Adrees Latif/Reuters
Former President George H.W. Bush has apologized after the actress Heather Lind accused him of groping her several years ago during a TV promotion event. In a now-deleted Instagram post, Lind wrote that Bush “touched me from behind from his wheelchair with his wife Barbara Bush by his side. He told me a dirty joke. And then, all the while being photographed, touched me again.” The 2014 incident reportedly happened during an event for the AMC series Turn: Washington’s Spies. The 41st president’s spokesperson, Jim McGrath, said in a statement that “President Bush would never—under any circumstance—intentionally cause anyone distress, and he most sincerely apologizes if his attempt at humor offended Ms. Lind.” In a new statement issued later Wednesday, Bush’s office said the former president’s “arm falls on the lower waist of people with whom he takes pictures” because he is in a wheelchair. “To try to put people at ease, the president routinely tells the same joke—and on occasion, he has patted women’s rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner,” the statement reads, adding Bush “apologizes most sincerely” to “anyone he has offended.”