Joshua Jackson opened up about the toxic reaction his wife Jodie Turner-Smith received when he revealed last month that she had proposed to him.
The Affair star, 43, said he was shocked by the racist words left for the model-actress, 34, calling it ‘a real education for [him] as a white man, truly.
‘The way people get in her comments and the ignorance and ugliness that comes her way is truly shocking,’ he said. ‘And it has been a necessary, but an unpleasant education in just the way people relate to Black bodies in general, but Black female bodies in specific. It is not okay. We have a long way to go.’
The latest: Joshua Jackson, 43, opened up about the toxic reaction his wife Jodie Turner-Smith, 34, received when he revealed last month that she had proposed to him
The Fringe star, appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last month, said that Turner-Smith had popped the question to him two amid a vacation two months after they first crossed paths in late 2018.
‘She asked me on New Year’s Eve,’ he said on the NBC show. ‘We were in Nicaragua – it was very beautiful, incredibly romantic, we were walking down the beach, and she asked me to marry her.
‘There was a lead-up to it. I did not know, but she was quite adamant, and she was right. This is the best choice I ever made.’
The Vancouver native, who broke out on the 90s hit Dawson’s Creek, opened up Tuesday to Refinery29 of how he didn’t give proper context to the proposal story, and the reaction it received.
Backstory: The Fringe star appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last month, said that Turner-Smith had popped the question to him two amid a vacation two months after they first crossed paths in late 2018
Jackson said, ‘The way people get in her comments and the ignorance and ugliness that comes her way is truly shocking’
Loving: Actress Jodie posted this couple shot of the pair to her Instagram on Wednesday
‘So I accidentally threw my wife under the bus because that story was told quickly and it didn’t give the full context and holy Jesus, the internet is racist and misogynist,’ Jackson said. ‘So yes, we were in Nicaragua on a beautiful moonlit night, it could not possibly have been more romantic.
‘And yes, my wife did propose to me and yes, I did say yes, but what I didn’t say in that interview was there was a caveat, which is that I’m still old school enough that I said, “This is a yes, but you have to give me the opportunity” to propose as well.
The Dr. Death actor said that he told Turner-Smith he also wanted to ask her biological father and stepdad for their blessing for her hand in marriage.
‘And then, “I would like the opportunity to re-propose those to you and do it the old fashioned way down on bended knee” … so, that’s actually how the story ended up,’ he told the publication, clarifying that there were ‘two proposals.’
Casual: The couple was snapped in Los Angeles in August of 2019
Jackson, who was previously in a relationship with actress Diane Kruger from 2006 until 2016, didn’t mince words with those who had critical words for his spouse on social media in the wake of the reveal.
‘For anybody who is freaked out by a woman claiming her own space, shut the f*** up,’ he said. ‘Good God, you cannot believe the things people were leaving my wife on Instagram. She did it. I said “Yes.” We’re happy. That’s it. That’s all you need to know.’
Jackson credited Turner-Smith – who he wed in 2019 and welcomed a daughter with in April of 2020 – for her resilience ‘with such amazing strength and grace, above the ugliness that people throw at her on a day to day’ basis.
‘I am impressed with her that she does it,’ he said, ‘but I would wish that that would not be the armor that she has to put on every morning to just navigate being alive.’