By Akanni
Olawale
Arsenal fan
and Bollywood star Esha Gupta has been slammed online after sharing racist
remarks aimed at Alex Iwobi on Instagram, describing the Nigerian as a
'gorilla'.
The Indian
actress is a well-known Arsenal fan and has been spotted at the Emirates
Stadium watching games in the past. She was also reported to have previously
been dating Hector Bellerin and helped the club launch a kit in 2017.
However,
after the Gunners' FA Cup defeat by Manchester United on Friday night, the 33-year-old
posted a screenshot of a WhatsApp conversation between herself and another
person on Instagram.
The image showed
messages exchanged between herself and Varun_Gupta17, with one of the messages
reading: 'Solves our winger issues. I can't see that gorilla faced Iwobi
running down the flank again. He's so bad ya.'
She replied:
'Hahahahahaha I honestly dunno why they don't bench him more.'
Varun_Gupta17
added: 'It's like evolution stopped for him. Didn't change from Neanderthal to
man.'
Gupta
quickly deleted the screenshot from her Instagram account but eagle-eyed fans
had quickly managed to screenshot before it was taken off the site.
After coming
under fire on social media for the post she issued an apology and insisted
there was no racial intention behind it.
Gupta wrote:
'Guys I'm sorry you thought it was racist. Was bad on my part, being a sports
lover. Wallah never meant it. Sorry guys forgive the stupidity.
'Well it was
my fault. So gotta own up to my s***... sorry. It was us discussing our
frustration during the game. Sorry as I didn't realise it was directed towards
racism.
'Laughed
over spur of the moment, which was the games result guys. Been victim of racism
myself before. But this is not something I'm proud of. It was a fault, sorry
guys.'
Fans were
quick to condemn Gupta on social media as she received major backlash for her
post.
@Keiron85
tweeted her: 'Your response is embarrassing! You state on one hand you've
suffered racism yet on the other have no idea that you've made a racial slur!
'Your
ignorance and arrogance of this whole situation is beyond words! Please remove
gooner from your profile! Your [sic] not part of our club/family'.
Meanwhile,
@FootballDadUK added: 'Do us all a favour and never step foot at Arsenal and
take the word gooner out your bio as you definitely ain't [sic] one of us.'
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