Jessie James Decker says sister 'humiliated' on flight

Jessie James Decker is famous for both her country music career and her high-profile marriage to NFL alum, Eric Decker. E! even produced three seasons of a reality show, Eric & Jessie, which followed the pair’s wedding and the relationship with the James family. Jessie is also the founder of Kittenish, the women’s clothing store, and competed in the last season of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.”

This week, the 35-year-old mother of three has once again made headlines for reasons unrelated to the aforementioned accolades. Her brother-in-law, Blue Jays player Anthony Bass went viral for tweeting a complaint at United Airlines because they asked his pregnant wife, Jessie’s sister Sydney, to clean up the mess of popcorn made by her two young children on a flight. The internet, for once, unanimously agreed that this was out-of-touch and entitled, with many Twitter users stating that the children should have been the one to clean up the mess.

Actor Michael Park responded, “Hey Anthony, just spit balling here… (Heyyyooo. You’re welcome.) as a father of three grown adult children may I suggest that the 5 and 2 yr old HELP clean up the mess made as a teaching moment of personal responsibility? You can thank me later… Also #GoYanks.” Sports commentator John Kincade replied, “Personal accountability and responsibility is a great lesson at any age.” One Reddit user claimed to be on the flight, claiming that Sydney had “zero control of her kids and was asked numerous times” to check their behavior.

Despite the unified response to this debacle, Jessie James Decker defended her sister on Instagram, saying Sydney was “crying and humiliated” as she cleaned up the mess made by her children.

All the major news outlets have covered #Popcorngate, — from US Weekly to PEOPLE.

The pop-country singer is no stranger to internet drama, as she is repeatedly embroiled in controversy. Last Thanksgiving, she made headlines for sharing photos of her children, who she shares with her husband, ex-NFL player Eric Decker, at the beach, showing off their well-defined abs. Some commenters expressed praise for the kids’ physiques while others thought it might be a joke. Several users thought the photos were altered to accentuate the children’s ab muscles.

The response to the photos enraged Jessie, and her response was coded with fat-phobic rhetoric. On her follow-up post, her caption read:

I didn’t plan on addressing this because it’s bonkers but the photos are out there and every single news outlet has posted about this. When I posted the pix of our vacation and included the kids being silly flexing on the beach on our thanksgiving trip I had NO clue it would get the reaction it did. But Being accused of photoshopping abs on my kids (I can’t help but laugh) or … the polar opposite over “overtraining” our kids makes me realize how bizarre our world has gotten regarding the body and what’s normal and what’s not. We preach about body positivity and acceptance but my kids having a mass amount of genetic and built muscle from athletics is “weird”? I want to raise my kids to feel proud of their bodies and hard work from either Vivis elite competitive gymnastics to Eric Jr wanting to be like dad as an NFL receiver to little Forrest who spends hours dancing his heart out. Let’s not pick and choose what we normalize regarding bodies and be accepting of all people and children. If we wanna do “better” then do better. I’m proud of my children and encourage them to live their dreams. So we’ll see y’all at the 2032 Olympics, and wearing Bubbys jersey in the stands and dancing at Forrests rock concert✌️

Jessie has also come under fire for her silence on the Black Lives Matter movement and issues concerning minorities and other segments of the population, comments about her husband “refusing” to get a vasectomy because “he says it takes, like, his manhood away from him,” and other problematic statements throughout the years.

In addition to her tendency to put her foot in her mouth, Jessie’s clothing brand Kittenish, has experienced its own bouts of controversy. Initially, the brand was launched as a collection alongside Rachel Turzer, a bonafide fashion designer behind the brand Kora Rae, which has now adapted into an athletic wear manufacturer, EVR BRANDS. The line launched successfully under the duo’s direction, but the relationship soured in late 2017.

In December, Jessie announced that her brand would be moving in a different direction without Turzer and Kora Rae and the two women and brands unfollowed each other on Instagram. Turzer goes on to partner with other Nashville celebs like Brittany Aldean and Joelle “Jojo” Fletcher.

Following the partnership split, Jessie took over as lead designer and the flagship location of her first store opened in Nashville in February 2019. Soon after the relaunch, complaints poured in from customers about the quality and fit of the new line, which prompted Kittenish to have to issue a statement on Instagram in April.

“Dear Kittenish Loyal Customers,

There have been many questions and many many many emails as to why kittenish store and online are not carrying the same items . First off I apologize from the bottom of my heart that these items have not been available to you online. When I opened the store in mid Feb. I never knew how much y’all would love these items you were seeing in store and on the kittenish Nashville Instagram. Secondly there’s so much that goes on behind the scenes that you don’t know or are unaware of that I try to not share to protect the situation but I now realize this isn’t helping and I need to also protect and let my customers know what the deal is so y’all don’t have to keep wondering. What I want to share is that my online and my Nashville store are ran completely separately. I am in complete control of the store and not online. I should have explained this a long time ago so everyone understood that I wasn’t ignoring my online loyal KITTENISH customers and that’s this has been out of my hands. Moving forward in the near future I am taking full control of online so that everything will be cohesive and there will not be such a disconnect from the store and online anymore. I apologize 100 times for the inconvenience of this but also want to thank y’all for having such passion for my brand. Every business owner knows that in the beginning there are SO many ups and downs and kinks that get worked out to learn from and make a company successful. The success of kittenish has been so huge and the growth has been so strong that there have been times where simply have just been unable to keep up. But this is changing now, I have an incredible team of amazing women around me and even more women I am planning on hiring and I can promise you that you will not be disappointed anymore moving forward and all things Nashville will make a home on kittenish.com . This letter was to address that I hear you loud and clear and I am working on this day in and day out with my team!

I love y’all so much and again thank you for your patience, and for supporting me and for supporting Kittenish!”

In December of the same year after reviews continued to plummet while complaints skyrocketed, Eric Decker stepped in as President and Co-Owner of Kittenish. Despite this, Jessie continued to post on the Kittenish Instagram account about being “overwhelmed” by the growth and “thousands and thousands of orders” made in the “past 4 months.”

Kittenish opened its Destin store in December 2019, which is now permanently closed, and went on to create more stores in Dallas in August 2021 and Tampa in November 2021.

Beyond the logistical issues, the general public has taken issue with Kittenish’s lack of diversity, as the brand rarely showcases Black and brown women and carries very limited sizes.

Following these many public image flubs, Jessie has amassed quite a following on Reddit for all the wrong reasons. The “snark” subreddit r/jjdandfamily, which was created in November 2019, is currently 28,280 users strong and has uncovered even more drama within the James family, including a years-long spat between Jessie, Sydney and their mother Karen, who abruptly stopped speaking to their brother John, around 2017.

Despite the drama, Jessie chooses to ignore it — except for when she directly addresses it on her Instagram. During an AMA earlier this week in the midst of the #Popcorngate debacle, an Instagram follower asked why she didn’t report the Reddit page dedicated to her. Her response was, “Cus they my number 1 fans. They think about me alot to them. Gives them something to do. They love me. Once that page disappears it means I’m not relevant to them anymore. So keep it up superfans”

I have a feeling they will…

The Spin Cycle

Jessie James Decker is always in the news for…