Ted Danson is ready to spend the rest of his life apologizing for his infamous offensive joke about his then-girlfriend Whoopi Goldberg more than three decades ago.
In 1993, an actor from the series «Cheers» wore makeup to imitate a black man at a party for Goldberg at New York's Friars Club, where he served as emcee and gave a speech that included repeated use of the N-word and disturbingly obscene jokes.
Danson, 78, commented on the "stupid" and "offensive" act during a recent appearance on W. Kamau Bell's podcast.« "Who's with me?"» , where he apologized for the incident and stated that he was willing to continue apologizing for it.
«"I need and want to apologize for my actions for the rest of my life," he said on a podcast Wednesday. "Because today, someone can go online and be like, 'What the f*ck? Yeah. Wow, I feel betrayed, I'm angry,' and all that. And I did that.".
Although Danson was officially married to Casey Coates at the time of the event, he had a public affair with Goldberg that ended a few weeks later after 18 months.
Ted Danson said he will apologize for the rest of his life for wearing black makeup at a party for Whoopi Goldberg in 1993 (Getty).
In the podcast, Danson stated that the star film "Sister Act" »" defended him "sweetly and tactfully" for years after the scandal, and even offered her a direct apology.
«"Whoopi, I apologize if you can hear me," Danson said. "But Whoopi and I were having an affair. It was ending, and we even went to the Friars Club; we'd already committed, but then our relationship ended, and we said, 'Well, we need to get out of this.'".
However, the star TV series "The Good Place"« He claimed that the Friars Club was overbooked, so they couldn't cancel the performance. He said he'd been preparing the act for months with Goldberg's help, and that the jokes weren't intended to be malicious, but were meant to poke fun at the media coverage of their short-lived relationship.
«"The press and the news weren't the healthiest—the news outlets were all over us, you know, because of the interracial relationship and the affair," he said. "It couldn't have been because they liked each other or saw something in each other. It had to be sex. It had to be just sex. That's the only reason for that kind of relationship. And there was a lot of anger.".
«I was thinking, »Here’s one of the most outrageous and funniest black women in the world at the time, and I have to make fun of her, and I’m not a stand-up comedian,«» he recalled, adding, “By the way, I worked on this for months and months.”.
Looking back, Danson said the decision was "so stupid and so brazen.".
«"I thought I could do it," he said. He added that he walked out on stage and thought, "Twenty percent of the audience gets it and thinks it's pretty cool. Thirty percent of the audience gets it and fucking hates it. Fifty percent of the audience doesn't get it and fucking hates it and hates me. And I kept going.".
Goldberg, who said after the performance that she helped Danson write the material and find a makeup artist to create the image of a black man, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Independent about the comment.
Danson admitted that the co-host The View show He initially approved of his jokes and defended him after the backlash, but still admitted it was a bad decision due to the widespread criticism it generated.
«"I will always apologize," he said. "I also said for a long time, 'I knew what my intentions were. My intention was love.' [But] that doesn't matter. Your intentions don't matter. What matters is the impact you have on people. And if you haven't thought about that, you need to.".
He concluded, "It was stupid, and it was not my right. It was wrong, and it was offensive. So I apologize again to everyone listening for being arrogant enough to think I had anything to offer.".