Raven-Symoné Returns to ‘The View’ & Issues Vehement Defense of Kelly Clarkson

Raven-Symoné was on hand for Thursday’s (October 15) live episode of The View, serving as a guest cohost while Whoopi Goldberg resumed her movie filming duties, Joy Behar remained out of commission with her shoulder injury, and Alyssa Farah Griffin was also out. And the former View star fell right back into rhythm on the panel, alongside substitute moderator Sara Haines, Ana Navarro, and Sunny Hostin.

At the start of the hour, Symoné, who cohosted from 2015 to 2016, gave an update on her life to say, “I love you guys…. I’m thriving, hunty. I’m thriving. There you go. I have a beanbag line called Raven-Symoné Home. I have a podcast called Tea Time with my wife Miranda. I’m directing Cheetah Girls 4. I am writing my memoir, which is going to come out next year.”

Symoné weighed in on all of the “Hot Topics” of the day, of course, but she was the most full-throated when it came to a defense of Kelly Clarkson in particular, after video of her visit to a Brooklyn novelty shop went viral and became something of a Rorschach Test for those watching, as to whether the singer’s account of being treated like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman‘s iconic shopping scene was accurate.

“Kelly didn’t put you in danger. Kelly didn’t. That’s the internet. The internet goes crazy when somebody says something,” she said in reaction to the store owner’s claim that her social media post about them was putting the store’s employees in danger. “Kelly didn’t say, ‘Go attack them.’ I read the tweet. She didn’t say that at all. Sorry, I can’t believe you blamed her for that. That’s not what she did. She didn’t send a mob out to you. The mob was already on the internet, ready to retaliate for anybody.”

ABC

After Hostin argued that because of the size of her platform, Clarkson should have known her followers might swarm the store, Symoné disagreed and pointed to her own experience earning the ire of the internet in the past.

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“I think that it’s unfair that just because she has that many followers, she’s not allowed to express how she feels about what happened to her. When I was on The View back in 2016, I explained something that I remember feeling disrespected on the red carpet, and it went viral because people were like, ‘Raven, that’s not what happened,’ when they looked up the video. And I would say to those watching me and to those listening to Kelly, it’s like our experience about the situation might not resonate with you the same way that it resonated with me. You don’t know my past. You don’t know what I’ve been through. Kelly grew up not with a lot of money. So if somebody’s touching her trigger button about wealth or money, you don’t know how she received that. And I saw the video, too, and I feel like if you treated her like every other person that came into that store, then you’re telling everybody they can’t afford it, which is also, you don’t know my bank account, you don’t know what my savings and checkings are doing.”

The View, weekdays, 11a/10c, ABC