Jamie Foxx has issued an apology over a now-deleted social media post that was accused of being antisemitic – with fellow actor Jennifer Aniston distancing herself from it and saying she “did not ‘like’ it on purpose or by accident”.
Foxx‘s original post on Instagram read: “They killed this dude named Jesus. What do you think they’ll do to you???! #fakefriends #fakelove.”
Jewish news platform A Wider Frame shared the post, calling it “horrifically antisemitic” – referencing the antisemitic belief that Jewish people were responsible for the death of Jesus.
The 55-year-old, who has almost 17 million followers on Instagram, later addressed his remarks saying: “I want to apologise to the Jewish community and to everyone who was offended by my post. I now know my words of choice have caused offence and I’m sorry. That was never my intent.”
The Oscar winner added: “To clarify, I was betrayed by a fake friend and that’s what I meant with ‘they’ not anything more. I only have love in my heart for everyone.
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“I love and support the Jewish community. My deepest apologies to anyone who was offended. Nothing but love always.”
Friends star Aniston, also 55, addressed the issue after a screenshot posted by A Wider Frame showed an account with her name appearing to have liked Foxx’s post.
She posted an Instagram story in response, saying: “This really makes me sick.”
The actress said she did not like the post “on purpose or by accident” and added: “More importantly, I want to be clear to my friends and anyone hurt by this showing up in their feeds – I do NOT support any form of antisemitism. And I truly don’t tolerate HATE of any kind. Period.”
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Foxx’s apology post has since been liked over 130,000 times and has more than 21,000 comments, with some defending the star and others saying his original post was “clearly an attack on Jewish people”.
A friend of Foxx, Adam Weitsman wrote: “I know you personally, I’m Jewish and know you are the last person that would EVER act antisemetic.”
But another user wrote Foxx “advertised something extremely antisemitic to the world”.
The row over the post comes after Foxx’s family revealed in April he was recovering after experiencing an unspecified “medical complication”, while the Django Unchained actor recently said he went “to hell and back” while getting treated in hospital for it.