Before the age of cancel culture and celebrity apology videos characterized by neutral-toned clothing, pristine backgrounds, and an introductory deep breath, A-listers didn't pay much attention to their comments, often letting their impulsive behavior mandate what words came out of their mouths.
Although many of the following offensive remarks were forgotten over time, they're still on the Internet, and people can judge for themselves whether the artist who made them intended harm or not.
Below, Bored Panda presents a list of 16 controversial celebrity comments that remained unnoticed for years after they were uttered despite their racist, homophobic, or sexist nature.
#1 Alec Baldwin
The 30 Rock star used an anti-gay slur when trying to protect his privacy during an altercation with paparazzi.
In 2013, Alec chased after a photographer outside his Manhattan apartment and called the man a “c**ksucking f*g.”
“Get away from my wife and the baby with the camera,” the actor can be heard yelling on a video taken of the incident. “What f***ing language you want that in?”
“I did not intend to hurt or offend anyone with my choice of words, but clearly I have – and for that, I am deeply sorry,” the star later said in a statement on MSNBC’s website.
“Words are important. I understand that, and [I] will choose mine with great care going forward.”
On a different occasion, Alec joked on The Late Show with David Letterman that he wanted more children and was “thinking about getting a Filipino mail-order bride at this point, or a Russian one,” a comment that the Philippine Consul General described as “offensive and prejudiced.”
Image credits: Paramount Pictures
#2 John Mayer
The Gravity singer used the n-word during a 2010 interview with Playboy.
The racist comment came after John said he was told he “had a hood pass.”
“By the way, it’s sort of a contradiction in terms because if you really had a hood pass, you could call it a n**ger pass,” he said.
When asked whether “Black women threw themselves” at him, John responded, "I don't think I open myself to it. My d**k is sort of like a White supremacist.”
John later apologized for using the derogatory term, writing, “Re: Using the ‘N word’ in an interview: I am sorry that I used the word. And it's a shame that I did because the point I was trying to make was the exact opposite spirit of the word itself.
“It was arrogant of me to think I could intellectualize using it because I realize there's no intellectualizing a word that is so emotionally charged.”
Image credits: John Mayer
#3 Madonna
The Queen of Pop took a dig at her then-husband Guy Ritchie during an October 2008 concert in Boston with an unfortunate term.
She told the crowd: "This song is for the emotionally retarded. Maybe you know some people who fall in that category. I know I do."
If that wasn’t controversial enough, Madonna also made fatphobic comments about her fans, saying: “They are the most unattractive social outcasts, like really overweight girls or guys with lots of acne that follow me around and pester me.”
But it doesn’t end there, as she also made racist remarks about Black men: “I’ve found that being a strong female is actually more frightening to the Black men that I’ve dated,” the singer told Spin Magazine in 1998.
She added: “So many Black men grow up without fathers, without strong male figures, without a sense of romance and seeing a man treat a woman with respect.”
Image credits: Madonna
#4 Kevin Hart
The actor and comedian tweeted in 2011 that if he ever saw his son playing with a doll house, he’d “break it over his head” and “say ‘Stop, that’s gay.’”
The previous year, Kevin made homophobic comments during a stand-up routine, explaining his reaction when he saw another boy "grinding" on his son at a birthday party.
The Jumanji actor then shared that he "knocked them both down," and when he was reprimanded, he said, "You show me another kid getting f**ed in the a**, and I'll calm down."
In 2015, Kevin said his remarks reflected his “own insecurities” as a parent. He also stated that he wouldn’t tell that joke now, but he did back then because “the times weren’t as sensitive.”
#5 Olivia Munn
In her 2010 book, Suck It, Wonder Woman!: The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek, the Iron Man 2 actress wrote that she would “fix America’s obesity problems by taking all motorized transport away from fat people.”
After she finished with that, she claimed she would “build an infrastructure of Fat Tunnels, where all the fat people can walk. This will create jobs and subsequent weight loss.”
Besides her fatphobic comments, Olivia revealed in a 2010 interview that she dated men so she could get away with making offensive jokes about them.
“I date the blacks, I date the Mexicans. I date ’em all for comedy,” she said.
