Amir Khan has apologised to the transgender community, insisting that a recent Instagram upload in which he appeared to misgender Caitlyn Jenner was a “genuine mistake”.
Earlier this week, Amir met Caitlyn at the ESPYs, which honours the biggest sporting achievements of the year, and shared a photo of the two of them on his Snapchat story.
However, the boxer and ‘I’m A Celebrity’ contestant wound up creating controversy when he used Caitlyn’s deadname in the image’s caption.
While he later uploaded another picture on Instagram, this time referring to her correctly as Caitlyn, Amir has now apologised for his mistake in a Twitter statement.
He explained: “Calling [Caitlyn] ‘Bruce’ was in regards to their sports image, as an Olympian. It’s been brought to my attention that was it was wrong regardless. Therefore I would like to apologise to the transgender community.”
After the event, Amir was also cornered by TMZ, to whom he was able to address the matter on camera, though he did once again use the wrong pronouns repeatedly in his apology.
He said: “First of all I want to apologise because I didn’t mean to call Caitlyn ‘Bruce’. That was an accident.
“The reason I called Caitlyn… called him Bruce is because I’ve been watching him from the Olympics when he won the gold medal, he was a great… he was a hero. So obviously I remember him as Bruce. Me being an Olympian myself, an Olympic champion myself.
“So when I met him, obviously it didn’t cross my mind… so I went over, shook his… shook Caitlyn’s hand… so I didn’t mean anything by it, I don’t want anyone to think I’m transphobic [or] I don’t like transgenders… I’ve got nothing against them.”
The ESPYs hold particular significance for Caitlyn, as the sporting event was where she made her first public appearance after coming out as transgender in 2015, to collect the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
During the ceremony, Caitlyn delivered an impassioned speech, with her step-daughters, the Kardashians, in the audience, from whom she is now largely estranged.