Kathy Griffin thrives on comedy. But her 2017 photoshoot scandal was no laughing issue — nor was the fallout. In the wake of her inexplicable lung cancer prognosis and subsequent disclosures about dependancy and depression, we’re taking a appear back at her most terrifying ordeal as a celebrity.
Kathy Griffin stunned the nation with a grotesque picture
Kathy Griffin in no way designed any key of how she feels about previous president Donald Trump. And in 2017, months immediately after he took workplace, she made a robust but silent statement. She appeared in an impression, taken by celeb photographer Tyler Shields, holding a mask in the image of Donald Trump’s bloodied head.
The blood wasn’t true. It was ketchup. But the backlash was actual. And it was brutal. Conservative Twitter erupted in outrage, with all the things from insulting recriminations to whole-blown dying threats. Sector professionals both remaining and suitable distanced on their own from Griffin. The federal government acquired involved.
“My minor tale is historic,” Griffin advised CBS News in 2019. “Whether you like it or not, it is the to start with time a sitting down United States president has applied the comprehensive electrical power of the Oval Workplace, the 1st spouse and children, the suitable-wing media and, additional importantly, two departments inside the Department of Justice to open up an investigation on a non-public citizen who did nothing wrong. Didn’t violate the Initial Amendment, didn’t split the law.”
Griffin later spelled out that the photograph was her reaction to infamous reviews Trump created about then Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly.
An apology did not prevent loss of life threats
In the speedy aftermath, Griffin buckled down into disaster management method, issuing a swift online video apology. “I sincerely apologize,” Griffin stated. “I am just now seeing the response to these visuals. I’m a comedian. I crossed the line. I moved the line, then I crossed it. I went way much too significantly.”
But the apology did minor to quiet expanding conservative anger. Trump himself stoked the flames, tweeting that Griffin “should be ashamed of herself” and relentlessly insulting her in public boards. Trump has since been permanently banned from Twitter.
In accordance to her 2019 CBS Information job interview with reporter Luke Burbank, the My Lifestyle on the D-Listing star was horrified when the FBI informed her of an “imminent threat” soon after her identify was dropped by the “MAGA bomber” Cesar Sayoc.
Griffin also explained she carries on to get death threats, both “online and in particular person.”
“I was in London a thirty day period back and I had a driver who took myself and my assistant from London Heathrow to the resort, and he acknowledged me from the image and he claimed that he was from Morocco and that if we ended up in Morocco he would cut my tongue off,” she explained to Burbank.
Griffin stays defiant
Despite a most cancers analysis, a bout with severe depression, and a prescription tablet dependancy, all of which Griffin publicly disclosed in August of 2021, the comic remains unapologetic. She informed Burbank what she did about the driver who threatened her — “I identified as the president of the organization and had him fired!” — and retracted her original apology more than the Trump debacle.
“I am no for a longer time sorry. The complete outrage was B.S.,” Griffin mentioned a number of months later on on Australian Television set method Dawn. “The full thing obtained so blown out of proportion, and I dropped every person.”
She’s considering the fact that risen, however again, to satisfy her challenges and conquer them. Griffin mentioned on social media that she’s been clean and sober for a year next an overdose endeavor. She’s therapeutic after an inexplicable lung most cancers analysis and adhering to surgical procedures. And she not long ago declared a recurring part on Search Social gathering in season 5.
It appears that absolutely nothing can keep Kathy Griffin down.
Similar: Following Medical procedures For Lung Most cancers, Kathy Griffin Refuses Narcotic Painkillers
How to get support: In the U.S., get in touch with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Solutions Administration helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