Image credits: Olivia Munn
#6 Kelly Osbourne
The daughter of Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne—who was recently received backlash over remarks about Ozempic deemed “classist”—made some really offensive comments about Christina Aguilera during a feud the two stars had in 2003.
Kelly said that Christina was “one of the most disgusting human beings in the world” and that she had seen “drag queens who look better.”
A few years later, the British TV star referred to Christina as a “fat b**ch” during an episode of E!'s Fashion Police.
“She was a c**t to me … She called me fat for so many f***ing years, so you know what? F**k you! You're fat, too.”
In a column about body image she penned for Glamour magazine, Kelly wrote that she didn’t regret her harsh words: “I’m sorry, but I stand by that. I make a point on the show never to say anything about anybody that I wouldn’t say directly to their face.
“I’m famous, and she’s famous; it doesn’t mean I can’t stand up for myself.”
Image credits: TODAY with Hoda & Jenna
#7 Megan Fox
When asked whether she had any fears during a 2009 interview with Wonderland Magazine, Megan answered, “I do have a fear of ending up like Elizabeth Taylor in the sense that I will have been married 8 times and [be] this senile insane borderline personality schizoid when I’m 80, still drawing on my eyebrows.”
The Jennifer’s Body star also compared director Michael Bay to Hitler, saying Michael “wanted” to be like the German dictator on his sets.
In another interview, Megan said, "I would never date a girl who was bisexual because that means they also sleep with men, and men are so dirty that I'd never want to sleep with a girl who had slept with a man."
More recently, the 37-year-old actress stirred controversy after responding to people who said her appearance looked altered in a picture taken at a Super Bowl afterparty.
In her post, Megan said the “shadowy picture” made her look like a “Ukrainian blowup doll” when, in reality, she resembled “one of those super expensive silicone real sex dolls you can only get in Japan.”
Image credits: Megan Fox
#8 Blake Lively
In 2008, the Gossip Girl actress sat down with Cosmopolitan for an interview in which she said she “looked like a tranny.”
Discussing her insecurities, Blake said, "I don't have that whole Angelina Jolie air to me. I wish that I did, and that's an insecurity of mine. Some days, I wake up, and I'm like, 'Oh, I look good today!' And some days, I wake up and feel like I look like a tranny."
Image credits: Blake Lively
#9 Paris Hilton
The businesswoman kept a slew of personal items in a storage locker between moving houses. After failing to pay a $208 fee for the locker, its entire contents were sold to an unknown buyer, eventually reaching David Hans Schmitt and Bardia Persa.
In 2017, the men launched a site called parisexposed.com, sharing Paris’ personal information, including prescriptions, bank statements, and home videos.
One of the videos showed the star dancing with her younger sister, Nicky Hilton, to the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize.” The Hilton heir can be seen approaching the camera and saying: “We’re like two nig***s!”
Elsewhere in the clip, Paris describes another woman as a “f***g hoodlum broke, poor b**ch from, like, Compton. Public school b**ch” and repeatedly calls a male friend a “fa**t.”
The star’s publicist later released a statement saying, “I’m not going to make any attempt to spin this. It happened. I’m not going to deny it happened. Each of us has used words we have regretted later.” She then added that Paris was “20 at the time” and “had been obviously drinking.”
Image credits: Paris Hilton
#10 Gwyneth Paltrow
The Goop founder wrote a controversial tweet in 2012 in which she referenced Kanye West and Jay-Z’s popular hip-hop song, “Ni**as in Paris.”
“Ni**as in paris for real,” the actress tweeted after a performance of Kanye and Jay-Z’s hit from their Grammy-winning album, “Watch the Throne.”
Following backlash for her comment, Gwyneth defended herself by posting another message: “Hold up. It's the title of the song!”
Image credits: Gwyneth Paltrow
#11 Lindsay Lohan
Describing her experience on Election Day in 2008, Lindsay said about Barack Obama during an interview with Access Hollywood: “It was really exciting. It’s an amazing feeling. It’s our first colored president.”
Following her interview, a spokesman for the show released a statement expressing their disapproval of the actress’ comment, saying, "We believe the word in question that Ms. Lohan used was unintelligible."
