Country star Carrie Underwood might be "Blown Away" by the reaction to her appearance at the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas on April 15 — four months after her "gruesome" injury — but not because it was loving. Carrie had warned her devotees she "might look a bit different," but they lashed out once she took the ACM stage looking like her usual, beautiful self. (One commenter even called the 35-year-old a "narcissistic fool"!)

The backlash was stunning for the seven-time Grammy winner, as a source tells In Touch in the issue currently on newsstands. "She admits she should have handled her accident differently, but she was very, very insecure," the inside explains. "It sounds insane, but she really questioned whether her career was over."

Carrie "blames herself" for that backlash, the source adds, but is looking to the future. "She wants to restore her credibility again," explains the source. "The emotional ACM Awards performance was her first step. Now she's considering a televised sit-down interview to clear the air."

Clearing the air will be no easy task, though, given the cynicism running rampant online. "It shows how vain these celebs are," Twitter user Becky Danehey said. And Joey Destefano tweeted, "Why all the drama and the cloak-and-dagger about her face, when she looks exactly the same. Did we need hype for our new album maybe?"

Deal of the Day Blue Bathing suit 4-7-24

Deal of the Day

This ‘Slimming’ Suit is Just $16 Today! View Deal

(That wasn't the only conspiracy theory either. Online commenters speculated Carrie was covering up everything from domestic violence to plastic surgery, as In Touch reports. "Botched lip injections, Miss Carrie Underwood," wrote one Twitter user. "Just own it.")

In case you missed the drama back in November, the American Idol winner fell on the steps outside her home and suffered "multiple injuries," including a broken wrist and "cuts and abrasions," as her rep said at the time. A month and a half later, Carrie sent her fan club a letter, saying, "There is also another part of the story that I haven't been ready to talk about since I have still been living it and there has been much uncertainty as to how things will end up … In addition to breaking my wrist, I somehow managed to injure my face as well. I'll spare you the gruesome details, but when I came out of surgery the night of my fall, the doctor told Mike [Fisher, Carrie's husband] that he had put between 40 and 50 stitches in."

We're sure all this backlash is enough to make Carrie "Cry Pretty"… with an emphasis on the pretty. She needn't have worried, though — she looks great!