A writer for ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ has received backlash after a tweet she wrote following the death of former first lady Barbara Bush.
Jen Spyra wrote on Twitter: ‘RIP Barbara Bush, the only woman who was 92 for 30 years.’
But this response quickly garnered a negative reaction for the public after the writer used the death to joke about the former First Lady’s appearance.
Bush, who died on Tuesday, went gray starting in the 1950s at the age of 28 while her three-year-old daughter, Pauline, underwent treatment for leukemia.
Pauline, also known as Robin by her family, died less than a year after her diagnosis.
One critic of the tweet said: The lady went gray after her 3 year old daughter died from cancer and apparently that’s a hilarious, especially on the day she died? This is mortifying.’
Jen Spyra is a writer for ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’. She received backlash after she made a joke after the late Barbara Bush’s appearance
Some social media users said Spyra was being ‘insensitive’ to the death and she was ‘body shaming’ the former first lady. Pictured is Bush in 1998
Some people thought the writer was unjustly making fun of Bush’s gray hair. Her hair started changing colors in her 20s while she dealt with her three-year-old daughter’s leukemia diagnosis. Her daughter died less than a year after she was diagnosed
Bush was open about her appearance after she experienced criticism from the public about not dyeing her hair.
During an interview with the New York Times in 1988, Bush admitted the scrutiny bothered her, but she had to learn to accept the graying hair.
‘People who worry about their hair all the time, frankly, are boring. I wash my hair every day of my life and probably washed all the color out,’ she said at the time.
‘But I can exercise, play tennis. I don’t ever have to say to George, “I’m sorry I can’t do that, I just got my hair done.’’ You have to have priorities in life, and that’s just one I have. What you see is what you get.’
She accepted her style later on and the signature white locks helped her garner the nickname ‘Everybody’s Grandma’.
Social media users were unhappy with Spyra’s reaction to the news of Bush’s death because she made the joke only a few hours after the news broke on Tuesday evening.
Bush died at the age of 92 due to complications with her congestive heart disease and COPD. She was nicknamed ‘everybody’s grandma’ because of her white hair
Her hair started to go gray in her 20s after dealing with her daughter’s cancer diagnosis and death. Pictured is the former first day with George Bush in 1966
One social media user found the tweet to be ‘incredibly insensitive.’ Spyra posted it on a few hours after it was announced that Bush had passed away
Another user said they thought the left didn’t ‘body shame’. Bush’s hair reportedly went gray early on while she was dealing with her daughter’s leukemia diagnosis
One user said: ‘That is incredibly insensitive and rude.’
Another person said: ‘Wow I thought leftists didn’t body shame?’
But another comedy writer, Jake Weisman who co-writes Comedy Central’s series ‘Corporate’, responded to the joke by saying ‘awesome’.
Spyra is not the first person to come under fire for their response to the former first lady’s death.
An English professor from California State University in Fresno is under investigation after she called Bush a racist.
Comedy Central writer Jake Weisman supported Spyra and her controversial tweet. He responded ‘awesome’ after the tweet
‘Barbara Bush was a generous and smart and amazing racist who, along with her husband, raised a war criminal,’ Randa Jarrar wrote on Twitter.
Jarrar was scheduled to appear at an event titled LitHop this weekend, but the event’s organizers and Fresno City College said she told them she will not participate.
Bush died on Tuesday after going home from the hospital on Sunday when she decided not to seek additional medical treatment.
She suffered from complications to congestive heart disease and COPD.
Before her death, she and husband George Bush celebrated 73 years of marriage in January making them the longest-married couple in presidential history.