After more than two decades in the music business, Pink has earned her global superstar status. But she still looks back on the early days of her career with some regret.
The three-time Grammy winner, 41, opened up to People about how damaging it was to have been pitted against fellow pop stars Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera when all three were first starting out in the early 2000s.
"It was so unfair to all the girls," revealed Pink, who graces the magazine's new issue. "None of us wanted that."
While Spears and Aguilera both had long blond hair in the early days of their careers, Pink emerged with a punkier look. Her short, neon-pink hairstyle and black leather clothes signified she was edgier than her pop peers.
Looking back, Pink said being marketed as the "anti-Britney" was something that never sat right with her.
"I love Britney — she used to carry around my album," she recalled. "I was like, 'Dude, I'm a street punk, I just skateboard. That doesn't have to be the anti-Britney. I don't want to fight anybody.'"
The "What About Us" singer, whose new Amazon Prime Video documentary, "Pink: All I Know So Far, premieres May 21, said she was lucky to get helpful advice while she was young from famed music producer L.A. Reid.
"One of the best things that L.A. Reid ever told me was that this music business is big enough for everybody to win at the same time. There's no such thing as competition," she shared.
"I think we navigated through it as good as a 20-year-old girl can, she added. "Now I think it's totally different. Girls supporting girls is rad — I love to watch it."
Pink previously opened up about her one-time rivalry with Aguilera during an appearance on "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" in October 2017.
The mom of two recalled that she and Aguilera clashed when they collaborated (along with Lil' Kim and Mya) on a 2001 cover of Patti LaBelle's 1974 smash hit "Lady Marmalade."
"We were super young and super new at the whole thing, and I think I’m an alpha, and she’s an alpha," Pink explained.
"I’m used to taking my altercations physical and she’s used to having them verbal. We’re just very different; we’re very different. And we were very young and new," she said.
The "All I Know So Far" singer added that tensions got so bad, Aguilera once "swung at me in a club."
But when Aguilera appeared on Cohen's show in January 2019, she denied Pink's story.
“Look at her and look at me. I wouldn’t swing on her! She can beat my ass. Are you kidding me? She could really beat my ass (back) then," she said.
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To hear the "Beautiful" singer tell it, the only thing she tried to smack Pink with was a kiss.
"I seem to have a different memory of a night we had at a club where we played spin the bottle. I have a love memory,” she recalled, laughing.
Aguilera said she had been "excited" by the idea of smooching Pink, but soon learned the feeling wasn't mutual.
As the two leaned into each other, Pink "put her hand up like this," Aguilera said, covering her mouth. "She didn’t want to get ‘Dirrty,'" she joked, referencing her sexy 2002 pop hit.
Both women told Cohen they put their bitter past behind them in 2016 when Aguilera invited Pink to mentor her team on "The Voice."
"We became moms. We grew up. We hugged it out," explained Pink. "It’s that simple. I feel so good about that."