Lewis Hamilton has apologised for chiding his nephew for wearing a princess dress in a 2017 video.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, the F1 superstar opened up about the “ignorant moment” when he informed his nephew that “boys don’t wear princess dresses” in a video posted on Christmas Day, five years ago.
In the video, Hamilton, 37, asked the boy whether he got the purple-and-pink dress as a Christmas gift, before adding: “Why did you ask for a princess dress for Christmas?”
“Because it’s pretty,” Hamilton’s nephew replied enthusiastically, waving a pink wand.
“Boys don’t wear princess dresses!” Hamilton replied.
His comments were widely criticised at the time, with performance artist Travis Alabanza tweeting they hoped Hamilton “apologises to his nephew for that video”.
In conversation with Vanity Fair, Hamilton has reflected on the since-deleted video, admitting that it was “so stupid”.
He continued: “I realised that a lot of my upbringing was coming out. I went with just an ignorant moment. And I straightaway realised that that’s not actually how I feel deep inside.”
“I’m just not the kind of person that wants to ever hurt anybody,” he told the publication, adding, “And the idea that I could have hurt somebody through a stupid post or just from something I said, again through ignorance, just reminded me of how I had felt from the experiences that I had had.
He also said he had publicly apologised for his comments, adding that he privately began to educate himself.
Following the backlash to his statements, Hamilton offered his “deepest apologies” for the video in a statement on Twitter, adding that “it is really not acceptable for anyone...to marginalise or stereotype anyone”.
The race car driver has since posed in a kilt for British Vogue to “make amends” for his comments.
The magazine’s Instagram caption read: “At Vogue House we think of the cover as a powerful act of personal conviction, which acknowledges Hamilton’s increasingly brave fashion sense, while offering a very public apology, a multicoloured tartan mea culpa.”
Hamilton also bought his nephew a brand new Rapunzel princess dress during their 2018 visit to Disneyland Paris.
