Kevin Hart reacts to ‘Ellen’ backlash in wake of homophobic tweets controversy

"You can’t change without an understanding of what growth means"

Kevin Hart has responded to backlash from his appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in which he addressed the topic of decade-old homophobic Tweets.

The comedian, who in December 2018 stepped down from hosting the Oscars following the controversy, sat down with DeGeneres yesterday (January 4) to open up about the Tweets that resurfaced online.

During the Ellen show, he opened up about the homophobic Tweets and claimed that he had already apologised for them. In the old Tweets he had referred to another Twitter user as a “fat f*g”, and in a separate Tweet said that he wouldn’t allow his son to play with a doll’s house because “that’s gay”.

DeGeneres also said on the show that she had called the Academy to ask them to reinstate Hart as the host.

Some people were unimpressed by Hart’s appearance on the Ellen show, including CNN news anchor Don Lemon who emphasised in a broadcast that “being an ally” of the LGBTQ community is more helpful than apologising for past slurs.

Hart has now responded to his Ellen appearance backlash in an Instagram post shared today (January 5), writing: “When did we get to the point where we forgot that we all learn, then we all have the ability to grow and with that growth comes a wealth of knowledge.

“You can’t change without a understanding of what GROWTH means. #Message #LiveLoveLaugh #HappySaturday.”

The caption accompanied an image with text that reads: “Basketball players aren’t great until they LEARN how to play the game correctly. Teachers are great teachers when they LEARN how to get thru to kids correctly.”

He ended the image’s text with: “A news anchor or a journalist does not start at the top…they have to LEARN and develop to be great at their job.”

CNN and Vulture report, after both claiming to have conducted extensive research, that Hart hasn’t said sorry for his past comments regardless of what he told the Ellen show.

These latest developments follow a report by People that Hart has submitted a letter of apology to the Academy with hopes that he will be reinstated.

“There has been a steady stream of buzz that things might work out between Kevin and the Academy,” a source told the outlet earlier this week.

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