Reality television star Jennie Nguyen spoke out for the first time since being fired from the “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” show over her resurfaced posts decrying Black Lives Matter protests and supporting the police.
Nguyen was accused of being racist by her detractors who recirculated the posts from a time in 2020 when some BLM protests were turning violent. The Bravo cable network fired her on Tuesday and promised to improve their “processes” to “make better informed and more thoughtful casting decisions.”
On Wednesday Nguyen, who is Vietnamese-American, responded to the furor.
“I just want you to understand my point of view and where I come from, and what’s going on during that time,” said Nguyen on Instagram Live in a conversation with her friend Michael.
“I mean it’s an old post on my account, it’s in 2020. I just want you to understand, during that time I had a team of people that were helping me. Whether they post it, I post it, it doesn’t really matter at this point. For me, it’s on my account, and I take full responsibility and accountability for what was posted,” she explained.
Nguyen went on to characterize the posts as “inappropriate” to the point that they were “disgusting.” But she defended her political point of view.
“I want you to understand that my political stance, I still support that. I am very proud to be a Republican. I am proud to be able to say I have the freedom of speech to choose and to have an opinion,” she continued.
“I respect your opinion, I respect your political stance,” she added. “We are different. But we need to respect each other and we need to understand that we live in this country, where we have the freedom to speak our mind, as well as we have a freedom to choose.”
Nguyen had previously apologized for the posts and said that she had deleted the account where they appeared.
“I do support my law enforcement,” Nguyen concluded. “But that doesn’t make me racist. To support my political stance, that does not make me a racist. And I want you to understand that.”
Here’s a video about the controversy:
Bravo FIRES “RHOSLC” Star Jennie Nguyen Over Offensive Posts | E! News
www.youtube.com