Image credits: Paramount Pictures
#12 Chelsea Handler
After Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt separated, Chelsea tweeted, “Angelina Jolie has filed for divorce from Brad Pitt… he wants the China; she wants Pax and Maddox. #sorrycouldnthelpmyself,” a reference to Pax and Maddox, the couple’s children adopted from Vietnam and Cambodia, respectively.
The American comedian made further discriminatory remarks about Maddox in her book Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea, writing, “I rolled over and picked an Us Weekly magazine off the floor. The cover had a picture of Angelina, Brad, and their little Eskimo son, Maddox.
“Maddox must have thought he hit the jackpot when some A-list celebrity rescued him from third-world Cambodia, only to discover that she was going to shuffle him back and forth to every other third-world country in the universe.”
In 2014, Chelsea used Lupita Nyong'o’s Oscar win for 12 Years A Slave to promote her book about her trip to Africa, Uganda Be Kidding Me—with no apparent connection besides Lupita's African heritage. What’s more, Lupita’s origins are Kenyan, not Ugandan.
The stand-up comedian and actress reflected on her past behavior in 2021, sharing that she has “had an evolution.”
She told the New York Times: “I do want to be kinder and gentler. I want my jokes to not be reflective of a time in my life that I wasn’t aware of how they impact people.”
Image credits: Netflix
#13 Guy Ritchie
After Madonna called the English filmmaker “emotionally retarded,” Guy returned his ex-wife’s controversial comment after their divorce was finalized, saying: “She's retarded, too.”
Madonna filed for divorce in October 2008, citing irreconcilable differences with Guy. The American hitmaker and the film director share two sons: Rocco (born in 2000) and David (born in 2005).
Image credits: JRE Clips
#14 Emily Blunt
Last year, a clip resurfaced on social media of Emily making a fatphobic comment on the Jonathan Ross Show in 2012. The unfortunate remarks were made as the Oppenheimer actress described her experience dining at an American restaurant.
After Jonathan said that Americans were “enormous,” Emly replied, “Well, the girl who was serving me was enormous. I think she got freebie meals at Chili’s.”
More than ten years after the interview aired, the Golden Globe winner showed remorse over her words and apologized in a statement.
“I’m appalled that I would say something so insensitive, hurtful, and unrelated to whatever story I was trying to tell on a talk show,” the 40-year-old star said after people began pointing out that the server’s weight was irrelevant to her anecdote.
She added: “I’ve always considered myself someone who wouldn’t dream of upsetting anyone, so whatever possessed me to say anything like this in that moment is unrecognizable to me or anything I stand for.”
Image credits: 20th Century Fox
#15 Benedict Cumberbatch
When referring to the lack of diversity in the British film industry, Benedict told PBS’ Tavis Smiley: “I think as far as colored actors go, it gets really difficult in the UK, and I think a lot of my friends have had more opportunities here [in the U.S.] than in the UK, and that’s something that needs to change.”
The Oscar-nominated actor received backlash for his choice of words, as many social media users believed using “colored” to refer to Black artists was “out of touch.”
While Smiley, who is black, defended the “Sherlock” star, Benedict expressed regret about his words, saying he was an “idiot” and was “devastated” over his “outmoded terminology.”
Image credits: BBC One
#16 Tracy Morgan
In 2011, an attendee of one of Tracy’s stand-up shows publicly denounced the comedian’s homophobic comments made on stage.
In addition to allegedly commenting that homosexuality was “a choice” and anti-gay bullying was “insignificant,” the attendee accused Tracy of saying that if his son were gay, he would “pull out a knife and stab . . . [him] to death.”
The 30 Rock star didn’t confirm the attendee’s claims, but he issued an apology about his offensive comments: “I want to apologize to my fans and the gay and lesbian community for my choice of words at my recent stand-up act in Nashville.
“I’m not a hateful person and don’t condone any kind of violence against others. While I am an equal opportunity jokester, and my friends know what is in my heart, even in a comedy club, this clearly went too far and was not funny in any context."
The same year, the SNL alum made a lewd comment about American politician Sarah Palin, saying, “Let me tell you something about Sarah Palin. She’s good masturbation material."
Image credits: Tracy Morgan
