Big Girls Don't Cry: Josh Duhamel Talks About Fergie's National Anthem Performance

Fergie's ex-husband Josh Duhamel took a break from promo work for his latest venture, Unsolved, to hop on The Ellen DeGeneres Show earlier today. The two had a quick chat about his ex-wife's spectacular rendition of a what Vulture's Jesse David Fox calls "the national anthem our country deserves." (Which, yes.)

I read about this in Page Six (full disclosure, I don't watch Ellen), which ran the story under the headline "Josh Duhamel defends Fergie after disastrous national anthem." The show even uploaded the clip with the title "Josh Duhamel Defends Fergie's National Anthem Performance." But Duhamel's definitely not defending Fergie's artistic risk-taking in this case.

Here's what was actually said:

DUHAMEL: Well I think that she would probably admit that it was not her best work.

DEGENERES: *laughs*

DUHAMEL: But the girl is crazy talented.

So he's defending her talent, not her performance. Duhamel goes on to say that Fergie's an amazing woman, earns some crowd applause, and then it seems like he takes Ellen a bit by surprise by changing his tone.

"But that's the business, you know?" he adds as Ellen looks away. "You're in this business. You put yourself out there, and sometimes you win and sometimes you don't."

Ellen, possibly sensing that the conversation may be getting a bit too real, corrects the course: "I know, but I feel really bad for her, because I, you know...there's just been so much—"

"Yeah, she's...trust me, she's fine," Duhamel interjects. "She's about as resilient as they come."

"Good," Ellen responds. "I'm glad to hear that."

The two then move on to Duhamel's kid and his hip-hop lessons (to CRICKETS from the audience, I squirmed) before wrapping the segment.

So what do we take away from this? It seems like Fergie's going through a tough time right now considering her recent mishap at the TrevorLIVE Gala. If Josh is right, though, hopefully she'll bounce back soon. Perhaps it's just...personal.