“It’s horrible seeing people judge your character like that” Sophie Lloyd on how she dealt with online gossip and tabloid intrusion

Guitarist Sophie Lloyd has shared how she was affected by the tabloid speculation and intrusion into her private life in the wake of her being spuriously connected to Machine Gun Kelly’s alleged split with actress Megan Fox earlier this year.

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Lloyd had been catapulted from playing pubs to touring stadiums after joining Kelly’s band in 2022, but she was thrust into the glare of mainstream tabloid press after Fox’s fans baselessly blamed her for his apparent split with the Transformers actress.

In an interview with Primordial Radio, Lloyd reflected that even before the tabloid rumours, her joining MGK’s band saw her get plenty of hate for the decision to join the polarising pop-rocker on tour.

“It was really weird,” she says. “Because, obviously, it seems like you have hate on the internet and even that’s a little bit sad, but it feels like the whole world literally is there at your doorstep.”

And then of course, things went into overdrive – and it wasn’t just the internet being virtually on her doorstep this time: “we had journalists turn up at my parents’ home,” she recalls.

Understandably, this level of negative publicity and online hate took its toll initially.

“It did really affect me [in] the first few days,” she admits. “It’s horrible seeing people judge your character like that, especially when it’s so far away from who you are.”

Despite the onslaught of critique and rumour, the people closest to Lloyd continued to be supportive throughout. “I’m so lucky… everyone around me didn’t even question it,” she reflected on the support she got. “Everyone just knew that it was all complete lies and just made up out of nowhere. And luckily, everyone around me was nice.”

In fact it seems like eventually Sophie and her family came to almost enjoy their newfound fame, as strangely as it has arrived. ”We’re kind of loving it, though,” she reflects. ”Because they were like, ‘Oh my God, there’s this article that mentions my name. I’m famous now.’ [Laughs] Good for you! Chris [Painter, Sophie’s boyfriend] is, ‘Oh my god, I got verified because they wrote about me in an article.’ [Laughs]”

While her profile has remained elevated ever since, thankfully, the trolling died down as quickly as it started: “After a week it all died down…that’s the thing with gossip – it feels like the end of the world, but now I don’t even remember it. It literally lasts like a week, and then it’s done. People move on to the new thing. But I’d say I’m a sucker for internet drama.”
The negative reactions haven’t tainted Lloyd’s experience touring alongside MGK, however. “[I’ve had] some of the most incredible experiences, it’s been such a learning curve… I just feel so grateful,” she smiles.

“It feels crazy to look back on… because I was just playing local pubs before,” she says. “I’m so grateful that they took the chance on a quote-unquote ‘internet guitarist’ – if you know what I mean – to take me on those big stages.”

Having recently released her debut album Imposter Syndrome last month, she told Guitar.com about how she’d almost quit guitar when she was in university, and also took us through her most cherished instruments.