Celebrities might be famous, but this doesn’t mean they are perfect. They often make mistakes, and sometimes they say or do things that upset people.
When celebrities mess up, they often have to apologize to the entire world, but some of these attempts to say they are sorry are better than others.
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Here are 10+ of the best and worst celebrity apologies.
Worst: Vanessa Hudgens COVID apology.
In March of 2020, Hudgens was on her Instagram live and said this about the pandemic, “Even if everybody gets it, like yeah, people are going to die which is terrible, but inevitable?”
Her apology was in a Twitter post, but many people felt she didn’t apologize heartily enough for being okay with people dying.
Best: Reese Witherspoon for her comments after being pulled over.
While Witherspoon has mostly been viewed as a sweetheart, people were unimpressed when a video of her being pulled over in 2013 surfaced. She said things like, “do you know my name?” and was drunk and erratic.
She was able to save her image by releasing a statement and talking about the incident on Good Morning America. Luckily, she was charming enough to pull it off.
Worst: Ellen DeGeneres about creating a toxic work environment.
In 2020, many employees of the star accused her of misconduct at work and of the environment being very toxic with things like racism and sexism being frequent problems.
To apologize, she started the 18th season of her show with a long monologue, but many people feel like she was just saving face and that she should have addressed things sooner.
Best: Chrissy Teigen about Twitter comments.
In 2019, Teigen posted on Twitter about her mother who kept losing AirPods and buying multiple pairs a month.
While she meant the tweet to be funny, many people on Twitter were upset at how out of touch these comments were.
She recognized her error and wrote, “I promise I will not always say the right thing in the right way but I also promise I hate disappointing or pissing you guys off.”
Worst: Kristen Stewart over her affair.
When Kristen Stewart’s affair with director Rubert Sanders was revealed, it was quite the scandal, especially because he was married at the time and Stewart was dating Robert Pattinson.
While she apologized publicly and said she loved Robert Pattinson still, most people weren’t impressed enough to forgive her completely.
Best: Hailey Bieber on her treatment of wait staff.
A TikTok creator named Julia Carolan made a viral video where she said that Hailey Bieber was rude to the wait staff at the restaurant where Carolan was a hostess.
Bieber commented on the video. “Just came across this video, and wanted to say sorry if I’ve ever given you bad vibes or a bad attitude. That’s not ever my intention!”
Worst: Julianne Hough over wearing blackface.
Julianne Hough got a lot of heat for wearing blackface when she dressed up at “Crazy Eyes” from Orange Is the Nw Black.
To apologize, she wrote on Twitter, “I am a huge fan…It certainly was never my intention to be disrespectful or demeaning to anyone in any way. I realize my costume hurt and offended people and I truly apologize.”
Many people felt she didn’t really understand what she had done wrong.
Best: Florence Pugh
In June of 2020, videos of Pugh from the past wearing cornrows and Rastafarian clothing surfaces, and many fans called her out for cultural appropriation.
Pugh took responsibility for her actions on Instagram.
“Stupid doesn’t even cut it, I was uneducated. I was unread.”
Worst: Tiger Woods on his cheating scandals.
Tiger Woods was involved in one of the most infamous cheating scandals ever while married to Erin Nordegren.
He apologized by at a press conference, saying, “I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply… I ask you to one day find room in your heart to believe in me again.”
But, given that he had affairs with over a dozen women, most people didn’t take this apology seriously.
Best: Amanda Seyfried over body image comments.
The timeline is a little complicated, but Seyfriend called out influencer Arielle Charnas for Charnas’ post about being proud of her body after having two children.
Seyfriend said that Charnas wasn’t acknowledging her privilege. And, while there was some truth to what she said, she was a bit harsh.
So, Seyfriend apologized for shaming the influencer while still standing by her statements.
Worst: Mel Gibson over anti-Semitic comments.
Gibson’s sexist, anti-Semitic rant after he was arrested for a DUI is infamous because it was so awful.
But, when he talked to Diane Sawyer and tried to explain why he did it, he just made things worst.
He would have had to really show he knew he was wrong and make up for what he did over time, but Gibson didn’t do that.
Best: Lorde over a social media caption.
In 2018, Lorde posted a picture of drawing a bath with the caption, “And iiii will always love you.”
Fans told her that these Whitney Houston lyrics were in poor taste as Houston drowned in a bathtub.
Lorde then deleted the post and apologized. It was clear she didn’t realize the connection, and her apology was sincere.
Worst: Paula Deen on her racist remarks.
Paula Deen ruined her own career when it was shown that she used the N-word in the past.
She went on the Today show to apologize, saying, “I believe that every one of God’s creatures was created equal, no matter what church you go to pray.” But, she also talked about how she shouldn’t have been fired.
People weren’t impressed by her actions or response.
Best: Keke Palmer’s hilarious remarks.
This apology is one of the best because Palmer wasn’t really apologizing for anything bad, but she was just being honest about not knowing who former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was when shown his picture.
“I hate to say it, I hope I don’t sound ridiculous, I don’t know who this man is. I mean, he could be walking down the street, and I wouldn’t know a thing. Sorry to this man.”
Worst: Logan Paul
Logan Paul has done many controversial things, but one of the most notorious was when he visited the Aokigahara forest in Japan and took a video of victims who took their life.
It was so disrespectful, and his apology didn’t impress most people.
He said, “I did it because I thought I could make a positive ripple on the internet, not cause a monsoon of negativity.”
