Sydney Sweeney’s Top 5 Controversies: From Euphoria’s Nudity To Selling Bathwater Soap Bar
Sydney Sweeney’s name usually pops up thanks to her standout performances in Euphoria and The White Lotus, but lately, she’s been making headlines for something else entirely.
So, here’s what went down: she teamed up with American Eagle as the face of their latest campaign. Seems straightforward, right? Instead, the ad sparked a ton of backlash online, with a lot of people calling out what they saw as racial undertones. Not exactly the PR boost the brand (or Sweeney) was hoping for.
Honestly, this isn’t Sydney’s first run-in with controversy that’s got nothing to do with her acting chops. For better or worse, she’s found herself at the centre of a handful of internet storms over the years. Here’s a look at some of the biggest moments that got Hollywood gossiping—none of them about her on-screen talent.
Here are the top 5 controversies of Sydney Sweeney:
Sydney Sweeney's Bathwater soap bar controversy
Sydney Sweeney’s “bathwater” soap drama, yes, the one that started when she teamed up with Dr. Squatch to drop a limited-edition soap called “Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss.” The kicker? It supposedly had a tiny bit of water she’d actually bathed in during a shoot. They meant it as a tongue-in-cheek nod to fans who’d been joking about buying her bathwater. The whole thing sold out faster than concert tickets but, unsurprisingly, a lot of people—especially women—pushed back. Plenty called it out for being creepy, objectifying, and, honestly, just gross from a hygiene angle. Sweeney tried to defend the move, saying it was no different than the hype around Jacob Elordi’s “bathwater” candle from Saltburn.
Sydney Sweeney's 'Great Jeans' ad goes wrong
The whole “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” mess? It blew up after American Eagle Outfitters dropped their 2025 campaign with Sweeney front and center. The ad’s tagline—yeah, that pun—got people riled up. Some folks saw her classic blonde, blue-eyed look and decided the campaign was a sneaky nod to eugenics or white supremacy. Honestly, it turned into a firestorm. American Eagle tried to shut it down, saying it was all about the denim, nothing else. Meanwhile, a bunch of people called the outrage totally overblown. But the whole thing cracked open a way bigger argument about politics, race, and what society thinks is beautiful.
Sydney Sweeney's controversy with the MAGA hat birthday party
The "Sydney Sweeney MAGA hat controversy" refers to backlash in August 2022 after photos surfaced from her mother's 60th birthday party, where some guests wore red hats with the slogan "Make Sixty Great Again" and one wore a "Blue Lives Matter" shirt. Sweeney addressed the backlash by asking people to "stop making assumptions" and calling the turn of an "innocent celebration" into a political statement "absurd"
Sydney Sweeney's Republican Voter Registration Controversy
Turns out Sweeney’s actually registered as a Republican, news that popped up right after people started digging into her politics. Back in 2022, she got dragged online when pics surfaced from a family birthday party, and yep, some folks there were rocking those "Make America Great Again" hats. Cue the internet freakout.
Sydney Sweeney's Euphoria Nudity Row
Sweeney sat got pretty candid about how she feels doing nude scenes. She basically said nerves aren’t really a thing for her—she sees the female body as something powerful, not something to be ashamed of. For her, it’s all about telling her character’s story honestly, so she feels a responsibility to do what the role asks.
She’s been naked on screen before—think Euphoria and The Voyeurs—but honestly, she’s noticed that people hardly ever talk about her actual acting because they get so hung up on the nudity. She even told The Independent back in 2022 that those scenes tend to overshadow her performance. Funny enough, it wasn’t until The White Lotus that critics really started paying attention to what she was doing as an actress, not just the shock value.
