‘A
merican Idol” front-runner Crystal Bowersox is not denying she had “a moment” of weakness and talked to Ryan Seacrest about quitting the show — but she never expected Seacrest would tell the world about it.
The dread-locked singer reacted yesterday for the first time to reports that she was planning to leave “Idol” because she missed her young son — news that rocked the “Idol”-sphere.
But in a text message to a friend, Crystal yesterday said she’d been “betrayed by Seacrest” and had never been seriously ready to quit.
“No apologies for being human,” the 24-year-old singer tweeted on her official “Idol” Twitter page yesterday. “Life is always testing one’s strength and weakness threshold. That’s how we learn how strong we really are.”
But it was through Katelyn Epperly — a close friend of Bowersox from the Top 24 “Idol” tryouts — in an interview with a Des Moines radio station that the “Idol” favorite got her story out.
“Idol” contestants are not allowed to talk to the media until after they’ve been voted off the show.
Epperly texted Crystal over the weekend, she told the radio station yesterday, to ask if the stories about her leaving were true.
“Crystal texted back : ‘I’m fine . . . betrayed by Seacrest!’ ” Epperly said.
“She had a moment backstage and they made it into something it wasn’t,” said the friend. “She’s still in the game.”
By yesterday, sentiment was beginning to turn against Seacrest, who has portrayed himself as the knight on a white horse in what fans are now calling “Crystalgate.”
“Our very own Ryan Seacrest, was on hand to save the day,” read the eonline.com account of Crystal’s meltdown last Friday.
“Ryan confirms reports that he tracked down an emotionally drained and homesick Crystal in the parking lot after a show some two weeks ago and talked her down: ‘The greatest thing I ever did was make enough money so I could buy my mom a house,’ he told her. ‘You can buy your mom a house,’ ” the report said.
Now, the wildly successful show was being nailed for revealing an intimacy.
“Welcome to the show business, Crystal,” wrote one fan on the comments page of mjsbigblog.com, a leading “Idol” blog. “It’s a bit naive to think Seacrest cares about the contestants in the first place. He cares about his own a- – first and foremost.”
“This whole Crystal thing was all about Ryan trying to make himself the big hero,” wrote another fan. “His ego is out of control.”