After facing backlash for defending his wife's use of the "N-word" and admitting using racial slurs with friends, "9-1-1" actor Ryan Guzman has apologised, saying he has misrepresented himself.
It all started when Guzman's followers found old tweets posted by his wife Chrysti Ane in which she admitted to using the N-word. While Ane apologised for those posts, Guzman defended the use through an Instagram live video, reports variety.com.
"I have plenty of friends -- Black, white, Asian, Indian, whatever they are, Korean -- and we make fun of each other's races all the time," Guzman said in the video.
"We call each other slurs all the time. We don't get b*tt-hurt at all because we know the actual person, we know who each other are. We know that we're not trying to bring each other down. So, what are y'all trying to get at? You're trying to prove that somebody that's not racist is racist? Nah. You don't have that power. There is no racist energy coming from this household at all," he added.
Following the video, Guzman faced backlash from his co-stars and social media users.
Guzman then apologised for his previous video with a new video, posted on Instagram.
"People that are coming up to me, keep that same energy for Cardi B, Tekashi 6ix9ine, Fat Joe, all them Latinos have been using for years upon years and getting passes," Guzman said.
"I apologise to those that I offended and misrepresented myself by using the wrong term. I stand by my try, fail, learn, grow state of mind. And I will continue to grow, continue to help out the community….Let's help out our black brothers and sisters going through this horrible difficult time," he added.
Reacting to Guzman's statement defending the use of racial slurs, his co-star Oliver Stark asserted that "there is absolutely no excuse for the use of the N-word".
"I know a lot of you want to hear my thoughts on what a cast member said today on IG live. I can tell you that my opinion is there is absolutely no excuse for the use of the N-word. It belongs to the Black community only and I absolutely don't agree with it being used by anyone else under any circumstances," Stark wrote on Twitter.
Following that, another of Guzman's co-stars, Aisha Hinds, also condemned his response.
She tweeted: "How I FEEL daily is a perpetual state of GRIEF. There's sadly no version of this indefensible discourse that doesn't exacerbate that grief. There's legions of learned behaviours that need to be named and neutered so we don't continue to give life to them. May we know & DO BETTER."