Jimmy Kimmel Apologizes To Melania Trump For ‘Harmless, Silly’ Joke About Melania’s Foreign Accent

Jimmy Kimmel has addressed the fallout from his verbal fight with Sean Hannity after Kimmel joked about First Lady Melania Trump’s accent. As reported by the Inquisitr, Kimmel quipped about the way Melania pronounced the words “this and that” when reading to children at the White House at an Easter Egg Roll.

The above video of the incident, titled “Surprise Visitor at Donald & Melania Trump’s Easter Egg Roll,” has swelled to nearly 250,000 views and has caused a bunch of backlash after Hannity claimed that he would leave Kimmel alone until he apologized to Melania. As seen in his below tweet published on Sunday, April 8, Kimmel explained his reasoning for issuing an apology to Melania, along with words for Hannity, whom Kimmel tagged in the tweet.

Jimmy issued a mea culpa for inciting hatefulness, reports People, when his war of words with Fox News host Sean Hannity devolved into talk that caused some to call Kimmel homophobic. Kimmel, meanwhile, noted that his own family has received death threats amid the controversy.

“While I admit I did have fun with our back and forth, after some thought, I realize that the level of vitriol from all sides (mine and me included) does nothing good for anyone and, in fact, is harmful to our country. Even in 2018, the vile attacks against my wife and wishes for death on my infant son are shocking and I encourage those who made them to give their words and actions thought. I, too, will give my words more thought and recognize my role in inciting their hatefulness. By lampooning Sean Hannity’s deference to the President, I most certainly did not intend to belittle or upset members of the gay community and to those who took offense, I apologize.”

Kimmel continued, writing that he would believe that his words about Melania actually offended Hannity, although Kimmel insisted that his joke about Melania was – in his viewpoint – harmless and silly. However, Jimmy apologized nonetheless and hinted at all the other controversies surrounding Melania’s marriage to President Donald Trump when he wrote that Mrs. Trump has bigger things to worry about than Kimmel using her as a prop for laughs and ratings.

“I will take Sean Hannity at his word that he was genuinely offended by what I believed and still believe to be a harmless and silly aside referencing our First Lady’s accent. Mrs. Trump almost certainly has enough to worry about without being used as a prop to increase TV ratings.”

In the end, Kimmel quipped about Hannity’s seemingly new interest in fighting for the rights of women like Melania, as well as immigrants and “First Ladies,” Kimmel wrote – hinting that Sean did not fight the same way against comedians who joked about former First Lady Michelle Obama or other previous First Ladies.

“I am hopeful that Sean Hannity will learn from this too and continue his newly found advocacy for women, immigrants and First Ladies and that he will triumph in his heroic battle against sexual harassment and perversion.”

re. @seanhannity pic.twitter.com/DMtWJTMsDU

— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) April 8, 2018