Geordie Shore star Dee Nguyen has issued a public apology after mocking a disabled man in a TikTok video.
The 29-year-old reality TV star shared a clip of herself casually swiping through dating app Hinge.
When she saw a potential date had asked her to ‘go dancing’ she smirked as she showed her followers a photo of a man in a wheelchair.
The man in question was Australian artist and podcaster Kyle Montgomery, who reposted the video on his Instagram account. His bio states he has been quadriplegic since March 2019.
Calling Dee out for her offensive post, Kyle wrote: “This person made an able-ist joke about me.”
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Giving his reasons for re-sharing it, he said: “This isn't about retaliation, This is about harmful casual ableism. Disabled people are just people. Please help me spread awareness so others don't get shamed like me.”
Ableism is discriminatory or prejudicial behaviour towards less able bodied people.
After receiving backlash from Kyle’s post, Dee returned to TikTok to make a grovelling apology.
She said: “So a few weeks ago I made that stupid TikTok video.
"When I came across Kyle’s profile, he responded to one of my prompts saying that he wanted to go dance with me.
“I scroll down. I saw that he was in a wheelchair – there’s nothing wrong with that, by the way. I scroll down further and I listen to one of his voice prompts that said, ‘If you’re not a fan of f***ed up, dark humour, then we probably won’t get along.”
She continued: “Obviously I thought that was punny [a funny pun] and I didn’t mean to post that video in a way that was mocking him. So when he reached out saying he was thoroughly upset, I personally DM'd him and said I was sorry.”
Sharing a screenshot of the message she sent to Kyle, Dee said she was “extremely apologetic” for the situation.
Apologising for her actions, she said: “I didn't realise the impact of my video and the extent of hurt that Kyle felt. I was genuinely remorseful for it. I don't like hurting people purposely and it wasn't my intention to hurt him.”
Dee revealed Kyle replied saying he was “extremely upset” by her lack of self-awareness - and only found out about the video after a friend sent it to him.
She added: “Genuinely from the bottom of my heart I am sorry, Kyle. I'm sorry to the whole disabled community for any hurt or upset that you've felt by my video.
“I'm still learning as a human - obviously I have a lot of learning to do. I hope that you can forgive me, and I hope that we can meet up for coffee or even have a Zoom chat, so I can be more understanding and learn more about you and your struggles and what the community goes through.”
It is not the first time Dee’s comments have landed her in hot water.
Back in 2020 she was axed from MTV show The Challenge over things she said about the Black Lives Matter movement.
“IDK why some of you think I’m anti-BLM. I’ve been saying that since the day I lost my virginity,” she said in a since-deleted tweet.
She also came under fire for posting snaps of herself over social media when she had pledged to participate in Blackout Tuesday.
In a statement, MTV said: “As a result of Dee Nguyen's offensive comments on the Black Lives Matter movement, we have severed ties with her.”
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