The 1975’s Matty Healy Apologizes To Ice Spice For Racist Remarks: ‘Sorry If I Offended You’

The 1975 frontman Matty Healey publicly apologized for comments he made about Ice Spice on an episode of The Adam Friedland Show.

“I just feel a bit bad, and I’m kind of a bit sorry if I’ve offended you,” he said during a show in Auckland, New Zealand, Billboard reported.

“Ice Spice, I’m sorry. It’s not because I’m annoyed that me joking got misconstrued. It’s because I don’t want Ice Spice to think I’m a d*k. I love you, Ice Spice. I’m so sorry. I don’t want it to be misconstrued as mean. I don’t mind being a bit of a joker… but I am genuinely sorry if I’ve upset them because I f*king love them,” he added.

Healey appeared on an episode of The Adam Friedland Show last February. The host played a clip of Ice Spice expressing her love for The 1975’s music during an ELLE interview. This led to both Friedland and Healey making remarks about the rapper.

Healey shared that he direct messaged Ice Spice before both started speculating about her ethnicity. They joked about her sounding like an “Inuit Spice Girl” and a “chubby Chinese lady.” Friedland and Healey kept laughing while imitating Chinese and Hawaiian accents. 

Healey called the rapper “dumb” and used an Inuit ethnic slur to refer to her, Billboard reported.

The podcast episode was pulled from Apple and Spotify earlier this month but can still be viewed on YouTube.

English singer Yungblud defended Ice Spice on Twitter shortly after the podcast episode aired.

“Love listening to three privileged white dudes sit around and objectify a young black female artist who’s blowing up… Welcome to your 30’s, I guess…” he tweeted.

In response, Healey posted an Instagram Story video mocking Yungblud’s activism and support for “underrated youth.”

Rolling Stone staff writer Larisha Paul wrote about Healey’s public apology to Ice Spice.

“Self-awareness has long rested at the center of the 1975’s public perception, helmed almost solely by Healy. Their music is his search to be sincere while keeping up with a bit. It’s his way of providing social commentary on the digital age and societal shifts. So it makes sense that even his apology to someone else would also be about him,” Paul wrote for the news outlet.

“He isn’t sorry that he participated in racially-motivated and body-shaming conversations about a successful woman 11 years younger than him — he’s sorry that it made him look bad, pulling back the curtain on the type of missteps his fans are used to forgiving.”

Ice Spice hasn’t reacted to any of Healey’s comments.