JoJo Siwa Opens Up About Candace Cameron Bure Feud, And How She Felt About Those 'Traditional Marriage' Comments

Just over a year has passed since JoJo Siwa first mega-slammed Candace Cameron Bure by indicating in a TikTok video that the Full House vet was the rudest celebrity she’d ever met, which sparked some back-and-forth social media drama that seemingly dried up a few months later. But then Bure promoted her GAF future with those “traditional marriages” comments that sparked all kinds of controversy, which angered Siwa all over again. Now, the Dance Moms vet has opened up about where things currently stand, why she initially regretted calling Bure out, and what she truly thinks about the actress’ past comments. 

JoJo Siwa popped up on former Bachelor star Nick Viall’s podcast The Viall Files: Going Deeper Edition, while naturally sporting one of her own branded hoodies, and they covered all the conversational bases; from her relationships to her career to her family and beyond. And you could almost hear the popcorn being popped in the background when Candace Cameron Bure’s name came up. Siwa reflected on the initial TikTok hullabaloo, fully explaining the incident that sparked it all, and confirmed they did talk it out, with Bure apologizing for her outwardly rude behavior. The YouTube star then discussed starting to feel regrets about that whole situation up until the point when Bure gave her GAF interview. In her words:

Dust settled, so I was like, all right, fine, whatever, it’s cool, I just won’t speak of her again to the Internet, just keep it private. Like I actually had a little bit of, like, ‘I shouldn’t have posted that, she didn’t need that, I didn’t need that.’ Like, let’s learn the lesson for next time. And then — I haven’t talked about this ever — she did her Christmas press release for her movies and it was — It’s fine, and you should do a movie with traditional marriage, with a man to a woman — not that that is what should be traditional marriage, but it is traditional marriage, you know what I mean? Like a lot of times people are like, ‘That shouldn’t be traditional marriage, anything can be traditional marriage,’ but typically speaking, man-to-woman marriage is traditional. And it wasn’t about that, it wasn’t that she wants to do a movie about that.

Though Siwa felt some pangs of regret about calling Bure out, she took it as a cautionary tale for the future. But it wasn't long before the Christmas movie comments made the rounds (reportedly sparking a minor rift between Bure and Jodie Sweetin, with the latter supporting JoJo Siwa's pro-LGBTQIA stance), with Siwa voicing her blanketed disapproval of the "traditional" values while not speaking ill of Bure herself. No time for regrets when there are new things to get mad at, after all. 

The 20-year-old entertainer stuck to that same "attack the idea, not the person" approach as she continued to explain her specific issue with Bure's and the GAF execs' goals for their programming. 

It was that she wants to do a movie about that to put down LGBTQIA, and that she was specifically gonna make movies that had no representation of LGBTQIA. Which is fine, but it’s fine if you’re doing it because it’s just your movie’s storyline, it’s just it is what it is. Like Elf. I don’t think Elf has a gay storyline, like not everything needs to be gay, essentially. But when you’re doing it out of spite to say that, ‘Too much is about LGBTQ right now, you guys suck and I want to make a movie about traditional marriage and you’re not traditional,’ that got to me a little bit.

Having proven herself to be a level-headed person, Siwa understands that not all entertainment can speak to and depict the entirety of the human spectrum and experience at all times. But it's all about intentions, and not deliberately omitting certain people before then obliviously vocalizing the polarizing reason for their omission. That Elf example is such a great way of making that point clear, too. 

At that point, JoJo Siwa explained that she started to come to terms with the idea that she and Candace Cameron Bure are not destined to ever be on the same page, and that's something she can live with. As she put it:

After that it gave me a little sense of like, ‘OK, you and her are never gonna agree, you and her are never gonna be friends, you and her are never gonna get along, I’m never gonna be able to change her, she’s not gonna be able to change me. We can both just live life, we can both just have fun, but I wish she was able to be a little more open, a little more accepting. I’m OK with calling her out in the way that I did. For a while I regretted it, but after I found out that article about her not wanting anything to do with LGBTQIA, that’s my people, you know what I mean? I gotta stand up for my people, and that’s messed up.

Bure's initial comments about GAF's family entertainment were then pulled up and read verbatim, which sparked another quick reaction from Siwa, who said:

That’s what I don’t like. Because, why is LGBTQIA not allowed to be good, loving, Christian? You can be gay and you can look up to the Lord. Why not? And that’s where it’s like, ‘Homegirl, just go make your movie.’

If Dancing with the Stars ever puts together an all-star-star season of returning contestants, I'm guessing the producers are going to receive some mighty strong denials if they'd attempt to bring both JoJo Siwa and Candace Cameron Bure back for it. Now whatever happened to that Celebrity Deathmatch reboot that was supposed to be happening a few years ago?

Nick Venable
Assistant Managing Editor

Nick is a Cajun Country native and an Assistant Managing Editor with a focus on TV and features. His humble origin story with CinemaBlend began all the way back in the pre-streaming era, circa 2009, as a freelancing DVD reviewer and TV recapper.  Nick leapfrogged over to the small screen to cover more and more television news and interviews, eventually taking over the section for the current era and covering topics like Yellowstone, The Walking Dead and horror. Born in Louisiana and currently living in Texas — Who Dat Nation over America’s Team all day, all night — Nick spent several years in the hospitality industry, and also worked as a 911 operator. If you ever happened to hear his music or read his comics/short stories, you have his sympathy.