Lara Spencer, the Good Morning America host currently under fire for comments she made about Prince George and his ballet classes, has offered an apology on her Instagram page.
On Friday’s show, Spencer was talking about Prince George’s return to school and was listing the extracurricular activities he undertakes. When she got to ballet on the list, she paused before laughing, along with the studio audience.
Photos that Prince George’s mother, the Duchess of Cambridge, released ahead of his sixth birthday last month flashed up on the screen while Spencer continued, “He looks so happy about the ballet class. Prince William says George absolutely loves ballet. I have news for you Prince William: we’ll see how long that lasts.”
The backlash to Spencer’s comments was quick, with male dancers and other dance professionals, and regular people who enrol their sons in dance, taking to social media to comment on her remarks.
“Bullying and mockery is NOT okay,” Calvin Royal III, a dancer with the American Ballet Theater posted on his Instagram. “I know that laughter and judgement will always lurk in the shadows no matter if you want to become a ballet dancer, or take a dance class, or see a performance, or do something outside the ‘norm.’”
Spencer’s comments also saw the creation of a hashtag in support of Prince George and other boys who do ballet: #ballet4boys.
Spencer posted an apology on her Instagram profile later Friday, with the following caption accompanying a photo of a mountain and flower fields:
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“My sincere apologies for an insensitive comment I made in pop news yesterday. From ballet to anything one wants to explore in life, I say GO FOR IT. I fully believe we should all be free to pursue our passions. Go climb your mountain – and love every minute of it.”
Comments were disabled under the post, but it has received over 15,000 likes as of Friday night.
Prince George returns for his third year at Thomas’s Battersea on 5 September. Kensington Palace announced earlier in the year that Princess Charlotte, who begins school this year, will be attending alongside her brother.
Maud Windsor, the daughter of Lord and Lady Frederick Windsor, also attends Thomas’s Battersea and is in the same year as Prince George.
