Martha Stewart responded to backlash over her Halloween costume on Sunday, saying she was “distressed” to learn that her outfit, which depicted a “starving” homeless man, had caused offense.
Stewart, who built a lifestyle empire around cooking and home entertainment, shared a photo of herself dressed in tattered clothes, holding a clipboard that read: “I’M HUNGRY, HELP ME!!” She posed with a tired expression and makeup meant to look like dirt on her face.
The photo was the third slide in an Instagram carousel promoting her candle collection on QVC.
“My QVC candles are perfect for Halloween!!!” she wrote in the caption. The post was deleted shortly after, but the suit and backlash continued to circulate elsewhere online.
Many interpreted the costume as a mockery of the poor, and some called it “out of touch” and “dystopian.”
“I am sorry that my Halloween costume yesterday, which was intended to raise awareness about the very serious issue of homelessness, offended people, which was never my intention,” Stewart said Sunday in a statement to NBC News.
She added that homelessness “continues to remain one of America’s greatest challenges and current crises, something I care deeply about and have devoted much time and effort to supporting charities combating this current social epidemic.” »
“I am committed to continuing to make a difference,” she said.
Stewart wasn’t the only public figure to draw criticism over a Halloween costume.
Content creator McCall DaPron, who is set to star in the upcoming Orange County spinoff of “The Secret Life of Mormon Wives,” faced similar backlash over the weekend over her family’s costumes.
In a since-deleted Instagram post, DaPron wore an all-pink blazer and skirt with a matching pillbox hat, the outfit Jackie Kennedy wore on the day her husband, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated. DaPron held a bouquet of red roses as she posed next to her husband, Kirk DaPron, who was dressed as John F. Kennedy. Two of their children were dressed as Caroline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr., and two others as Secret Service agents.
“Happy Halloween 🩷The Kennedys,” DaPron wrote in the caption before deleting the post.
Commenters on a Reddit thread called the costume “rude” and “disrespectful.”
“I’ve seen this costume many times. Jackie O was a fashion icon and this is her most recognizable outfit,” one user wrote in the thread. “It’s quite macabre. Including the children, it’s really weird.”
Representatives for DaPron did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The reaction is reminiscent of the outrage sparked last year by actress and model Julia Fox when she dressed as Jackie Kennedy in a blood-stained suit.
Fox defended her decision, writing in an Instagram post that she wore the outfit “not as a costume, but as a statement. When her husband was murdered, she refused to take off her blood-stained clothes.”
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