Martha Stewart Sets the Record Straight About Her Controversial Halloween Costume: It Wasn’t Craig Melvin’s Fault.
The lifestyle mogul stopped by the “Today” show Friday to once again apologize for deciding to dress up as a homeless person for Halloween and explain why she threw Melvin under the bus amid backlash.
“I don’t blame you at all,” Stewart said during her interview with the NBC host. “It was a joke when I said I was mad at you. It was stupid.”
Stewart posted – then quickly deleted – a photo of herself dressed in torn and disheveled clothes and holding a makeshift sign reading “I’M HUNGRY, HELP ME!!” on October 31. She was photographed on a pristine front porch with her impeccably groomed chow chow and French bulldog. The reaction was rapid.
“It was just stupid and I apologize,” the TV personality said Friday, noting that her grandson warned her even before sharing the photo on Instagram that she was “deaf.” “I was not making fun of anyone or making light of the big issues facing our country.”
According to the ex-convict lifestyle mogul, she put together the outfit last minute because she was too busy to plan a suitable costume for attending a Halloween party.
Stewart had already apologized for her gaffe. After telling Page Six in a statement that her costume was intended to “raise awareness” of the homeless issue and that she was “distressed” that it “offended people,” she posted a since-deleted apology on her Instagram on Sunday, acknowledging that her first statement “didn’t go far enough.”
“Wearing a costume like I did was insensitive and not funny. I’m so sorry,” she wrote.
“Today” host Craig Melvin wanted to know why he became embroiled in the Martha Stewart Halloween costume controversy.
(Charles Sykes/Invision/Associated Press)
But Stewart added another layer to his story on Tuesday. During a speaking engagement in Orlando, Fla., the TV host blamed her costume on Melvin, who spilled chocolate on the sweater she wore during her Oct. 30 appearance on “Today.” Stewart had worn a white sweater with an American flag and Olympic rings on the front in the episode to match Melvin, who had dressed up as superfan and Olympics ambassador Snoop Dogg.
“Why was I dragged into this? » Melvin questioned Stewart during his last appearance.
“I was making a joke,” Stewart said. “I was giving a lecture and I just made a joke that you spilled chocolate on me so I couldn’t wear that costume I was planning to wear on Halloween night to that party.”
“And that’s history now,” Melvin said, before confirming that he apologized for the spilled chocolate when it happened. “But to be clear, there was no connection between (the spilled chocolate) and the costume later?”
“Oh, no, no, no,” Stewart said. “It wasn’t your fault.”
She added that she understood that she needed to “pay more attention to social issues” in the future.
“I am aware of all of these social issues, as you can imagine, and I care desperately about all of the issues that we face,” she said. “But I made a mistake. I mean, I was stupid…I’m really sorry and I hope that my supporters, my fans and the rest of America will forgive me for doing something that was in no way meant to be a bad thing.”
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