Katy Perry stung by snarky Wendy’s comment about her space flight: ‘Targeted hostility,’ source says

Katy Perry is hurt by Wendy’s “inappropriate” jibe about her trip to space with Lauren Sánchez and Gayle King, sources told Page Six.

The fast-food giant snarked “Can we send her back” in response to a post on X that read “Katy Perry has returned from space,” following the singer’s 11-minute mission with Blue Origin on Monday.

“We understand the internet loves a joke, but there’s a clear difference between humor and targeted hostility and this wasn’t harmless banter,” said a source familiar with Perry and the space team.

“This was a billion dollar brand using its platform to publicly demean a woman …Wendy’s didn’t make a joke — they made a choice,” the source added, saying the company — which features a young girl as their logo — should apologize. “Their recent posts were not only disrespectful, but blatantly inappropriate.”

Perry, 40, went up in the rocket owned by Jeff Bezos’ company along with the billionaire’s fiancée, Sánchez, who is a close pal. CBS morning host King, former NASA engineer Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist, astronaut Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn were also on the ride.

The rocket took them just past the Kármán line — 62 miles above Earth, which is considered the threshold of space, where they experienced a few minutes of zero gravity. Perry, clutching a daisy in honor of her 4-year-old daughter Daisy Dove Bloom, sang Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” while floating.

“I feel super-connected to love,” the star said after landing. “This experience has shown me you never know how much love is inside of you, like how much love you have to give and how loved you are.”

But she was slammed online — including by other celebrities — for also revealing a butterfly-shaped note promoting her upcoming tour dates and dramatically kissing the ground when the capsule landed back at the Blue Origin base near Van Horn, Texas. 

Emily Ratajkowski called the mission “beyond parody,” while Oivia Munn deemed it “gluttonous.” Olivia Wilde commented on a post about the flight:  “Billion dollars bought some good memes I guess.

After the Wendy’s slam, singer Kesha posted a selfie of herself grinning with a milkshake from the chain.

However, the source told us, “Wendy’s may think they’re being clever or witty, but what they’re really doing is feeding a culture of online bullying that everyone agrees has gone too far.”

A Wendy’s spokesperson told Page Six in response, “We always bring a little spice to our socials, but Wendy’s has a ton of respect for Katy Perry and her out-of-this-world-talent.”

Still, the source insisted, “When billion-dollar brands join in, it’s irresponsible. They’re not adding to the conversation, they’re dragging it down and this kind of behavior contributes to a culture where women are punished for standing out or a woman daring to do something different is a target.

“What’s worse is that the face of Wendy’s is a woman, which makes this decision not just hypocritical, but painfully ironic. Everyone expected more from a brand with this kind of platform. Wendy’s should ‘do the right thing’” — one of the core values listed on the company’s website — “apologize and do better in the future.”

Seventy-year-old King, who was also seen kissing the ground upon return, hit back at the backlash — telling Entertainment Tonight, “We duplicated the same trajectory that Alan Shepard did back in the day, pretty much. No one called that a ‘ride,’”

“It was called a flight, it was called a journey. There was nothing frivolous about what we did,”

King admitted she was initially a doubter of the space flights, but changed her mind when she looked at “what Blue Origin does” and the company’s intention “to figure out a way to harness the waste here and put it in space to make the Earth a better place.”

She continued: “I’m very disappointed and very saddened by it. And I also say this, what it’s doing to inspire other women and young girls, please don’t ignore that.

Sánchez, meanwhile, said, “I get really fired up. I would love to have [critics] come to Blue Origin and see the thousands of employees that don’t just work here but they put their heart and soul into this vehicle.

“They love their work and they love the mission and it’s a big deal for them.”