8 times celebrities messed up on social media

Roseanne Barr has had her sitcom axed after posting a racist tweet about a former aide to President Obama.

Within just a few short hours of the offensive remark made about Valerie Jarrett, Roseanne’s recently-revived (and hugely popular) show had been cancelled.

In a statement, ABC confirmed the cancellation, calling Barr’s tweet “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values”.

But Roseanne isn’t the first celebrity to have damaged her career via comments made on social media.

Here’s a look at eight other stars who have suffered serious consequences:

1. Kathy Griffin

US broadcaster CNN ditched comedian Kathy Griffin from its New Year programme after she posed with a fake decapitated head of President Donald Trump.

Griffin apologised after it provoked outrage – her New Year’s Eve co-host Anderson Cooper said he was appalled.

In addition, Griffin lost a number of other jobs as a consequence of the joke.

Trump said it was “sick” and his wife Melania called the photo “disturbing”.

“Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself,” said the president. “My children, especially my 11-year-old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this.”

In a video message posted on Twitter, Griffin “begged” for forgiveness and said she had “crossed a line” – however she later retracted the apology telling ABC’s The View: “I’m not holding back on this family. This family is different.”

2. Jack Maynard

Jack Maynard pulled out of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2017 after just three days in the jungle.

The YouTube star, who has 1.4 million followers, left after a series of tweets – most of which dated from 2011 to 2013 – were published in the Sun while he was in Australia.

It emerged that as well as racist and homophobic tweets, Jack had also asked a 14-year-old fan to send him nude pictures on his Facebook account.

Maynard later apologised saying he was “young” and “careless” when he sent the posts, adding: “Don’t put anything online you wouldn’t say to your mum.”

3. James Arthur

The pop star had to cancel his engagements in November 2013 after suffering a Twitter meltdown.

The Say You Won’t Let Go singer used abusive language to One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson and former X Factor winner Matt Cardle.

Things came to a head when he unveiled a rap song in which he used a homophobic slur against musician Micky Worthless and advised him to shoot himself.

The star apologised on Twitter saying he was “deeply deeply sorry to any gay or lesbian people out there”.

A few months later Arthur was officially dropped from Simon Cowell’s record label Syco, with Cowell commenting: “I think James, unfortunately, has had so many issues with what he has done publicly – which is a real issue with me. Somebody should have told him to shut up and just put the records out.”

4. Azealia Banks

The 212 rapper was dropped from her UK booking agency and axed from her headline slot at grime and hip-hop festival Born & Bred following racist and homophobic tweets to Zayn Malik.

Her Twitter account was also blocked after the string of aggressive tweets aimed at the Pillowtalk singer.

The row started when Banks claimed Malik had copied her work for his new video, Like I Would.

Banks also posted a string of derogatory comments about the UK rap scene, saying that British rappers “never have swag” and British rap music was a “disgrace” to the genre.

The US rapper later apologised for using homophobic language in a Facebook post saying: “Words hurt. And while I may be immune to every word and be thicker skinned than most, it doesn’t mean that I get to go around treating people with the same toughness that made my skin so thick.

“Because, that IS how people get thick skin… by being subjected to name calling/belittlement/abuse and it’s not fair.”

5. PewDiePie

The Swedish YouTube star used the N-word in one of his videos in January 2017 and was accused of anti-Semitism later in the same month.

As a result, Disney announced in February 2017 they would cut cut ties with PewDiePie – real name Felix Kjellberg – who at the time was the world’s highest-paid YouTuber.

He was also dropped from the Google Preferred advertising programme, and his YouTube Red series was cancelled.

The Swede later apologised for using the racial slur during a video live stream, saying he was an “idiot”, but defended himself against claims of anti-Semitism, saying the comments had been taken out of context.

6. Josh Rivers

The Gay Times editor was sacked in 2017 just weeks after taking up the role when anti-Semitic and sexist tweets were discovered on his account.

Rivers sent a series of tweets between 2010 and 2015 making offensive comments about women, Jewish people, Chinese people, lesbians, transgender people, and people he thought were overweight or ugly.

Gay Times issued a statement saying it “does not tolerate such views”, adding that all articles written by Rivers had been removed.

Following the termination of his post, Josh Rivers apologised, telling the BBC he was “appalled” by his posts.

7. Ten Walls

The DJ and producer was dropped from major festivals including Creamfields and Sonar as well as being axed from the books of his UK agency following homophobic comments on Facebook.

The Walking with Elephants star compared gay people to paedophiles in a post that’s now been removed.

He also described the LGBT community as a “different breed”.

The Lithuanian musician, whose real name is Marijus Adomaitis, apologised for his post: “I’m really sorry about its insulting content which does not reflect my true opinion. I hope this misunderstanding will not provoke any more thoughts and opinions. Peace.”

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8. Katie Hopkins

The presenter was sacked from her LBC phone-in show after a tweet that called for a “final solution” to Islamic terrorism.

She posted the tweet – which has since been deleted – in the wake of the Manchester terror attack, and some suggested it was a reference to the Nazi extermination of the Jews.

Hopkins later altered the post to read “true solution”, describing the earlier version as a “mis-type”.

Several high-profile personalities had vowed not to appear on the station until she was removed.

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