Ariana Grande apologises following JonBenét Ramsey joke backlash: “I understand that it’s not at all funny”

The pop star has since deleted her original Instagram comment

Ariana Grande has issued an apology after facing criticism for making a joke about JonBenét Ramsey.

The pop star found herself in hot water over a comment she left on her friend Douglas Middlebrook’s Instagram post yesterday (July 29) about the six-year-old beauty queen who was mysteriously murdered in the ’90s. In the now-deleted post, Middlebrook shared a photo of Ramsey on a magazine cover along with a caption that read, “No one has done more covers”. 

“I can’t wait for this to be your Halloween look,” Grande commented, to which Middlebrook jokingly replied, “Working on it already”. Both Grande’s comment and the post have since been removed.

But some fans were quick enough to screenshot Grande’s remark, immediately calling the singer out on social media. “Wait WHAT?? An 8-year-old girl who was violently killed, strangled and suffocated cannot be anyone’s costume…” one Twitter user wrote. 

Grande later responded to the backlash and admitted to her mistake, claiming she understood that “it’s not at all funny”. “This was out of pocket and I sincerely apologise,” she wrote in a tweet. 

In another since-deleted apology, Grande thanked her fans for being “not afraid to call me out on my shit”. 

Last week, the singer took to social media to call out inappropriate photographers following sexual misconduct allegations against celebrity photographer Marcus Hyde. Grande, who had previously worked with Hyde, described the stories as “heartbreaking” and offered her sympathy to the victims.