Ariana Grande has defended herself after a video of her licking a donut and saying “I hate America” went viral.
The singer and actor said in a statement to Buzzfeed she should have known better, but seemed to imply that she had been making a point about healthy eating.
“I sometimes get upset by how freely we as Americans eat and consume things without giving any thought to the consequences that it has on our health and society as a whole,” Grande wrote.
She added: “The fact that the United States has the highest child obesity rate in the world frustrates me. We need to do more to educate ourselves and our children about the dangers of overeating and the poison that we put into our bodies. We need to demand more from our food industry.”
In the video, posted by TMZ on Tuesday, Grande and her backup dancer Ricky Alvarez are in a donut shop.
She appears to surreptitiously lick two donuts that are on display, before saying: “I hate Americans. I hate America.”
Grande, who was born in Boca Raton, Florida, wrote that she was “EXTREMELY proud to be an American” and that what she said was taken out of context. But she apologized for her choice of words and said that she “will strive to be better”.
Some Twitter users were not entirely convinced by her statement.
If you are seriously concerned about obesity, what were you doing in a donut shop in the first place @ArianaGrande? pic.twitter.com/DxhOJpzs6Z
— j (@wildtoxins) July 8, 2015
The day after the video was released, MLB Communications tweeted that Grande withdrew as the headliner for the MLB All-Star concert because of “health issues”. She will be replaced by Demi Lovato. In her statement Grande wrote that she had “emergency oral surgery”.
Prior to this, on Monday evening, the star had tweeted “peace out”, explaining that she had three wisdom teeth removed.
peace out, final three wisdom teeth. been real. (i feel like ass)
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) July 7, 2015
The concert will take place without Grande on Saturday at Paul Brown stadium at 8pm ET.
