What to Know
This holiday season, Gwen Stefani is once again disappointing her some of her fans by promoting Hallow, a Catholic prayer app. Thinking back to her early No Doubt days, fans described her as “cool,” “rebellious,” and “free-spirited,” which is part of the reason why Gwen’s decision to promote an “anti-abortion” prayer app feels like a betrayal.
Earlier this year, some fans accused her of seeming like a “MAGA woman,” and her continued partnership with Hallow isn’t helping.
In a joint post with the Hallow app, Gwen encouraged people to join her.
“It is important this holiday season to spend time in prayer. That is what Christmas is all about: letting God into our hearts and letting Jesus bring us his peace,” Gwen said in a video promoting the app. She then urged viewers to download the Hallow app.
The collab is controversial for a number of reasons. For one, many have argued that people shouldn’t have to pay to pray (there is a free version of the app, along with an optional paid subscription). An annual subscription costs $69.99 per year. But that is far from the only issue people have with it.
“A Bit Fruity” podcast host Matt Bernstein called Gwen’s partnership with the app “bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s,” referencing the lyrics to her song “Hollaback Girl.” Matt said the app includes a “multitude of anti-abortion prayers,” and also pointed to some of the app’s problematic investors, including Peter Thiel and Vice President JD Vance.
Commenting on Gwen’s Hallow promo video, one fan wrote, “This is very disappointing, Gwen. Lots of your fans are from the LGBTQ+ community and this feels like a deep betrayal.”
Another person wrote, “Promoting a pro-life homophobic conservative funded app is gross.” Someone else simply said, “Remember when Gwen was cool?”
It’s not the first time Gwen has promoted the app.
And people were upset about it in the past, too. Some people have argued that Gwen is probably just promoting the app because she’s a devout Catholic, but not necessarily MAGA. Others have tried to say that maybe she was always conservative. The fact that she shared a Tucker Carlson clip on X back in March hasn’t exactly helped quell the rumors.
The clip showed Jonathan Roumie speaking to Tucker about “the power of prayer and fasting.” Gwen reacted to the clip with, “Wow @JonathanRoumie u r a powerful inspirational human what an what an enlightening intelligent beautiful interview thank you for being u gx.”
Whether she’s actually a fan of Tucker or not, sharing one of his clips is certainly a choice, which lead to people accusing her of being a “MAGA tradwife” and a “right-wing grifter” now.
