Actress Katherine Heigl took part in a photo shoot of sorts, which many of her fans have called insensitive. On Sunday, the 39-year-old visited a cemetery in Buffalo, New York to see the gravestones of some family members, documenting the trip in a surprising way.
She was visiting the memorials to her grandfather and brother this weekend when she posted photos of the visit, which have now been deleted. In 1986, her brother passed away at the young age of 16, after being involved in a car crash while out for lunch with his classmates. However, after she had paid her respects to her lost sibling, it was how Heigl conducted herself around other gravestones and tombs that angered many.
In a dark string of jokes, the actress posed for a series of photos in the graveyard, pulling silly poses along with her husband, musician John Kelley. She captioned one shot, which showed her sitting with weeping angel monuments on either side of her, with "I also managed to get in a little gossip with the girls," as well as taking a selfie "with an impatient angel".
Her musician husband John Kelley, found a gravestone with his own name on it, which was shot along with the caption "[He] found his own grave...which was weird". For many, this was disrespectful to those laid to rest in the cemetery and their families, and eventually Heigl decided to remove the photos from her Instagram and apologise.
After taking the photos down from her Instagram, Heigl posted two videos explaining her actions last weekend, after realising that she agreed with the negative response she had received.
"I noticed on my Instagram page that the post I posted earlier was getting a lot of reaction and I realized you guys are right," she said in one of the videos. "It was not appropriate and it was disrespectful and I've taken it down."
She then went on to explain that while she was trying to find some humour in a less-than-comedic situation, her intentions didn't stop it from being "inappropriate".
"It’s kind of a heavy thing to go and visit my loved ones' graves, and I decided to find some moments of levity and humor and didn’t realize how inappropriate I was being."
"I deeply apologize and I thank you guys for understanding that sometimes I don’t think things through clearly enough and I am grateful for your input and for giving me a heads up when I’m maybe going too far.
"And thank you for forgiving me. Next time I will be more thoughtful about other people’s feelings and not just my own."
While there are some who have defended Heigl's choice of joke, it seems like the actress regrets her actions and is fully behind anyone who criticised her for it.
How about that - a celebrity not getting defensive after doing something controversial?