As music’s golden girl, Sabrina Carpenter continues to storm the charts with her catchy lyrics, unique sense of style and all the pop princess vibes the music industry has been hankering after since the likes of Britney Spears. 

In an industry that is renowned for its competitiveness and is notoriously hard to break into, Sabrina, 26, also hasn’t been afraid to push boundaries and her recipe of combining her 1950s-style bombshell blonde looks with her kick-ass feminist tunes has seen her gather a fan base of over 50 million on social media alone. 

Her recent gigs at London’s O2 Arena were attended by the likes of Harry Styles, Hugh Grant, Janet Jackson, James Corden and Spice Girl Emma Bunton – to name just a few of her ever-growing celebrity fanbase.

However, while her new single, ‘Manchild’, hit number 1 on the Billboard charts last week, the seemingly untouchable starlet was, at the same time, being bombarded with criticism from fans after revealing her new album cover, which has been labelled ‘insanely misogynistic’ and ‘degrading’, with one follower labelling it ‘the worst album cover I have ever seen’. 

Domestic abuse charities have also waded into the furore, describing the cover as ‘regressive’ and accusing Sabrina of ‘reducing women to pets’. 

The cover, teased on social media by Sabrina, shows her leaning on all fours while an unseen man grabs a handful of her hair, while another image – which fans have presumed to be the back cover – shows a dog wearing a gold tag that reads ‘Man’s Best Friend’. 

Now an insider tells Closer that, at a time when her career is flying high, Sabrina is now plagued by ‘stress’ as she fears that the backlash could derail her status as pop’s ‘It Girl’ of the moment. 
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 An insider says, ‘People close to her say she’s been crying over this and second-guessing herself constantly. The fact that this blew up the way it did is hitting her hard. 

‘Sabrina is a global powerhouse right now but that doesn’t mean she can afford to be tarnished with a scandal. She’s talking a tough game and acting like this backlash doesn’t bother her but behind the scenes she’s very worried and so is her team.’

They further warn, ‘When something catches on the whole house of cards can fall. Cancel culture is still very real, and very unpredictable.’ 

While fans have long been familiar with Sabrina’s sultry style – with the ‘Looking at Me’ singer having already collaborated with Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS underwear line, posed in a silk corset for Vogue and been photographed nude, covered by just her long blonde hair, for Rolling Stone magazine – her new cover appeared to defy the odds and open the floodgates to criticism. 

Furious fans hit back, questioning the star’s choice to ‘fetishize abuse’ to her younger following, with fans describing the cover as ‘tone deaf’ and ‘disgusting’, while others have said it could be ‘triggering’ and ‘upsetting’ for ‘a lot of women’. 

Sabrina herself hit back at criticism, responding to one troll who questioned, ‘Does she have a personality outside of sex?’. 

She replied, ‘Yes girl and it is goooooood’. 

Now the insider says her team, who have so far made the decision to stand by the cover with no signs of its removal on social media, are said to be working alongside the two-time Grammy winner in an effort to stop the backlash from ‘snowballing’ into something catastrophic for her meticulously curated brand.

The source tells us, ‘The public can be brutal and the blowback on this cover has been extremely widespread with a lot of talk about how it encourages violence against women and is anti-feminist. 

‘At this point it’s all being monitored very closely. There’s so much money that’s been invested in her and so much riding on her success, the pressure is insane, so of course this has her and her entire team in a panic.’

They continue, ‘Sabrina can have all the bravado she wants but make no mistake there’s serious worry within her team that it could snowball. The fear of it taking over and sending her back into obscurity is keeping her up at night.’ 

Sabrina herself has praised Dolly Parton – who she recently collaborated with – as one of her idols and has spoken out about her preference for old ‘Hollywood style’. 

And while Katy Perry was similarly lambasted for her ‘mixed messaging’ for single ‘Women’s World’ last summer, the source says Sabrina has been ‘shocked’ by the onslaught of criticism. 

‘Sabrina was definitely aiming to be a little provocative, but she never expected this kind of reaction,’ the insider tells us.

‘It’s very hard for her to wrap her head around how riled up people are over this when plenty of other pop stars push the envelope. Just look at Madonna, this isn’t nearly as hard core as the things she’s done and she’s seen as this feminist icon, so it’s just very shocking to Sabrina to be getting so much backlash.’

They continue, ‘The fact the domestic violence groups are coming for her definitely ups the stakes, it’s not just random people on-line. What’s making this even harder is that Sabrina feels like she’s being singled out in a way that’s not happening to her peers.’ 

Now, while Sabrina appears to be focusing on the success of her new single, the future looks uncertain for the star who has built her pop empire on, what fans have called, her ‘satirical image’of an overly sexualised Hollywood starlet. 

But the source reveals that fans aren’t likely to receive a response from Sabrina as her team go into ‘crisis mode’ ahead of their next move. 

They tell us, ‘Sabrina is frustrated because she wanted to make a bold artistic statement and instead it’s spiralling into this PR nightmare. 

‘She wants to defend herself, but there’s a real fear that anything she says could just make things worse. It’s a very delicate situation, and everyone around her is walking on eggshells trying to contain the damage while figuring out how to spin this into something that doesn’t permanently hurt her brand. 

‘Right now, there is no doubt this backlash has taken off a lot of the shine of this success.’