Greg Rutherford’s wife has apologised after racist 2013 tweets resurfaced in which she claimed ‘black people aren’t as good on X-Factor’.
Susie Verrill, 31, the wife of the retired British track and field athlete, 33, took to her Instagram highlights to apologise for ‘adding to the social acceptance of minorities being marginalised’ and admitted ‘it’s not okay’.
Explaining that she had taken a break from Instagram after a week which had left her ‘mortified’ and had been a ‘huge learning curve’, Susie, from Milton Keynes, vowed to use social media as a ‘positive platform going forward’.
However not everyone was convinced, with some claiming on discussion room Tattle, that she had used her children as a ‘get-out’ in the apology, after she revealed they had been threatened by trolls.
Greg Rutherford’s wife has apologised after racist 2013 tweets resurfaced in which she claimed ‘black people aren’t as good on X-Factor’
One of Susie’s tweets from 2013 read: ‘Dermot just made a skiing reference to a black man , good luck with that’.
Another said: ‘I feel producers push for black people to be on it and they obviously aren’t as good. So obvious this year’.
Elsewhere one reads: A man is reading tarot cards out to two women in a thick Indian accent. I now know why Van Gogh decided to lop an ear off’.
In the apology video, Susie says: ‘This week has been a huge learning curve, context is not important. Whether or not I made comments six or seven years ago which were meant in jest or steeped in sarcasm, were not as controversial as they are now, does not matter.
‘What I did was that I added to the social acceptance of minorities being stereotyped and marginalised, and that’s not okay – and I understand that.
‘While I feel astronomically mortified by the past week, I don’t think that absolves me of my responsibilities going forward.
‘The behaviour I have shown over the past three years does show that I’m moving forward and I’m trying to better myself, and the people that know me know that.
Susie Verrill, 31, the wife of the retired British track and field athlete, 33, took to her Instagram highlights to apologise for ‘adding to the social acceptance of minorities being marginalised’ and admitted ‘it’s not okay’
One 2013 tweet read: ‘Dermot just made a skiing reference to a black man , good luck with that’
‘I left Instagram temporarily because I’d handled it really badly and I was desperate to undo anything I’d done, to explain myself, to unhurt anyone I had hurt – and actually I just ended up hurting people more.
‘I also left because of many threats to my children’s lives, I left because pictures started circulating of where I walk my dogs, and my house. I also left due to many requests to harm myself or kill myself.
‘I’m here today to say that I want to move forward as I feel I have been doing for the last few years. How I was back then was performative, how am I now is me and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.
‘I’m going to be keeping my account private and I’m going to be taking a look at how I use Instagram – I want to be as part of the good side of Instagram.
‘I’m not here to change anyone’s opinion of me or start any arguments – I will be here quietly in the background.
‘At the moment it’s a critical junction in our society and I genuinely only want to be part of that and push forward.’
Explaining that she had taken a break from Instagram after a week which had left her ‘mortified’ and had been a ‘huge learning curve’, Susie, from Milton Keynes, vowed to use social media as a ‘positive platform going forward’
Another said: ‘I feel producers push for black people to be on it and they obviously aren’t as good. So obvious this year’
Elsewhere one reads: A man is reading tarot cards out to two women in a thick Indian accent. I now know why Van Gogh decided to lop an ear off’
Responding to the apology, one user wrote on Tattle: ‘Susie should probably have done some Twitter housekeeping before she thought to enter the BLM discussion.’
Another added: ‘It’s such a cop-out for them both to centre the BLM discussions around their children – it’s the perfect way to virtue signal without actually acknowledging their own white privilege or unconscious bias’.
Elsewhere one wrote: Like “oh don’t worry about us, we’re so woke that we don’t need to examine our own white privilege or give additional thought to how we can help to dismantle the racist structures of society… but THANK GOD our kids have us to help them not be racists!’.
One wrote: ‘Oh dear. No doubt she’ll say it was a long time ago, she was young and she’s since learned a lot about how not to be racist and isn’t that giant bigot anymore. Like they all do’.
Meanwhile another follower wrote: ‘I couldn’t remember why she’d previously enraged me on Twitter but now I recall… calling picking on ginger people ‘racism’. Yeah because being called ginger nut at school is exactly the same as being killed through police brutality’.
Former writer Susie, who boasts over 120,000 followers on her now-private Instagram, shares sons Milo Andrew William James Nugget, six, and Rex Gregory Mowgli, two with award-winning athlete Greg, who was awarded an MBE for services to athletics in 2013.
However not everyone was convinced, with some claiming on discussion room Tattle , that she had used her children as a ‘get-out’ in the apology, after she revealed they had been threatened by trolls
Responding to the apology, one user wrote on Tattle: ‘Susie should probably have done some Twitter housekeeping before she thought to enter the BLM discussion.’