Where did PEOPLE’s story about Pink and Carey Hart’s separation come from if it’s not true?

Programming note: We will be live chatting the SAG Awards at 7:30 PM ET on The Squawk Sunday night! Join us!

So, this is a weird story taking over celebrity gossip and it involves Pink, because apparently, it’s like, 2002 today. I asked for smaller numbers and Pink took us backwards on the timeline! But buckle up, because this is a good old-fashioned gossip MYSTERY. We have our own cozy mystery to solve!

Yesterday, PEOPLE published a report that Pink and her husband of twenty years, Carey Hart, separated after twenty years of marriage. Nothing about this raised alarms, because twenty years in a celebrity marriage is like fifty years in a regular marriage, so it’s a good long run, and they have separated in the past (circa 2008) and almost separated again in 2024, so it’s not like they’re not known for having drama. Also, it’s PEOPLE! PEOPLE is where “unnamed sources” (read: publicists) go to break news like this. PEOPLE is the approved celebrity breakup outlet!

But then Pink herself took to her Instagram to call it fake news. So she and Carey Hart are NOT separated.

Okay, that’s good, great, congrats, yadda yadda, but…where did that PEOPLE story come from? This is the mystery! Us Weekly also claimed “unnamed sources” with the story, and I CAN believe Us Weekly pulling a breakup story out of their ass, especially on a slow news day. And it is a bit of a slow news week, with the Olympics over—more on that ongoing drama in a sec—and everyone famous traveling between Milan fashion week, the UK, and the US ahead of this weekend’s SAG Awards. Everyone’s on a plane right now, so maybe Us Weekly got antsy and just made something up?

But why did PEOPLE then run with it, claiming their own sources? Again, Us Weekly making this kind of mistake is not shocking. But PEOPLE is usually not the outlet getting this kind of news wrong. It’s just so weird! Is bad gossip hygiene finally infecting even the most stalwart of gossip outlets? Or…does Pink just not want to air her business right now? Honestly, it’s the gossip hygiene for me. I’m worried the unclean gossip is spreading and we’re going to have work twice as hard to not only see through planned publicity fronts—O I C U NHL—but also deal with a basic lack of fact-checking, proper sourcing, and basic understanding of like, how anything works. I just don’t know what kind of gossip world we’re living in if we can’t even trust PEOPLE to get celebrity divorce news right.

PS: There’s a question in the mailbag today about what we do on slow news days, and I’ll tell you what we DON’T do—make sh-t up.

What else happened today…

The Olympics are over but we’re still talking about the sex lives of Olympic athletes! I really hope the Olympics come back around in Heated Rivalry, you KNOW Shane and Ilya are breaking those cardboard beds in half. (Popsugar)

Lisa Rinna and Priyanka Chopra Jonas are engaged in some kind of fashion duel on the sidewalks of New York. This is…very bright. (Go Fug Yourself)

Speaking of fashion! Connor Storrie is in VMAN talking fashion and clothes and feeling good. Speaking of Connor, he’s hosting SNL tomorrow night, and because their f-ckassness knows no bounds, the NHL is shoehorning in on Connor’s popularity, with Quinn Hughes (the one who sees ghosts) set to appear in the episode.

SNL moves fast but they don’t move THAT fast, this was probably in the works before the gold medal match last Sunday, and everything that followed. If you don’t know, the hockey boys showed their asses to the world, laughing at a misogynistic “joke” made by Trump at the expense of the also gold medal-winning US women’s team, and reminded us that Heated Rivalry is a FANTASY. Now, the NHL is in full damage control mode, because all those new fans ushered into the “boy aquarium” by HR have decided that actually, we don’t f-ck with real hockey, only the fantasy version in which hot boys kiss, or the women’s side of the sport, which is much less toxic and full of women loving women, in both the platonic and romantic sense. Gals rock.

Now Connor Storrie has to fix the NHL’s f-cksh-t with his winning smile, beautiful hair, and general sparkling personality on SNL. This is not Connor Storrie’s problem! Do not make the NHL being full of raging pricks Connor’s problem! Do not make him do YOUR emotional labor! This is the whole reason straight women love gay romance in the first place—it’s a space to enjoy romance without doing emotional labor for men. And now the NHL is making it Connor’s problem to fix their image. Gross. Rude. Fix your own hearts, don’t expect women, gay men, or Connor Storrie to fix it for you. (Celebitchy)

 While I deeply resent knowing the meaning of the words “looksmaxxing” and “Clavicular”, I very much love Kayleigh Donaldson’s deconstruction of male toxic beauty standards, particularly as it relates to “Mar-A-Lago face”, the feminine side of that particularly poisonous equation. The culture feels cooked right now. (Pajiba)

Here’s Pink out in New York in January.