Mary J. Blige on Being an Ex-People Pleaser: ‘I Burn Bridges as Needed’

Mary J. Blige is no longer bending over backward for people, she said in a declaration posted to X on Thursday.

“Unfortunately, a lot of y’all met me when I lacked boundaries and was a people pleaser,” the singer wrote. “Let me reintroduce myself, I burn bridges as needed.”

It’s unclear what prompted the “Family Affair” vocalist’s pointed message, but fans weren’t buying it.

X user @BriMalandro quote-tweeted Blige and included a viral clip of an old interview where the artist and a reporter discussed her “least favorite thing,” which she said was doing “interviews like this.”

As the user pointed out in a separate tweet, Blige’s response didn’t suggest that she’s a people pleaser.

In the video, when the reporter asked Blige what she dislikes about interviews, she said, “What I don’t like is that you read all the interviews, and you done read 50 million interviews with the same thing in it, and you ask me the same questions that are in the books. So you already know but I gotta answer the same question over and over again. I hate that.”

When the reporter wondered what question Blige hadn’t been asked yet, she said, “I don’t want them to ask me anything. So don’t ask me.”

“So you’d rather not do the interview at all?” the reporter asked.

“I’d rather not,” Blige responded.

It’s not clear who conducted the interview, but according to a TikTok from user @he_is_derione, the video is from 1997.

That year, Blige released her third album, Share My World, which sat atop the Billboard 200 and marked her first No. 1 album.