Rodner Figueroa, the Univision host who got fired for offensive comments on First Lady, Michelle Obama, is now apologizing for his actions.
Figueroa hosted El Gordo y La Flaca up until this week, when he compared Obama to a character on Planet of the Apes. He won a Daytime Emmy in 2014 for his work on the show, which he’s worked on for the last 15 years.
He made the remark during a segment about a makeup artist who transformed himself into many public figures, saying of the transformation to Obama, “Well, watch out, you know that Michelle Obama looks like she’s from the cast of Planet of the Apes, the movie.”
Univision called his comparison “completely reprehensible” and fired him on Thursday, a day after the comment aired, The AP reports.
He has since written an open letter, saying the network received a complaint from the First Lady’s office then “leaked this information to the media” in “an attempt to what I believe was a move to damage my career.”
"I would like to explain that my remark was not directed at you, but at the result of an artist’s depiction of you that I found wasn’t accurate. The entire video clip in context corroborates this," he wrote.
“I feel embarrassed, and I hope you can forgive me, because there is no excuse. As a professional, I hold myself to high standards and there is no justification for someone at my level to make any kind of comment that could be interpreted as offensive or disrespectful to you personally, or to any minority in the times we live,” he added.
He also wrote he “cannot accept being labeled a racist” by the company he’s worked for for the past 17 years. On the contrary, he called himself a “minority activist throughout my career, championing a number of causes geared towards supporting minorities.”
image via Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com