Michelle apologises for mimicking Asians

Her gestures on a satirical TV program drew protests on social media

MILAN: Swiss-Italian television host Michelle Hunziker expressed regret for mimicking Asians on a satirical TV program after her actions drew protests on social media.

“I am truly sorry and I apologise if I hurt anybody,’’ Michelle Hunziker said in English in a video posted on ‘Instagram’.

She added, “I realise we are in a time when people are sensitive about their rights and I have been so naive not to take that into consideration.”

“I am the furthest thing from racist,” she mentioned.

Hunziker and co-host Gerry Scotti made slantedeye gestures and mimicked an Asian accent on the TV show ‘Striscia la Notizia’ (The News Crawls) aired by the private Italian network ‘Mediaset’.

In her ‘Instagram’ post, Hunziker acknowledged the US-based content producers

Hunziker and cohost Gerry Scotti made slantedeye gestures and mimicked an

Asian accent on the TV show ‘ Striscia la Notizia’

behind the fashion watchdog account ‘Diet Prada’, who along with bloggers living in Italy had called out the gestures as racist.

Another round of protests targeted Hunziker and Scotti for laughing at a skit on their show that used racist language to describe

African children.