Its been over a month since Giuliana Rancic landed herself in hot water after commenting on actress Zendaya Coleman’s faux locs. Though Giuliana simply regurgitated a joke fed to her by a “Fashion Police” writer, many felt that she should have had enough sense not to repeat the joke. And as we’ve learned, her decision to do so came with lasting effects. In addition to the backlash, Rancic says that she also received death threats.
“I started very quickly getting death threats,” Rancic told People. “People were sending me pictures of the barrel of a gun saying, ‘I’m going to kill your family.’ It was awful.”
The television personality went on to say that she was surprised by Zendaya’s response to the joke.
“I read her statement and I was shocked,” she said. “I made [the joke] as a reference to the hippie culture. It was a bohemian-chic reference, not about race, nor would it ever be. It was horrifying to have my name in a headline with words I have never been associated with in my life.”
“On set, I made peace signs and I said boho twice,” Rancic said. “It was edited. And my words were taken out of context. If I thought this joke could be interpreted another way, I never would have done it. I felt horrible.”
The E! News anchor continued:
“There were about 50 sets of eyeballs on set that day,” she says. “And not one person thought that it had the undertones that it ended up having once it aired because they heard it in context.”
Giuliana concluded by saying that she has learned her lesson and hopes to move on.
“It was a very unfortunate incident,” she said. “I’m so regretful that people interpreted the joke [as they did]. I hurt people and I feel terrible about that. And I learned a really important lesson that if people are offended, it doesn’t matter the intent.”
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