Dua Lipa has blasted a journalist who questioned her reasons for cancelling four tour dates in Australia.
The British singer is opening for Bruno Mars on the Oceanic leg of his 24K Magic World Tour but pulled out of last week's (end18Mar18) support gigs in Brisbane and Sydney to recover from an operation on her wisdom teeth.
After her performance on U.S. talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! aired this week, Australian journalist and broadcaster Richard Wilkins denounced Dua, querying how she could perform on TV when she was supposed to be recovering from surgery.
The New Rules singer then took Richard to task for his comments on Twitter, explaining that her performance was pre-recorded - and that she had, in fact, been laid up in bed.
"@RichardWilkins if you were a good journalist you would've done proper research instead of talking out of your a**," she wrote. "Jimmy Kimmel was shot in Feb(ruary) in La (Los Angeles) and aired yesterday. I've been in Australia on bed rest and wouldn'tve (sic) cancelled my Bruno shows if I didn't have to."
The embarrassed journalist responded by apologising to the 22-year-old star, tweeting, "Sincere apologies @DUALIPA. Didn't mean to misinform. Assumed you were live with Jimmy K. Your fans and my son have severely castigated me!"
Having recovered from the surgery, Dua returned to the stage as Brunos support act at Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena on Tuesday (20Mar18) and headlined her own show the following day.
In a statement announcing she had to undergo surgery, the popstar wrote that she was in "awful pain" and added, "I have been enjoying this tour so much and i'm so upset that life has gotten in the way but hopefully i'll have a speedy recovery and make it back as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding (sic)."
