Glastonbury star PinkPantheress reveals lifetime Sainsbury's ban for shoplifting

Rising pop star and Glastonbury favourite PinkPantheress has revealed she’s been banned from every Sainsbury’s store in the UK over an incident involving a stolen Drumstick lolly when she was younger. In a new interview with GQ, the 23-year-old singer, whose real name Victoria Beverley Walker, reflected on the surprising moment from her teenage years, which has haunted her ever since.

“My friend stole a Drumstick from Sainsbury’s, but that actually is illegal,” she explained. “I remember thinking to myself like, and we got banned, and we really went through it. I got banned, but I didn’t steal anything.”

Although she insists she wasn’t the one who took anything, she still received the same punishment: “Given our age at the time, one Drumstick resulting in a ban, it’s a bit much. Because we were banned from all Sainsbury’s across the country.”

The candid confession came as she promoted her latest single, Illegal - a tongue-in-cheek coincidence which has not got lost on fans.

PinkPantheress is currently enjoying a career high following her breakout Glastonbury performance on the Woodsies stage. Her Friday night set was met with glowing praise online, with festivalgoers describing it as one of the standout moments of the weekend.

One fan posted: “PinkPantheress is brilliant. Don’t think you’ll see a crowd enjoy themselves more this weekend.” Another added: “Genuinely never heard of PinkPantheress but wow, she’s an unreal artist.” A third wrote: “PinkPantheress’s stage presence has improved so much - I love this for her.”

However, her time at the festival wasn’t without hiccups. A planned intimate set the day before the festival officially began was cancelled at short notice, leaving some fans disappointed.

Speculation initially swirled around crowd control concerns, but organisers quickly clarified the reason. A Glastonbury spokesperson said: “This change was absolutely not as a result of overcrowding fears, the artist was simply no longer able to make this performance. But she is still playing her Woodsies set.”

Since rising to fame through viral success on TikTok, PinkPantheress has quickly carved out a spot as one of the UK’s most exciting new pop voices.

With a distinct, genre-blending sound and a growing fanbase of over 2.7 million Instagram followers, she has already earned three Brit Award nominations and landed both singles and albums in the UK Top 10.

Her new single Illegal arrives as she continues to ride a wave of momentum and with stories like her Sainsbury's ban now out in the open, it seems PinkPantheress is more than willing to keep things real as her music career continues to blossom.

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