Sabrina Carpenter explains how controversial album cover came to be

Sabrina Carpenter has playfully hit back at the backlash over her album Man’s Best Friend’s cover photo and lyrics.

While pulling double duty as host and musical guest on the latest episode of Saturday Night Live, Sabrina joked about the controversial first cover of her album, which featured her on all fours with a man holding her hair.

"Some people got a little freaked out by the cover,” the Espresso hitmaker told viewers in her monologue. "I’m not sure why? It was just this: me on all fours, with an unseen figure pulling my hair."

"But what people don’t realize is that’s just how they cropped it. If you zoom out, it’s clearly a picture from the [Saturday Night Live] 50th anniversary special of Bowen [Yang] helping me up by the hair — after Martin Short shoved me out of the buffet line, saying something like, ‘Daddy need his mini quiche,'" she joked.

She then made a hilarious attempt to "clear up some misconceptions" about sexuality.

"Everyone thinks of me as this ‘horn dog’ pop star, but there’s really so much more to me," she teased. "I’m not just h*rny. I’m also turned-on, and I’m s*xually charged, and I love to read. My favorite book is the encyclopedia. It’s so big..." 

Sabrina Carpenter released Man's Best Friend in August.  

Meanwhile, Saturday Night Live’s next episode airs November 1 on NBC and will feature Miles Teller as the host alongisde musical guest Brandi Carlile.