Singer-songwriter and long-time vegan Chloe Bailey has revealed she accidentally ate meat for the first time in over a decade after her order for a plant-based burger was incorrectly managed by hotel staff.
The 25-year-old - who rose to prominence as one half of the musical duo Chloe x Halle with her sister Halle Bailey - took to TikTok Live following the fiasco to share how she had been "crying" and "freaking out" after discovering the burger was made of real meat - not the Beyond plant-based patty she'd asked for.
Both Chloe and her sister Halle, who recently starred in the live-action adaptation of Disney's 1989 film The Little Mermaid, decided to cut meat from their diets over 10 years ago and have been open about their vegan diets throughout their careers.
The sisters had been in Atlanta, Georgia over the weekend to see their mentor Beyoncé perform as part of her Renaissance World Tour when the burger blunder occurred.
"So I called to get a Beyond burger for sis and I like usual. Specified that it's vegan, no butter on the bun, nothing like that," Chloe said in the live video, which was screen-recorded and later shared to the popular Instagram account The Shade Room.
"[Halle's] eating the burger and she's like, 'Are you sure this is Beyond?' She took a couple of bites and she said, 'This is really good, you sure it's Beyond?' I said, 'Yeah!' - I touched the patty and smelled it and was like, 'Of course, it's Beyond'.
"So I finish getting dressed, I take a bite and the juice dripping from the burger is not like a Beyond burger. I just knew it was not a fake burger. The one bite I took and I just knew. Immediately I said, 'This doesn't feel right'."
The 'Have Mercy' hitmaker said she immediately rang the hotel's front desk to confirm their order, asking if the restaurant had noted her request for Beyond plant-based burgers.
"He said, 'No, they're brand burgers'. I said, 'Brand burgers? I said Beyond burgers'. I don't even know what a brand burger is," she said.
"Immediately I'm losing my shit. I gobbled down a whole can of Sprite. Halle's laughing at me because I'm crying. This is right before the concert yesterday. I'm crying, Halle's just laughing so hard at me because I'm freaking out. I've been vegan for 10 years and I have not consumed any red meat for 10 years."
The star's anecdote has prompted a mixed response from viewers: while many fans have expressed their sympathies, others have mocked the singer for her diet - as well as Halle's admission that the meat patty tasted "really good".
"Halle laughing cause she be sneaking meat," one claimed, with a second quipping: "I feel your pain Chloe, I ate pork bacon for all my life and one day someone gave me a vegan bacon strip. I kid you not, I felt like my life collapsed in front of me. I never recovered."
"If I put 10 years into something and someone's mistake [jeopardised] that, I'd be pissed," another noted, with a fourth weighing in: "I'm vegetarian and it's definitely hard to tell the difference sometimes, but you know the taste of real meat and that stomach ache ain't no joke."
"This is how it starts, go ahead and get that Big Mac," another joked.
Halle, 23, has previously explained why she and Chloe cut out meat and opted for vegan diets in their younger years.
Speaking to Complex in 2017, the Disney star explained: "Being vegan started from our mother. One day she was like, 'I'm gonna try to be vegetarian for a week. You can join me if you'd like'. We started the week with her and just never went back."
PETA recently crowned Halle and The Last of Us actor Bella Ramsey the most beautiful vegan celebrities of 2023.
