Breakups can be bad, but who knew they could be this bad?
Bella Thorne is learning to tune out the haters after being harassed online. The actress opens up to People, where she says a recent breakup took its toll on her after social media proved to be a cruel place.
"I went through a breakup and that was kind of tough. You know, fans, if you're just seen with somebody, they think you're immediately, you gotta be in a relationship with them, which is not true," she tells the magazine. "I hang out all the time with different people that I'm not dating, that I'm just friends with. I hang out with a lot of guys because I'm a total tomboy, so a lot of my friends end up being guys because a lot of girls are like kind of too girly for me sometimes."
Even though Thorne, 19, sees the perks of social media—she's on Instagram and Twitter—she also has witnessed its cons. "People take social media as such a big thing. And they all think they know what they're talking about. And they think they know your life and they get their friends to trash you," she explains. "And they get all these people to hate on you and call you whatever names in the book. It's kind of like one person says it and then everybody jumps on it."
Thorne recently dated actor Tyler Posey, but then was spotted getting touchy with Charlie Puth. That breakup quickly turned into a cheating scandal online, which ultimately led her to "receive death threats for a hot minute because they thought I had cheated on my ex, which is a total lie."
The scandal began when Puth put Thorne on blast after hearing she and Posey never split. "I can't believe what I'm reading," he said on Twitter. "No one should have their heart messed with like this, and I'm not going to be in the middle of it."
Twelve hours earlier, Thorne had shared old photos of her embracing Posey and captioned them, "Taking a trip down memory lane."
"I don't know Tyler personally," Puth tweeted, "but I know he shouldn't be treated this way." When one fan suggested Thorne was still dating Posey when she began a fling with Puth, the singer-songwriter replied, "She told me she was not with him anymore. This is all news to me."
Thorne didn't immediately respond to Puth's tweets, but pal Keke Palmer did on behalf of the former Disney star. Thorne later denied cheating on Posey, writing, "Ty and I have been broken up for like over two weeks and charlie and I ARENT DATING we are friends. That article was written forever ago."
The Blended actress still can't believe how hostile Internet trolls could be. "When I woke up that morning—it f--king sucks," she recalls of the moment woke up to cyberbullying. "It doesn't feel good to think that everybody in the world just thinks you're an absolutely disgusting person and just because I'm somebody where people know my name, it's so much worse for me."
She continues, "And people think that, like, we don't get bullied in Hollywood—but we do! We get bullied by the public eye and fans and it's really, let me tell you, it f--king hurts."