war'
One day after her original post, Del Rey continued to insist that it "wasn't controversial at all," despite national news coverage and widespread backlash.
In her additional statement, she implied that Ariana Grande and Doja Cat reached out to express discomfort with her message.
But "despite the feedback," Del Rey doubled down once again.
"I want to say that I remain firm in my clarity and stance in that what i was writing about was the importance of self-advocacy for the more delicate and often dismissed, softer female personality, and that there does have to be room for that type in what will inevitably become a new wave/3rd wave of feminism that is rapidly approaching," she wrote, even though the third wave of feminism began more than 20 years ago.
"I'm sorry that the folks who I can only assume are super Trump/Pence supporters or hyper liberals or flip-flopping headline grabbing critics can't read and want to make it a race war," she continued.
She also accused her female critics of being "disassociated from their own fragility and sexuality" and wanting "drama."
"My aim and my message are clear. That I have control of my own story," she concluded. "If the women I mention don't wanna be associated with me that's absolutely fine by me."
Again, fans criticized Del Rey for dismissing feedback rather than engaging with it.
Many noted that Del Rey's repeated self-characterization as a "delicate" woman plays into racist stereotypes, which historically paint white women as more feminine or fragile — allowing them to escape accountability more easily.
It also highlights the idea that Del Rey is "playing the victim."
"Lana really wants to act like she's the most original artist playing the victim and honestly she's full of shit," one person wrote on X (then known as Twitter).
She was also mocked for not-so-casually plugging her poetry book in the midst of her non-apology.
Del Rey made a further attempt to defend her open letter 3 days later — and compared herself to another woman of color
"In that post — my one and only personal declaration I've ever made, thanks for being so warm and welcoming — was about the need for fragility in the feminist movement," Del Rey said on May 25 in a six-minute video on Instagram.
"When I mentioned women who 'look like me,' I didn't mean white like me, I mean the kind of women who, you know, other people might not believe," Del Rey said in the video. "The difference is, when I get on the pole, people call me a whore, but when twigs gets on the pole, it's art."
She added: "The culture is super sick right now. And the fact that they wanna turn my post, my advocacy for fragility, into a race war — it's really bad. It's actually really bad."
She also expressed frustration that her letter received backlash, though she didn't address any of the specific criticism she received from artists and fans of color.
"It really, again, makes you reach into the depth of your own heart and say, 'Am I good-intentioned?' And of course, for me, the answer is always yes," she said. "I barely ever share a thing, and this is why."
Del Rey wrapped up by insisting that she's "not racist," plugging her poetry books, and refusing to apologize for her original statement: "Fuck off if you don't like the post."
Once again, Del Rey was perceived as being resentful towards successful women of color, ignorant of her own privilege, and determined to play the victim.
"The fact that she said race war and doesn't see twigs as a fragile, delicate woman is... You're really making it worse," one person wrote.
Another added: "You can hear FKA twigs' pain on 'Magdalene' period. I need Lana to stop bringing black women into her argument for creating a brand she cannot escape from."
Most fans (and former fans at this point) agreed that Del Rey's video "only made things worse."
"I didn't think she was this kind of person," Wallace said in his video. "Now I have the knowledge that Lana Del Rey is kind of ruthless in her pursuit of getting people to talk about her, and she doesn't seem to care who gets angry in the process, or even if what she's saying is right. So, that's a lot."
June 2020: She was called out by Black artists for sharing videos of protesters
According to Billboard, the first video showed a man holding a sign that read "no justice no peace," while the second showed people breaking into storefronts and running away with merchandise. She disabled comments on the post.
On X, Kehlani implored Del Rey to remove the videos because they showed uncensored faces and identifying features, which could lead to "dangerous" consequences for the protesters.
".@LanaDelRey please remove your instagram post it's dangerous as fuck and a very poor choice of moments to post," Kehlani tweeted. "by all means protest, but DO NOT endanger people with your very massive platform. oh and turn your fuckin comments on man."
Kehlani added: "it's about furthering endangering the lives of black people. it's about responsibility."
Tinashe echoed Kehlani's comments in a tweet of her own.
"@LanaDelRey why the fuck are you posting people looting stores on your page literally WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM," she wrote.
After Del Rey removed the video from Instagram, Kehlani and Tinashe both deleted their tweets.
