She also deleted her tweets defending him as a member of the 'Glee' family.
Heather Morris is apologizing after a series of tweets about her late co-star Mark Salling. The 33-year-old Glee star took to Twitter on Monday night, sharing a statement after days of back and forth with commenters online.
"To all those who felt triggered by my message, I want to sincerely apologize for the harm I caused," Morris wrote. "Whether you, a friend, a family member has been a victim of pedophilia, I realize my words may have been insensitive to your experience and for that I can't express enough how sorry I am."
The controversy started last week when Morris responded to a retweet from fellow co-star Kevin McHale about a Christmas episode of Glee. In the images from a fan, Salling's face was covered with a vomit emoji.
At the time, Morris replied to McHale's retweet, writing, "The vomit face on Marks face is offensive."
Salling died in 2018 of an apparent suicide after pleading guilty to a federal offense of possessing child pornography. Many took offense to Morris' comment, viewing it as a defense of Salling.
In since-deleted tweets, Morris previously wrote, "We did not lose just 2 cast members, we lost 3. And it is SO incredible tough to have to act like that 3rd one is invisible, because even though his actions are unjustifiable, he was a part of our family at one point and he was mentally SICK. Yes pedophelia is a sickness but…"
Morris concluded her posts by writing, "Although I don't want to have to say all that, its truthful. So THANK YOU for treated me with such disrespect and unkindness during a time that I can't get through a day without balling my eyes out at the loss of my entire Glee family... thank you."
It's been a difficult year for the Glee family and Morris in particular. In July, her co-star, friend, and on-screen love interest, Naya Rivera, died after going missing on a boating trip with her then-4-year-old son, Josey. In addition to Rivera and Salling's deaths, star Cory Monteith also died in 2013 of a drug overdose.
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