19-year-old Pop star Billie Eilish has responded to an old video of herself mouthing a racist slur after it recently resurfaced on the internet.
The ‘Bad Guy’ hit maker says she has been ‘labeled something that she is not’ as the resurfaced footage clearly shows she was in her early teens and was speaking ‘gibberish’ she didn’t intend to mock anyone.
Eilish released a lengthy statement via her Instagram story saying: “I love you guys and many of you have been asking me to address this. And this is something that I want to address because I’ being labeled something that I am not.
“There’s a video edit going around of me when I was 13 or 14 where I mouthed a word from a song that at the time didn’t know was a derogatory term used against members of the Asian community.
“I am appalled and embarrassed and want to barf that I ever mouthed along to that word. This song was the only time I’d ever heard that word as it ears never used around me by anyone in my family.
“Regardless of my ignorance and age at the time, nothing excuses the fact is that it was hurtful. And I am sorry,” she said.
Eilish went on to address another part of the ‘edited clip’ as her accent was also deemed offensive to the Asian community.
“The other video in that edited clip is me speaking in a silly gibberish made up voice… something I started doing as a kid and have done my whole life when talking to my pets, friends and family.
“It is absolute gibberish and just me goofing around, and is in NO way an imitation of anyone or any language, accent or culture in the SLIGHTEST,” she explained.