October 2020: Del Rey came under fire after apparently wearing a mesh face mask
Aside from postponing her album, which was originally slated for release in September 2020, Del Rey remained fairly quiet in the wake of her divisive video — except to promote her aforementioned poetry book, "Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass."
In October, Del Rey hosted a book signing at a Barnes & Noble in Los Angeles during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In videos and photos from the event, she appeared to wear a mesh-style face mask, which, according to the CDC's recommendations, would not effectively barrier respiratory droplets.
"I love you sis but please wear a real mask, it gives a bad message," one user commented on Del Rey's Instagram video.
"i love lana sm but what the frick is she doing ? the covid situation in the united states is worsening and she refuses to wear a proper mask, that really infuriates me," another fan wrote on X. "so many ppl have died there."
Others called Del Rey "selfish" and said they were growing tired of defending her.
Lana Del Rey is the perfect example of what being an ignorant problematic white woman does to you.... it ages you 40x older. 2019 Vs. 2020. pic.twitter.com/T65SVaKqLO
"The mask had plastic on the inside," Del Rey wrote. "They're commonly sewn in by stylists these days. I don't generally respond to articles because I don't care. But there ya go. Same goes for everyone's masks in my video. I'm lucky enough to have a team of people who can do that."
She also seemed to poke fun at the controversy in her music video for "Chemtrails Over the Country Club," in which she dons a nearly identical mask.
Lana Del Rey in "Chemtrails Over the Country Club."
Lana Del Rey/YouTube
January 10, 2021: Del Rey unveiled the cover art for her new album — and preemptively defended it with a 'problematic' comment
The black-and-white cover for "Chemtrails Over the Country Club" shows Del Rey grinning and surrounded by friends, all huddled around a table.
Shortly after she shared the image, Del Rey commented on her own Instagram post with preemptive self-defense.
"No this was not intended — these are my best friends, since you are asking today," she wrote, although it's unclear who was asking. (This was written as a stand-alone comment, not a reply to anyone in particular.)
"As it happens when it comes to my amazing friends and this cover, yes, there are people of color on this record's picture and that's all I'll say about that," she wrote. "We are all a beautiful mix of everything - some more than others, which is visible and celebrated in everything I do."
"In 11 years working I have always been extremely inclusive without trying to," she continued. "My best friends are rappers, my boyfriends have been rappers. My dearest friends have been from all over the place, so before you make comments again about a WOC/POC issue, I'm not the one storming the capital, I'm literally changing the world by putting my life and thoughts and love out there on the table 24 seven. Respect it."
The following day, during an interview with BBC's Annie Mac, Del Rey said that "actually half the people in this photo are people of color."
"I just feel like if that's really what people are gonna say, I have an answer for them, which is that if you look closer, you will see people of color," she added. "It's a black-and-white image, so zoom in, you know. It's just weird, you know?"
Naturally, some people did make jokes about the cover's perceived lack of diversity, while others called the image "tone deaf."
Del Rey was also mocked for claiming that she's "literally changing the world" with her writing.
"We love her and understand her intentions but we cannot keep defending this shit," one fan commented on Del Rey's Instagram post. "That comment is so problematic in so many ways."
"I literally have her lyrics tattooed on my body but I'm also a political activist and I cannot defend this shit at all. I wish we could be excited about the album and only that but shit like this makes it hard to be," the fan continued. "Nothing about her statement is okay."
"If she's going to breathe life into [the] aesthetics of a time where racism was at one of its peaks, and not use her platform in the same breath to advocate today's issues properly, accurately, and tactfully. That's an issue."
January 11, 2021: Del Rey was criticized for saying Trump 'doesn't know that he's inciting a riot'
During an interview with BBC's Annie Mac, Del Rey compared President Donald Trump to "people who didn't know they hurt other people."
"You know, he doesn't know that he's inciting a riot, and I believe that," she said, adding that Trump has "delusions of grandeur."
"The madness of Trump… As bad as it was, it really needed to happen. We really needed a reflection of our world's greatest problem, which is not climate change but sociopathy and narcissism," she said, per Complex. "Especially in America. It's going to kill the world. It's not capitalism, it's narcissism."
One person replied on X: "Lana stans gonna be doing some mental gymnastics to explain this one."
Del Rey then lashed out at 'larger magazines' for 'taking my well-intentioned and believe it or not liberal comments out of context'
The day following her interview with Mac, Del Rey responded to Complex's coverage of her comments.
