#Heather Morris Apologizes To People Who ‘Felt Triggered’ By Her ‘Insensitive’ Defense Of Mark Salling

After significant backlash, Heather Morris is walking back her recent comments about former Glee co-star Mark Salling.

As you may recall, the 33-year-old dancer-turned-TV star took to Twitter on Friday to defend her late peer. In addition to calling him “family,” she said it was “offensive” to depict him with a vomit face emoji in a pic re-posted to the social network by fellow alum Kevin McHale. Now, she’s re-thinking that position a bit.

Related: Heather Tearfully Reflects On Her Close Friendship With The Late Naya Rivera

On Monday evening, Morris returned to to the platform with a public apology. In two sentences, she walked back her open defense of Salling, who had pled guilty to charges of possession of child pornography ahead of his January 2018 death by suicide in the Los Angeles area.

In her apology tweet, Morris wrote:

“To all those who felt triggered by my message, I want to sincerely apologize for the harm I caused. 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.”

As you can see (below), the tweet got a TON of attention from fans:

pic.twitter.com/qiiYdhSu1y

— heather (@HeatherMorrisTV) December 22, 2020

OK, so, not to nitpick, but in public apologies, have you noticed that many celebs forget to apologize? Like in this case, instead of saying “I want to sincerely apologize,” why not just do it? Literally say “I’m sorry,” ya know?! Anyway…

Related: Kelly Dodd Apologizes For ‘Drunk Wives Matter’ Hat — But Walks It Back!

Of course, the reaction following Morris’ draw-down was mixed. Some showed tepid support for Mark, noting he was part of the Glee family even despite his serious and devastating legal issues; others were far from being as forgiving:

“the fact heather even has to apologize … it’s her opinion and how she felt about people who she was personally close with”

“thank you for apologizing, but as someone who has technically been a victim of pedophilia, i can’t forgive you. i’m sorry.”

“She did not defend him. She was grieving him. that simple. Heather was a good person who inspired and helped many people. Do not drag her for this one thing. remember all the great she has done, the great she is doing, and the great she will do. In the end she lost a friend”

“For those people saying ‘you don’t need to apologize’ please recognize that you are part of the issue. She said something very tone deaf that hurt people and was right to apologize.”

“thank you for apologizing, we’re all humans, we all make mistakes and everyone should have a chance to learn how to be better. I just hope that you have learned how your words might hurt someone else.”

“I hate that you have to even deal with this! I get it I do but you lost your friend/family! Mark was family his sickness wasn’t all that he was! Im so sorry you have this to deal with! Love you HeMo!!”

“heather did not just grieve for mark, she made thousands of sexual abuse victims feel invalidated and then painted herself as the victim when she got backlash, that’s what heather did.”

Hmmm…

Quite a bit to take in there. Obviously, we know Heather wasn’t condoning pedophilia when she said covering up Mark’s face in the initial pic was “offensive.” And considering she was on a long-running series with him, it’s also obvious she has fond memories and has built loyalty. Plus, with Naya Rivera‘s drowning death earlier this year, and Cory Monteith‘s tragic passing a few years back… it’s been a lot for the entire Glee cast to mourn. We get it.

But it’s tough because the actions Salling pled guilty to back in late 2017 are just… awful. There’s no way around it. How do you even begin to reconcile that as a friend and former co-star?

Ugh. No easy answers here. What say U, Perezcious readers? Share your take on it down in the comments (below)…

[Image via WENN]