The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Taylor Armstrong is the latest reality star to face backlash for her comments about Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show.
Armstrong backtracked after her embarrassing take on the show, in which she’d confused Puerto Rico’s flag for Cuba’s. Fans in her comments called the post “disappointing.”
The reality star complained in an Instagram Stories post on Sunday, “Were you entertained?? I am embarrassed for the @NFL and Apple for the Super Bowl halftime show totally in Spanish with a Cuban flag.”
In her newest Stories post addressing the comments, Armstrong said, “My intention was never to offend anyone’s culture or language.”
“I want to address my earlier Instagram post about the Super Bowl halftime show. My post did not fully reflect my heart or my respect for the artist and culture as a whole,” she wrote in her extensive apology post. “The Super Bowl is such a huge American tradition, and while I personally didn’t connect with the creative direction of this year’s halftime show, that doesn’t take away from the fact that Bad Bunny IS an American and that the Spanish language is a prominent aspect of American culture.”
Armstrong’s mea culpa follows that of another former Real Housewives star, Jill Zarin, who was fired from E!’s The Golden Life after complaining on Instagram that the halftime show had “literally no white people” in it. (Lady Gaga also performed during the show.)
Armstrong starred in The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills from 2010 to 2013, before becoming the first Real Housewives star to switch cities and join The Real Housewives of Orange County for one season in 2023.
She has since leveraged her viral “Woman Yelling At Cat” meme to launch a crypto meme coin. On Sunday, she pasted her face from the meme over Russel Crowe’s in a snap from The Gladiator to emphasize her complaint about Bad Bunny rapping in Spanish.
The Puerto Rican reggaeton star’s halftime show became one of the most-watched in NFL history with 128.2 million live viewers—just shy of the record 133.5 million who watched Kendrick Lamar last year. Bad Bunny, who has always rapped mostly in Spanish, used the platform to highlight Hispanic heritage worldwide, performing against a backdrop reading, “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
Armstrong wrote in her apology on Wednesday evening, “Evidently, my lack of awareness of the Latin culture led me to mistaken the flag as Cuban. I sincerely apologize and plan to learn from this in the future. America is special because people from every culture and background can come here, share their talent, and make their dreams come true. That diversity is something I truly respect.”
She added, “I’m deeply sorry to those who I have hurt. I should have taken more time to reflect on my thoughts instead of impulsively posting misinformation in the moment. I apologize to the Latin community and anyone else I may have offended.”
