Over the weekend, Jennifer Aniston found herself subject to criticism when a viral screenshot revealed that her official Instagram account had liked a cryptic post from her Horrible Bosses co-star Jamie Foxx, which many saw as being antisemitic.
Since April 2023, Foxx, 55, has been healing from an undisclosed medical emergency that resulted in hospitalization. Last week, the Oscar winner shared a post regarding Jesus being killed, tagged with #fakefriends and #fakelove, which was later deleted.
Both Foxx and Aniston (who didn’t reveal how her account ‘liked’ the post) have now issued statements explaining that they did not intend to cause offense to the Jewish community.
Jennifer Aniston Linked To Controversial Post From Jamie Foxx On Instagram
A Wider Frame, a Jewish news organization, was critical of Foxx's post, which read: "They killed this dude name Jesus...What do you think they'll do to you?"
They viewed the message as "horrifically antisemitic," and brought attention to how the accusation of Jewish deicide (the belief that Jews killed Jesus) has spurred antisemitism over the centuries.
The Django Unchained actor (real name Eric Marlon Bishop) deleted his post soon after. He expressed his "deepest apologies" for any pain he may have inflicted and clarified that the post was directed towards a "fake friend" who had betrayed him.
A Wider Frame also shared a screenshot, which seemed to show that either Aniston herself or somebody using her Instagram account had 'liked' Foxx's original post.
Aniston then shared this very screenshot to her own Instagram Story, and wrote: "This really makes me sick. I did not ‘like’ this post on purpose or by accident."
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The Friends alum went on: "And more importantly, I want to be clear to my friends and anyone hurt by this showing up in their feed — I do NOT support any type of antisemitism. And I truly don’t tolerate HATE of any kind. Period." Aniston then disabled comments on all of her Instagram posts.
In Foxx's statement addressed to the Jewish community, the Back in Action star wrote: "I want to apologize to the Jewish community and everyone who was offended by my post. I now know my choice of words have caused offense and I’m sorry."
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Foxx continued, in a message shared to his social media accounts: "I only have love in my heart for everyone. I love and support the Jewish community."
Many fans of Foxx (who have previously expressed their "worries" for his health after his recent medical emergency) rallied to his defense on social media.
One wrote that "it was obvious he was referring to the act of betrayal by people you know and trust."
Others deemed the whole situation to be a "misunderstanding," but also an "important lesson for us all to use our words wisely," as another commented.
