Singer Jennifer Holliday reportedly pulled out of performing on Inauguration Day because there were threats against her family.
The “Dreamgirls” star initially agreed to sing at President-elect Donald Trump’s event, but she later announced her decision to pull out, saying some of her supporters were angry.
According to TMZ in a report on Monday, her agent contacted the Inauguration Committee, telling them that people threatened to kill her and her family.
The unnamed spokesperson told the website: “She wasn’t scared to perform. She didn’t want to put her family at risk based on the death threats and she also didn’t want to offend the LGBT community which was especially upset that a past ally would perform on a program with President-Elect Donald Trump.”
More details of the threats were not disclosed.
In an interview with ABC News, Holliday opened up.
“I haven’t done anything to be called names,” she said, adding that she was called racial slurs and got death threats on social media. “I woke up, and there was, like, this whole thing of terrible tweets and things on my Instagram, and I was like, ‘Oh, Lord, what did I do?’” she recalled.
“I live a pretty reclusive life,” she said. “You’re not on the radio, and then one morning you wake up, and everyone hates you.”
Holliday has performed for four presidents, including Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
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