Miley Cyrus has come under fire for stealing a cake design from an influential Instagram baker who goes by The Sweet Feminist (real name Becca Rea-Holloway).
The controversy started on Wednesday when Cyrus posted a photo posing with what appears to be an exact replica of one of her cakes—without giving Rea-Holloway any credit for her work, she claims. The cake reads “ABORTION IS HEALTHCARE,” and Rea-Holloway has shared the design to her Instagram page on May 15 in response to the restrictive abortion laws being passed in Alabama.
It wasn’t long before Miley’s post – which has garnered over four million likes – caught the self-proclaimed rage baker’s attention.
Here’s Rea-Holloway’s original cake design:
“This is my art work without credit! Anyone who knows anything about intellectual property/art work plz send me a message!,” she wrote on her Instagram story, tagging Cyrus, and later added in a post that it was “direct theft” of her work.
Cyrus has since responded to the claims, commenting: “Hi, we saw the image online and didn’t realize it was yours,” she wrote. “We will absolutely tag you for your work…It is just on the post and not on the merchandise but we will absolutely tag you and give you the credit for your art. If you could please correct your post, as we’re going to make sure you have all the credit you deserve… thanks for sharing your art and inspiring us. 🎂”
To which Rea-Holloway responded: “It doesn’t doesn’t change the fact that my work was used with my consent and it is not sufficient.” She also claimed she has been on the receiving end of online vitriol after calling out the campaign, replying to Cyrus: “I have gotten hundreds of threatening, horrible comments and messages in the past couple of hours for simply pointing out that my work had been stolen. I hope you understand that this sort of mistake has serious, tangible consequences for artists like myself.”
A spokesperson for the Mother/Daughter singer revealed that Cyrus was unaware of Rea-Holloway’s account when she saw a photo of the cake during a meeting.“Miley was at a photo shoot and someone created this cake that she loved,” a source close to Cyrus tells People. “The second she realized it was the artist’s, she tagged her.”
