Heather Morris has apologised for her “insensitive” comments defending her late Glee co-star Mark Salling.
The late actor, who played Noah ‘Puck’ Puckerman in the hit series, died by suicide in 2018, while awaiting his sentence after entering a guilty plea in his child pornography possession case.
After facing backlash for a series of tweets in which she said Mark was still part of her Glee family, the mother-of-two took to Twitter on Monday to apologise.
The 33-year-old wrote: “To all those who felt triggered by my message, I want to sincerely apologize for the harm I caused.”
— heather (@HeatherMorrisTV) December 22, 2020
“Whether you, a friend, a family member has been a victim of pedophilia, I realize my words may have been insensitive to your experience and for that I can’t express enough how sorry I am.”
Last week, Heather responded to a tweet which included a still from Glee with a vomiting emoji over Mark’s face, writing: “The vomit face on Mark’s face is offensive.”
In a series of since-deleted tweets, the Spring Breakers star wrote: “I don’t feel the need to ever justify something because somethings are better left unsaid.
“Y’all who have lots of things to say, I get it, I UNDERSTAND you…somethings are unforgivable. But this holiday season, amongst ALL holiday seasons is INCREDIBLY hard for so many of us.”
Referring to the deaths of Cory Monteith and Naya Rivera, the actress added: “We did not lose just 2 cast members, we lost 3. And it is SO incredibly tough to have to act like that 3rd one is invisible.”
Heather claimed Mark was “mentally sick”, and said that although “his actions are unjustifiable, he was part of our family at one point.”
She concluded by writing: “Although I don’t want to have to say all that, its truthful.
“So THANK YOU for treated me with such disrespect and unkindness during a time that I can’t get through a day without balling my eyes out at the loss of my entire Glee family… thank you.”
The Glee cast has suffered major losses in recent years, with Cory Monteith, who played Finn Hudson, passing away in 2013 at the age of 31 after suffering an overdose.
Naya Rivera, who played Santana Lopez, was reported missing on July 8 this year, after her 4-year-old son Jose was found alone in a rented boat at Lake Piru.
On July 13, the body of the 33-year-old was recovered from the lake, with the autopsy ruling her death as an accidental drowning.
