Bachelorette alum Hannah Brown issued another apology for using the N-word during an Instagram Live session. “I owe you all a major apology,” she wrote on her Instagram Stories on May 17. “There is no excuse and I will not justify what I said. I have read your messages and seen the hurt I have caused. I own it all. I am terribly sorry and know that whether in public or private, this language is unacceptable. I promise to do better.”
The racial slur was allegedly used while the 25-year-old attempted to recall the moves to a TikTok dance featuring “Rockstar” by DaBaby by singing the lyrics to the track out loud.
The Dancing With the Stars winner first addressed the situation during the IG Live after reading comments from fans calling her out for the usage, but at first blamed it on her brother, Patrick Brown. “I did? I’m so sorry … I don’t think … Maybe it was Patrick. Um, anyway,” she said.
Later in the Live, she addressed her comments again. “I really don’t think I said that word, I don’t think I said that word, but now I’m like, ‘Oh God,’” she told her supporters. “I’d never use that word. I’ve never called anybody that. We don’t say that word …. So, you know what, I’m going to stay here, and y’all can think I said whatever I did or think I’m something I’m not, but I’m not that.”
Hannah added, “Look, people are going to want to think whatever they want to think of me, get mad at me, whatever. And even if I did accidentally say it, I’m very sorry, I was singing a song and not even thinking.”
Before releasing her third apology statement, several fans called her out once again for being “insincere” in her apology videos — and even her fellow Bachelor Nation alumni had an issue with the incident.
“You can’t say the N-word just because black people say it,” season 22 Bachelor contestant Bekah Martinez wrote on her Instagram Stories on May 17. “Black people reclaimed the use of a word that was used for centuries to oppress and dehumanize them. It’s a word that holds so much historical weight that the black community is still healing from and parts of the white community are still weaponizing for dehumanization, particularly in the south.”
The reality star, also 25, added that Hannah’s situation was too flippant and she wasn’t learning from her mistake. “It’s not cool to just sing it along the lyrics of a song especially not on your platform with millions of followers?!!” Bekah wrote. “It’s 2020, at least make a legitimate apology and acknowledge your behavior.”