"OK complex not that our 10 year relationship matters I guess," she wrote in a since-deleted post on Twitter, now X. "Thanks for the cool soundbite taken out of context, I said that the bigger problem is Sociopathy-so whether he meant to incite a riot is less important than the larger issue in America at hand -the problem of sociopathy."
"It's fucked up," she continued. "You know I'm real. You know I voted for Biden. I'm super steady in everything I've ever said. You probably listened to my entire interview. So whoever wrote this is a genuine piece of shit. I am the one helping bringing the problem with narcissism to light."
"I'm actually not tone deaf, I don't think there's anything tone deaf about responding to questions about why there are only white women on a album cover when that's just not the case," she tweeted. "I'm not gonna let people say that some thing is what it isn't. You're jealous I get it."
In an additional (now-deleted) tweet, Del Rey added that her new music is "great" and described herself as "one of the only artists who is genuine."
Del Rey continued tweeting about her BBC interview, clarifying that she meant to criticize Trump's "significant lack of empathy" and "the issue of sociopathy and narcissism in America."
"I'll say it again I don't appreciate the larger magazines taking my well-intentioned and believe it or not liberal comments out of context," she wrote. "It's actually what I sing about quite often. It's what I've been condemned for saying."
She also expressed disdain for negative publicity, citing her "long term relationship" with magazines like Complex and Rolling Stone, calling the former "pathetic."
Uproxx's Steven Hyden described the now-deleted tweet as "a hilarious and illuminating snapshot of pop-star brain."
Indeed, Del Rey has lashed out at journalists and music critics in the past.
Back in September 2019, she tweeted her displeasure with Ann Powers' review of "Norman Fucking Rockwell!" for NPR — even though Powers described the album as "instantly compelling, a pro asserting her future spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."
True to form, Del Rey doubled down with a video, in which she defended her comments about Trump and called out Complex again.
"I just wanna talk about a couple of things, some of the articles that are coming out today, about me thinking that Trump didn't mean to incite the riots," she began. "I think it's cute that that's the little takeaway that Complex gets from that — especially with our relationship over the last 10 years, obviously completely disregarded."
"I get it. I have something to say, and I don't just show up giggling and talking about my hair and my makeup," she continued. "I was asked directly political questions for over 40 minutes by the BBC Radio 1, and I answered them."
"Lana is beyond parody," one person wrote. "People are saying she's the epitome of white woman feminism and she defends herself with more white woman feminism."
"I just wanted to let you know that tomorrow we are going to be deactivating my social media accounts, and that is simply because I have so many other interests and other jobs I'm doing that require privacy and transparency," Del Rey said.
"I'm still very present and love what I do. I'm absolutely here for the music. I'm also just going on some different endeavors and I want to say thank you so much for all the support and I do hope that you like the record," she added, referencing her eighth album "Blue Banisters," which was released later that same month.
Del Rey later became active again on Instagram, using the account handle @honeymoon, though her X account remains inactive.
March 24, 2023: She included a megachurch pastor's sermon on her new album, dividing fans
On Del Rey's ninth studio album, "Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd," track five is titled "Judah Smith Interlude."
The four-minute track gives an uninterrupted platform to Judah Smith, a preacher at the Christian megachurch Churchome. Smith, Del Rey, and producer Jack Antonoff are all listed as cowriters.
Del Rey also thanked Smith in a Facebook post a few months prior, "for giving me good guidance" and "for letting me record a part of his sermon for this record."
In the song, Smith denounces "a life dominated with lust" and praises God as "the fascinating artist who fashioned it all."
"The Spirit of God says, 'I'll infuse you with desirеs for what you have and what's in front of you,'" Smith preaches.
As Them previously reported, many fans — especially those who identify as queer — were divided in their reactions to "Judah Smith Interlude." One X user called it "creepy," while another said, "it's giving conversion therapy cult leader."
Indeed, Smith has reportedly made homophobic comments in the past. According to Marie Claire, he called homosexuality a sin comparable to "murder, rape, or living with your girlfriend" during a 2005 interview. (The interview in question isn't available online.)
Hillsong has long been associated with anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ views. A report from NPR described it as "an ultra-conservative church with a dark past," including connections to pedophilia.
"I was uncomfortable. I'm not religious and thought it was weird to include. Considering who he is, it's very weird," one person wrote on Reddit. Another agreed, reasoning that Del Rey could have invented "a weird fake religious monologue" instead of "publicizing a real pastor that sucks."
