The Talk co-host Sheryl Underwood has had to apologize for natural hair comments she made in an episode that first aired two weeks ago. The comments, made during a segment with Heidi Klum, didn’t get attention then, but was picked up by Twitter when it re-aired on Friday, Aug. 31.
Mediate reports that Underwood was responding to Klum’s comment that she keeps her son’s shorn hair.
“Why would you save afro hair?” she asked Klum with a grin. “You can’t weave afro hair...You never see us at the hair place going ‘Look, here, what I need here is, I need those curly, nappy beads’ … That just seems nasty.”
Co-host Sara Gilbert added that she often saves her child’s hair too. Underwood said that it’s “probably some beautiful, long, silky stuff.”
As The Root notes, Twitter exploded after the comments re-aired.
According to The Huffington Post, Underwood spoke with Steve Harvey Wednesday morning to apologize for the comments.
“I want to apologize for my recent attempt at humor that missed the target and hit my people squarely in the heart,” she said, admitting that it was a “failed attempt at humor surrounding something that’s very sensitive to us: our hair.”
“I could use this time to try to explain the intent of what I said, but misunderstanding aside, the way the joke came out offended my people and my community, which was not my intent,” she continued. She also thanked people for criticizing her for the comments.
image: CBS