ROYAL ROW

‘Bridgerton’ Star’s ‘Terribly White’ Coronation Comment Receives Record Complaints

The actress said she hadn’t intended to “upset anybody.”

A comment made by Bridgerton actress Adjoa Andoh about the lack of diversity on display on the balcony of Buckingham Palace following King Charles III’s coronation over the weekend has become the most complained about broadcast moment in the U.K. this year. The British media regulator Ofcom received 4,165 complaints about the remark Andoh made during U.K. TV coverage of the royal occasion. “There is a bit of me that thinks we have gone from the rich diversity of the abbey to a terribly white balcony,” she said, contrasting the diverse crowd seen in Westminster Abbey with the makeup of the royals seen on the balcony. “I am very struck by that,” Andoh, who plays Lady Danbury on Bridgerton, added. “I am also looking at those younger generations and thinking, ‘What are the nuances that they will inhabit when they grow?’” The day after the coronation, Andoh said in a BBC radio interview that she had “upset a few people yesterday.” “I was talking about the day and how marvelous it was. Then looking at the balcony at the end I suddenly went, ‘Oh, it’s so white’—because the day had been so, so mixed. I didn’t mean to upset anybody.”