Ayo Edebiri called Jennifer Lopez’s career ‘one long scam’ only to be ‘mortified’ when she met her

Making mistakes is the norm of life — yes, even when you are a celebrity. What matters is graciously accepting them and not letting your pride — or celebrity status — get to your head when the time comes to apologize. Don’t be Jennifer Lopez, who still hasn’t apologized to Jane Fonda after accidentally cutting Jane Fonda’s face during their iconic slapping scene in Monster in Law. Be Ayo Edebiri instead.

Years ago, when Edebiri was 24, she appeared on the Scam Goddess podcast in 2020 and dissed JLo with the show’s host Laci Mosley, calling the singer’s entire career a “one long scam.” She claimed that Lopez wasn’t singing many of the tracks that have her name on them and instead, the “little thief,” who Edebiri stressed can’t sing, had “Ashanti or Christina Milian, or like another girl who sounds like her. It’s other people!”

These allegations are not new since “On the Floor” singer Lopez has been under fire over the authenticity of her vocal performances. The singers Edebiri named have revealed that their vocals were present in the chorus of songs like the “I’m Real” remix and “Play” without giving them due credit. At the time, this was enough to pique the Emmy-winning actress’ interest.

“I think she like, or she thinks that she’s still good even though, like, she’s not singing for most of these songs. Like, I was reading up because I was just… I was fascinated.

“I became fascinated for myself and a lot of the, like, like, write-ups of the song will be like, ‘JLo didn’t have time to make it to the studio. Like JLo was busy.’ It’s like, doing what? Not singing, obviously. Where was she?”

Edebiri made the comments and then moved on — or she thought she did since the past has a habit of coming back to bite you in the a**. And so when in 2024, she was set to appear on Saturday Night Live with JLo, the clip with her “scam” comments from the podcast resurfaced, but thankfully, the singer was pretty chill about it, even when Edebiri was “mortified” when she saw her perform in person. In a chat with Variety, Lopez described the sincere apology the actress extended to her backstage at SNL 

“She came to my dressing room and apologized with tears in her eyes, saying how terrible it was that she had said those things. She felt really badly and loved my performance because we had just done my soundcheck and she actually got to hear me perform.” 

Well, Edebiri may or may not harbor the same sentiments about Lopez she harbored back in 2020, but she learned that being mean about it and insulting the singer was not going to make her the bigger person… which is a lot more than what JLo has offered to the fellow celebs she has openly mocked. The Jane Fonda incident aside, she has dissed Salma Hayek’s claim that she was offered Selena because the Eternals star can only do seductive roles, in her opinion, and called Cameron Diaz “a lucky model” and nothing more. Even public backlash at her comments couldn’t make the “Get Right” say sorry.