However, some fans of Del Rey have defended "Judah Smith Interlude" as satirical or "ironic." As Coleman Spilde wrote for the Daily Beast, "Del Rey is exactly the type of person who would attend a celebrity-studded mega-church, both for a cleansing of the soul and to lambaste its intrinsic flamboyance with her friends."
"As a gay atheist that grew up in the Catholic Church, y'all are really bent out of shape over this," another fan commented in a Reddit thread. "I love how provocative this whole thing is and it's exactly why I love Lana."
June 24, 2023: Del Rey arrived 30 minutes late to the stage at Glastonbury, telling the crowd, 'My hair takes so long to do'
"I was so fucking late that I am about to rush this set today," she told the crowd. "If they cut power, they cut power. I'm super fucking sorry. My hair takes so long to do. I love you to death. Let's keep on running the set as it's supposed to go."
As a result, Del Rey's microphone was cut off due to the festival's strict midnight curfew — although she encouraged the crowd to sing her final song, "Video Games," instead.
Despite some outrage directed at Glastonbury, many fans blamed Del Rey and said she lacked respect for the fans who came to see her perform.
September 26, 2024: Del Rey married Jeremy Dufrene, an alligator tour guide based in Louisiana
About one month after Del Rey and Dufrene sparked romance rumors, paparazzi photos surfaced of the singer wearing a white gown at a public bayou in Des Allemandes, Louisiana.
"Jeremy is the one and only. And amazing. And we're very happy," Del Rey later wrote on Instagram.
Fans were shocked and confused by the news of Del Rey's nuptials. For many, her marriage to Dufrene confirmed their suspicions that she has embraced a conservative lifestyle; unverified screenshots from Dufrene's public Facebook that appear to show support for Trump throughout the 2024 election. (Dufrene's social media accounts have since been set to private.)
Nearly three months after her wedding, Del Rey praised her husband as an "honest partner who has no skin in the game" during a speech at the Variety Hitmakers ceremony.
"It's super nerve-racking to have to hold onto an innocent perception of how things could go when you're in an industry where maybe your values or your morals don't quite match up with what's going on — especially when people think that you probably don't have any morals or values," she said, per Billboard.
Resharing a clip of her speech on X, Meghan McCain wrote: "Lana is code talking about being a conservative woman here. I know what I speak of."
Lana is code talking about being a conservative woman here. I know what I speak of. https://t.co/PLPUdjcSlu
April 25, 2025: Del Rey sang about kissing Morgan Wallen during her Stagecoach debut
Del Rey debuted several unreleased songs during her first-ever performance at Stagecoach, California's biggest country music festival.
One song, titled "57.5," includes an intimate lyric about the country musician Morgan Wallen, whose rise to fame has been marked by a string of arrests and scandals.
"I kissed Morgan Wallen / I guess kissing me kind of went to his head," Del Rey sang. "If you want my secret to success / I suggest don't go ATVing with him when you're out West."
Before delivering the lyric, Del Rey warned the crowd, "This is the last time I'm ever gonna say this line."
Del Rey's name-dropping of Wallen inspired a flurry of mixed reactions. Although the song depicts their encounter in a negative light, which many fans relished as juicy gossip, Del Rey seemed to know that willingly associating herself with Wallen — who's best known in liberal circles for flouting COVID-19 protocols and using a racial slur on camera — would invite attention, speculation, and possibly even backlash.
"Every couple months Lana has to remind y'all she's a conservative," one detractor wrote on X. Other posts referred to her as a "secret Republican" and "MAGA Del Rey." Over on Reddit, self-proclaimed former fans lamented the progression of her songwriting ("This can't be the same woman that wrote 'Cruel World'") and her recently countrified aesthetic ("This whole trad wife southern cosplay isn't really for me").
LDR10 singles are horrible, visuals are horrible, released a song about kissing morgan wallen, every song is flopping, and everyone is unstanning lana. we truly won pic.twitter.com/QeCXXkJafk
Reactions were similarly mixed on TikTok, where some people described the revelation as "iconic" and others as problematic. One video criticizing Wallen, Del Rey, her husband, and her fans has amassed over 64,000 likes.
"Y'all are about to call me 'the friend that's too woke' and I don't really give a shit, 'cause Lana Del Rey getting on that main stage and saying she kissed Morgan Wallen actually is that bad," the creator said.
Representatives for Del Rey have not responded to requests for comment from Business Insider.