Ellen DeGeneres has come under fire for defending Kevin Hart over unearthed old tweets from the comedian using the word ‘gay’ as a slur.
In the unearthed tweets, made in 2009 and 2010, he also labelled people ‘f*gs’ and as a result he stepped down from hosting the Oscars later this year. His replacement still hasn’t been announced with just over a month to go. Ellen invited Kevin onto her show to speak about the controversy, and Hart explained he would ‘evaluate’ his stance and ‘assessing’ his decision to back down. DeGeneres also revealed that she called the Academy directly to ask them to rehire him.
However the talk show host has been met with backlash for her sympathetic interview, where she suggested Kevin’s critics were ‘a small group of people’ and ‘haters’. She said: ‘Whatever’s going on on the internet don’t pay attention to them. ‘That’s a small group of people being very, very loud. We are a huge group of people who love you and want to see you host the Oscars.’
Ellen shared the interview on Twitter explaining she ‘forgives’ Kevin and is ‘in his corner’, but it wasn’t well received. One person replied: ‘Hi Ellen. I think you’re a cool lady. Have for a while now. But this? This ain’t it. Kevin’s attacks were geared towards Black gay men. That being said, you have no authority to forgive him on behalf of a section of the community you don’t belong to.’
‘Ellen crushed my heart. I don’t care what this Kevin thinks of me, I’m used to it. Ellen broke my heart,’ one response read. Another follower said: ‘People who were hurt by his tweets are not “haters” and I didn’t see everyone screaming to cancel him, they just wanted a genuine apology.’