Sam Smith responds to backlash prompted by 'quarantine meltdown'

Sam Smith has responded to the backlash they faced after posting the now infamous ‘quarantine meltdown’ photos on their Instagram.

The singer appeared on radio show Heart Breakfast and told hosts Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden about the fallout from the photos, which have now been deleted, and insisted it wasn’t really a “meltdown”.

Among others, Piers Morgan had told Smith to “get a grip” following Smith’s post.

Read more: Piers Morgan snaps at Sam Smith over 'quarantine meltdown' pictures

Similarly, comedian Ricky Gervais said he didn’t “want to hear” celebrities “complaining about being in a mansion with a swimming pool” while NHS staff are risking their lives fighting the coronavirus.

But Smith feels the posts were taken way too seriously and when asked about the meltdown on air they responded: "It wasn't (a meltdown).

"It was six weeks ago I posted a picture and everyone else was posting pictures, it was probably bad timing of me, but I use my social media as if it's just my friends on it.

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"I'm always sharing all of my feelings all the time and trying to be as human as possible but sometimes maybe people can read it wrongly but that wasn't really meaning it in a malicious or nasty way, I was just trying to be myself."

Smith’s snaps, shared on social media, showed them sitting outside a house in pyjamas, looking progressively more upset.

In the first they look grumpy, and by the last image they look as if they are crying.

“Stages of a quarantine meltdown,” the star captioned the shots.

Responding to an online story about the posts, Morgan wrote: “I can’t take any more of this celebrity attention-seeking bulls***.

“Get a grip, the lot of you.

“This is a war, not an Instagram story op.”

Speaking to The Sun, Ricky Gervais took aim at celebs whining about being in lockdown in their luxury homes, comparing it to NHS workers who aren’t making as much noise.

He said of frontline staff: "These people are doing 14-hour shifts and not complaining. Wearing masks, and being left with sores, after risking their own health and their families’ health selflessly.

Read more: Sam Smith declares ‘I am enough’

"But then I see someone complaining about being in a mansion with a swimming pool. And, you know, honestly, I just don’t want to hear it."

But Smith said they did not mean anything by the post, telling Holden and Theakston: "I posted with my humour and stuff, but it just didn't get picked up very well, but I didn't mean any malice by it at all.”

Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden airs every weekday from 6:30am.