Update: Bebe Rexha shared an Instagram photo of her black eye after a man hit her in the face with his cell phone at a concert in New York City on Sunday.
One photo showed Bebe with a bandage over her left eye. She flashed a thumbs up sign and captioned the post: “I’m good.”
Another photo showed her black eye and a laceration over her eye (swipe left).
The 33-year-old singer/actress was performing at The Rooftop at Pier 17 as part of her “Best F*n Night Of My Life” tour when the incident occurred. Tickets to her show were on sale for $6.
Footage of the incident, uploaded to Twitter by Alex Chavez, shows Bebe collapse to the stage after getting hit in the face by the sharp edge of a mobile phone.
? | Apparently this was the guy who threw his cell phone to Bebe's face for which she had to receive 3 stitches.
— Let's hope this doesn't just stay that way and legal action is taken against this person. https://t.co/CY0MxNCar4 pic.twitter.com/iYe037dNMu
— BRGT | BEBE OUT NOW! (@BebeRexha_GT) June 19, 2023
The 27-year-old thug who threw the phone appeared in court on Monday. Nicolas Malvagna was charged with assault, aggravated harassment, attempted assault, and harassment.
Malvagna is seen leaving court in this video shot by CBS News. He reportedly said he tried to hit Bebe with his phone because he thought “it would be funny.”
“I was trying to see if I could hit her with the phone at the end of the show because it would be funny,” Malvagna told security at the Pier 17 venue, according to CBS New York.
However, Malvagna’s lawyer, Todd Spodek, told HuffPost on Tuesday that “as a fan, Mr. Malvagna’s sole intention was to have Ms. Rexha take photos with his phone and return it as a keepsake. It was never his intention to injure Ms. Rexha.”
At the initial court hearing, Spodek told the judge that Malvagna was following a TikTok trend of tossing a phone to Bebe in hopes she would take selfies with it and throw it back to him.
Malvagna did not speak at the hearing. He was released from jail without paying bond.
The pop star recently took a stand against online bullying and fat-shaming during an appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show.
She said her struggle to lose weight was “tough” after she was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome).
The “Queenpins” star said she noticed rude comments about her weight on TikTok.
“Listen, we’re in the public eye, so that’s bound to happen,” she told Jennifer, 41. “I was a lot thinner and I did gain some weight — that comes with the territory. I’m not mad about it because it is true, but when you see [comments] like that, it does mess with you.”
Bebe said social media users should be mindful of the things they say about people’s weight.
“You don’t know what somebody’s going through, what they’re going through in their life, so it kind of is tough. But I feel like we’re in 2023 … we should not be talking about people’s weight,” she said, to a huge round of applause from Jennifer and the audience.
“Listen … I like to eat, okay? I like to eat,” said Bebe, as Jennifer chimed in, “Ain’t nothing wrong with that!”
Bebe (pictured in 2021) said she was able to manage her weight before she was diagnosed with PCOS.
“I went to the doctor last year — and a lot of women actually have this and they don’t know about it — but they diagnosed [me] with PCOS, which is polycystic ovary syndrome,” she said.
“It’s one of the leading causes of why women gain weight and are obese. I literally jumped, like, 30 pounds so quickly, maybe a little bit more. But we gotta just be positive and just show people love.”
Watch the interview below.
