U.S. TV host apologizes for cleft palate insult

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This article was published 14/01/2020 (1710 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IT took a six-day campaign, but Winnipeg Blue Bombers player Adam Bighill has persuaded American TV host Wendy Williams to apologize for insulting people with cleft palates.

On Wednesday evening, Williams, via her Twitter page, which has 1.5 million followers, messaged Bighill to tell him “We’re thinking about Beau today as he is in surgery.”

“I want to apologize to the cleft community and in Beau’s honor, our show is donating to @operationsmile and @AmerCleftPalate and encourage our Wendy Watchers to learn more and help support the cleft community.”

Bighill, whose four-month-old son, Beau, had his first cleft palate surgery Wednesday, could not be reached for comment.

Earlier this week, the CFL linebacker, who was also born with the genetic condition, told the Free Press he launched the campaign after seeing Williams make fun of people like himself and his son.

“I was angry,” he said Monday. “It was saddening. It was frustrating. It was promoting bullying.

“Kids are already bullied every day for not looking like other people. I couldn’t let her just get away with it, because it’s not OK.”

During the Jan. 7 episode of the Wendy Williams Show, the host used her fingers to pull on one side of her upper lip, saying it’s what American actor Joaquin Phoenix has.

The syndicated, hour-long talk and celebrity gossip show is taped in New York and is aired on Fox 9 in Minneapolis — available in the Winnipeg market — at noon Monday to Friday.