Melissa McCarthy has said she’s sorry for supporting an anti-abortion organization, and thanked social media followers for letting her know that she’d overlooked the connection to her initiative.
As part of her “20 Days of Kindness,” McCarthy and HBO Max donated $20K to Exodus Cry, an organization that has made anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ remarks in the past.
She said on social media: “Hi there. It has come to our attention that our 20 Days of Kindness, which is something — a kindness up that we started to kind of shine a light on 20 great charities — had one in there that, there’s no other way to say it, we blew it. We made a mistake and we backed a charity that upon proper vetting, stands for everything that we do not.”
The actress, 50, went on to thank “everyone on social media who said, ‘What are you doing? Are you sure you want to back this?’ Because the answer is no we do not.”
“We have pulled it. We are so incredibly grateful for you ringing the bell and helping us be better. We’re sorry for our mistake. Oh boy, are we sorry for it,” she continued. “I can’t believe that we missed it. And that’s it.”
McCarthy added that she hopes their mistake wouldn't “ding the other charities because they're really doing some amazing things and 20 Days of Kindness is really meant to shine the light on all of those wonderful charities. So, let the kindness continue… and thank you. Thanks for the help, we really needed it.”
HBO Max also addressed the mistake, saying in a statement, “We were made aware of the issues surrounding Exodus Cry and have removed them from the list of partners associated with the 20 Days of kindness campaign.”
McCarthy and HBO teamed up on the initiative in part to promote her new film Superintelligence.