Lily Allen has admitted she was ’embarrassed’ after her interview in the Calais Jungle during which she apologised ‘on behalf of Britain’.
The singer faced widespread criticism and found herself at the centre of a social media storm after making the ill-advised remarks during an interview with a teenager in the camp in 2016.
In her memoir My Thoughts Exactly, Allen said her words ‘came out badly’ and she was left feeling ‘foolish’ in the wake of the backlash.
Lily Allen ‘apologised on behalf of my country’ during the BBC interview in 2016
The singer became emotional while meeting with a 13-year-old boy from Afghanistan, who had been camped at the Jungle on the edge of the northern French port city for two months
Describing the aftermath of the interview and subsequent social media reaction, the singer wrote: ‘It was a clumsy thing to say’
The singer became emotional while meeting with a 13-year-old boy from Afghanistan, who had been camped at the Jungle on the edge of the northern French port city for two months and risked his life trying to board UK-bound lorries.
In an interview aired on BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme, Allen told him: ‘It just seems that at three different intervals in this young boy’s life, the English in particular have put you in danger.
‘We’ve bombed your country, put you in the hands of the Taliban and now put you in danger of risking your life to get into our country.
‘I apologise on behalf of my country. I’m sorry for what we have put you through.’
Her comments led to her receiving abuse online – with viewers claiming her ‘crocodile tears’ and apology were ‘ridiculous’.
Describing the aftermath of the interview and subsequent social media reaction, the singer wrote: ‘It was a clumsy thing to say. I wanted to say, ‘I’m sorry,’ and I wanted to acknowledge that I was part of the problem, and that we are all part of the problem if we don’t do more to help.’
The youngster (pictured) had risked his life trying to board UK-bound lorries
The backlash saw her criticised as ‘pampered, coiffured and irrelevant’ and urged to ‘speak for herself, not the nation – she represents nobody’
Allen took to Twitter after the interview aired to defend her words amid the barrage of abuse
Allen added: ‘The words came out badly, and for that I felt foolish. I was embarrassed about putting it like that.
‘I can be a moron. But my intentions were straightforward and without any agenda. I just wanted to help, in whatever tiny way I could.’
On Allen’s 2016 visit, she volunteered in a warehouse where donations come in which are then distributed to the estimated 10,000 migrants and refugees living at the camp.
She said she frequently ‘sits next to millionaires at dinner’, and that she would like to be able to ask them to ‘put their hands in their pocket’.
The backlash saw her criticised as ‘pampered, coiffured and irrelevant’ and urged to ‘speak for herself, not the nation – she represents nobody’.
But others supported her public stance on the issue, praising her ‘compassion’.